Floor Statements

Madam Speaker, today I would like to recognize the 75th anniversary of the U.S. Air Force and the positive contribution of Beale Air Force Base to the Yuba Sutter Community since 1942.

For 75 years, American Airmen and women have excelled as they execute the Air Force mission to fly, fight, and win--delivering airpower anytime, anywhere in defense of our nation.

Airmen and women are called to ``innovate, accelerate, and thrive'' as the U.S. Air Force and Department of the Air Force approach their 75th anniversaries on September 18, 2022. Airmen and women will always be there to provide America with the airpower it needs to defend the Nation, deter or defeat our adversaries, reassure our partners and allies, and help diplomacy proceed from a position of strength.

Airmen and women continue to push technological and cultural boundaries which make America the leader in airpower and space power. Innovation is an integral part of how we train and employ our squadrons, develop our capabilities, and continue to move toward an even more effective Air Force.

From their inception 75 years ago, the U.S. Air Force and Department of the Air Force have excelled at keeping pace with rapid changes in technology and in the demands placed on the Air Force's five core missions: air superiority; global strike; rapid global mobility; intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance; and command and control.

Camp Beale opened in October 1942 as a training site for the 13th Armored and the 81st and 96th Infantry Divisions. Today Beale Air Force Base is home for the U-2 Dragon Lady, T-38 Talon and RQ-4 Global Hawk. The base, covering nearly 23,000 acres, is home to more than 4,500 military personnel. Beale AFB has an unique name and mission, a historic past, and a promising future.

I recognize the 75th anniversary of the U.S. Air Force and the positive contribution of Beale Air Force Base to the Yuba Sutter Community since 1942. I am proud to represent this Air Force Base.

Madam Speaker, today, I would like to recognize the life and service of my friend, Michael LePeilbet.

Michael was a resident in Tehama County for over 20 years, a devout family-man with a heart of gold. His hard work and devotion to our community will be felt for generations.

Michael received his A.S. in administration of justice from Antelope Valley College as well as his bachelors, and master's degree in criminal justice from Pacific Western University. He graduated from the California Military Academy, U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, and U.S. Academy of Private Investigation.

Michael has been awarded many decorations and awards. To name a few he received his Expert Infantry Badge, Army Aviator Wings for California, Basic Parachutist (Jump Wings), General Staff Badge (California State Military Reserve), Legion of Merit, Soldiers Medal, and plenty more. He rose through the ranks, beginning in 1966 as a private (E-1) to becoming a Brigadier General in later years. He served his country in the U.S. Army, the National Guard, and the California State military reserve. He was also the owner of LePeilbet Investigation Service.

Michael was someone you could count on and turn to. In my many trips to Nevada County, I will always have fond memories of stopping by to see him and catching up on world events, or just to have a few minutes with a friend.

After Michael's retirement he felt that it was important to remain active in the community. He worked with the Boy Scouts, The American Legion, Masons, Shriners, VFW, the senior senate, and many other organizations. A large part of Michael's life was helping others,

Michael was a patriot who loved our country and a wonderful friend and will be greatly missed by all. Upon his passing, he leaves to cherish his memory and celebrate his legacy his wife, Linda; their five children: Nicolas, Jacob, Anita, Nancy, and Lorianne; eight grandchildren; and numerous other family members and friends. Today, I stand beside Linda and their family in this time of sorrow and profound personal loss. May God bless my friend, Michael. He is not forgotten.

Madam Speaker, today I rise to recognize my good friend, Placer County Sheriff Devon Bell. We celebrate his retirement and job well done regarding his service and legacy to the people of Placer County and the State of California.

Working with Sheriff Bell for over 12 years has been a pleasure. I have enjoyed the friendship that has developed as we have partnered on many critical issues. He has proven to be someone I can always depend on, and his deep devotion to public safety made it easy for me to support him.

Since 1992 Sheriff Bell has been committed to protecting the citizens of Placer County. I am not surprised how he rose through the ranks. Devon is a man of integrity, humor, dedicated work ethic, and a friend to many. He is a man of great character who can be trusted to do the right thing.

Sheriff Bell holds bachelor of arts in criminal justice management from Union Institute and University, a master of arts in security studies from the Naval Postgraduate School and is a graduate of the FBI National Academy's 222nd Session. This education, coupled with his decades of experience, provided him the background needed to be elected 28th Sheriff-Coroner-Marshall of Placer County.

Sheriff Bell has been active in the California State Sheriffs Association for nearly 20 years. He began as a legislative committee member, where his voice was essential in passing and rallying against legislation affecting law enforcement throughout California. Devon has served in many capacities on the California State Sheriffs Association Board of Directors and was the Second Vice President at retirement.

I have observed Sheriff Bell's devotion to those in the law enforcement community and our community in the time he spent on the KidsFirst Board and the Placer Sheriffs Activity League. His service to our community was indispensable and appreciated.

I wish the best to Devon, Sue, and their children and grandchildren in his retirement. Wherever their path takes them and for all the adventures yet to come, I am grateful for the time he and his family sacrificed for our community.

God bless my friend Devon on this next chapter in his life. I thank him for all he has done for us here in the North State. Best wishes in retirement.

Madam Chair, I appreciate Mr. Neguse working on this legislation here, but to have this all in a catchall bill--in my home State of California, the two biggest things going on are wildfire and drought, other than politics. So, to have so little time to put this together, I wish we had more time to work on this.

I appreciate that he included a small piece on biochar that I was working on, but the big picture here is the drought is affecting so much of my State. These crops listed here, many of them 100 percent of what is used in the United States. Hundreds of thousands of acres are being left out.

The people in this country will not see these crops come from California or the U.S. They will come from other countries if we get them at all.

On the forestry side, I had the Dixie fire last year. That was a million acres. Yet, we are going to take the power away from the Forest Service, which already moves at a glacial pace of 1 percent per year under their 10-year plan of treating forests lands--take away 600 of their staff and basically just make it that much slower for the Forest Service to respond.

Between the drought and the weaponizing, possibly, of monitoring against farmers the water supply, we are going backward on this. So, I am disappointed.

Mr. Speaker, the Biden administration is throwing such a wrench in the American economy and is stifling production in critical domestic industries, including agriculture.

His failed economic policies raised input costs on essentials like fuel and fertilizer and severely disrupted our supply chain.

Of great concern right now in California is our water supply. His regulators in the Bureau of Reclamation and U.S. Fish and Wildlife have cut so much water out of the State. We have hundreds of thousands of acres that are idle this year.

Now, why is that important to everybody across the country? California produces a very high amount of all these crops: 100 percent of artichokes, celery, garlic, honeydew, olives, plums. Many of these crops you can see on this chart here: 100 percent, 96 percent, 94 percent. Even down here, wild rice, 60 percent. Horseradish, 30 percent.

The water is being taken away to grow these crops. Is that a big deal? Well, if you want to import it from other countries, I guess you can, and then we can be subject to their supply, their price, their delivery times.

California is the top agriculture producing State in the country. We need to have a water supply. We do not need to have it taken away by regulators or given to fish or environmental stuff.

Madam Speaker, well, here are the numbers: gross domestic product is down another 0.9 percent on this quarter on top of last quarter's 1.6 percent drop in GDP for the second straight quarter.

Why?

There are several factors: the high cost of energy and energy being shut down in this country--energy affects everything--inflation, and profligate spending by government have driven us into a situation where we have--yes, we will say the word--a recession.

Now, there are 38 different edits to the terminology of recession. However, the definition of recession on the Wikipedia page is not going to change the fact that the policies of overspending, choking regulations, and bad energy policy have made it impossible for people to afford anything anymore. Indeed, it has been a tax upon people's income. Approximately one full month's paycheck is lost to Americans because of these high costs.

So instead of playing around on Wikipedia redefining what recession is, let's get back to work and put things together on our energy policies, supply chain, and, indeed, stop the profligate spending of build back broke.

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from Arkansas, the ranking member on the Committee on Natural Resources.

Indeed, I have enjoyed time spent on both of the committees we are talking

about here, Agriculture and Natural Resources. But what we are talking about here today is something already covered by current law.

It already prohibits the import, export, transport, sale, receipt, acquisition, or purchase in interstate or foreign commerce of big cats. It allows exceptions for entities that are federally licensed by USDA, under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, such as small family-run zoos.

The trade of big cats, and all federally licensed zoological facilities, are regulated under the Animal Welfare Act, as mentioned, which placed USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, known as APHIS, in charge of hiring inspectors and law enforcement officers who are experts at animal welfare issues.

This bill ignores existing regulatory framework and creates an additional regulatory system by adding the Department of the Interior's Fish and Wildlife Service into the mix.

So, it creates a duplicative regulatory structure and supersedes State law as well. It would mandate all persons or entities that currently possess big cats to register each animal with the Fish and Wildlife Service within 180 days of enactment of this in order to keep their animals.

Some supporters of this bill have admitted it would indeed create a duplicative Federal process at the Fish and Wildlife Service because proponents would rather, as mentioned, work through the Committee on Natural Resources than through the Committee on Agriculture, which is its current jurisdiction.

Mr. Speaker, I am looking at the calendar. There are somewhere around 40 legislative days left of this session. Getting both committees to have to do this work--obviously, they pushed it through already--but let's take that to an agency level. Now, whether APHIS can do the job, do we want to add Fish and Wildlife to that?

I have issues in my own district in California, where Fish and Wildlife needs to do more work on analyzing what the effects of their mandates are on water in my State and my neighboring State. They are entering into even more responsibility that is unneeded.

My colleague's amendment would have perfectly dovetailed into what we are talking about here and kept it in the jurisdiction where it needs to be instead of creating more bureaucracy and more effort by already overstretched government agencies that don't have the personnel to cover some of the responsibilities they already have.

Let's look at what we are looking at priority-wise.

Yes, we are supposed to be able to walk and chew gum and do other things around here, but why are we creating double effort from already stretched agencies still sometimes sitting in COVID caves, not getting the job done? Adding more, that is unnecessary.

It would have been very simple to have a clean bill here and, I think, some bipartisan effort, but it has all blown up on us here with having to have a duplicative effort.

I think, unfortunately, what good could have come from H.R. 263 is lost in a set of priorities that are just trying to make it easier to increase the bureaucracy. That is pretty sad because we want to see a good outcome here for these animals and for the people who enjoy them and would like to continue to enjoy them.

Mr. Speaker, in January 2020, the United States signed a Phase 1 trade agreement with China in which China agreed to purchase at least $80 billion worth of U.S. agricultural products through 2020 and 2021. In 2020, the U.S. exported over $27 billion worth of ag products to China, including soybeans, corn, pork, and wheat.

America's farmers and ranchers were eager to get back to business globally, and restoring our ability to be competitive in China was key to that. Unfortunately, China has deflected on their part of the agreement, thanks in part to President Biden's softness on the world stage.

Now, President Biden is considering rolling back tariffs on cheap Chinese-made import products. Let's be clear. Rolling back these tariffs won't reduce inflation; it will only reward bad policy.

Instead, the Biden administration should be rolling back the regulatory assault on American manufacturing and production to encourage innovation here on U.S. soil, as well as moving forward on energy production domestically.

In the meantime, China should start pulling their weight and import the American products that they agreed to. Otherwise, why do we import so much stuff from China?

We need to send the signal to China and others that we will not stand for the predatory economic policies that we are enduring and that are hurting American jobs and hurting the American economy.

Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague from Louisiana again for leading us here tonight and getting the message out to the American people that this doesn't have to be this way. What we are going through--what we are all going through--together, with the increased costs and with shortages is unnecessary.

This isn't caused by nature with a hurricane or a tornado or a fire or an earthquake or even a war, though some are trying to point to the actions by Putin and Russia and Ukraine being responsible for everything. This is a government-caused situation we are seeing with inflation in fuel and energy. It doesn't have to be this way.

So what is really disheartening as a Representative of folks is that we know our constituents, good people, are suffering from inflation. It is impacting everyday Americans and northern Californians in my district, everybody.

I have firsthand accounts from people in my district who are struggling financially due to these rising prices and inflation. Inflation is a tax on every American, as my colleagues have been saying. And we are hoping people will hear.

Rural Americans are feeling additional financial struggles even more so probably than the urban dwellers, but maybe it is the same. Maybe it is just different.

Rural residents tend to drive more. They have to drive farther distances to do what they do if they work on a ranch or live on a ranch, a timber operation or a mining operation, or they just live out. Maybe they are a park ranger. Maybe they take care of the parks. There are many reasons why you would live in a rural part of the State of California or any part of America, Madam Speaker.

That puts more mileage on your vehicle and uses more gas. You may tend to have a four-wheel drive vehicle in those areas, Madam Speaker, because you might have snow. There are other reasons that you might have to have a vehicle that has a little more oomph, a little more ability to get around than perhaps one in southern California. So it is likely they are going to use a little more gasoline to go where they need to go, and getting gasoline delivered to areas like that costs a little more. It is a little higher.

In my northern California district it is not uncommon to see $6 on the sign for diesel or even premium gasoline--$6. It is routinely $6 for diesel. A lot of people drive diesel vehicles.

They have less retail options nearby. Their stores ship from farther distances, so the trucks that brought it--``if you got it, a truck brought it'' is the saying--have to ship it farther to get there. So that store might need to

have just a little higher price to cover shipment. So further shipping, all these things just add up, especially for rural residents, on that. But they have a reason why they are rural residents, and we need them to be for producing what they produce in rural areas that we all use.

So a couple of residents in northern California, I would like to share what their issue is and what their struggle is.

The first story is about an elderly woman from Redding in northern California, which is one of the large cities in my district. She has had a tough life and grew up in an abusive household. She is very smart and very artistically talented, actually. But as she aged she began dealing with mental illness and confided she has begun to think of death as an alternative to her struggling. What a cheery situation for her.

After her mental health struggles became too much, it forced her out of the workforce. She began living on a fixed income of $900 a month. With $900--money is already tight--and she has had even more setbacks. Now, like most people, she has a family pet. She has a dog. Well, that dog happened to get sick, like it happens, and the bill for that was $500.

Where is she going to get $500 on a $900 monthly income?

Maybe she can spread it out over time if the veterinarian works with her. So she ended up having to sell her truck for $180 because she could no longer afford the gasoline and needed the money to pay utilities and other bills. Recently she ran out of food completely and went without food for several days. Even the local food bank--God bless them, they are doing really good work and they are becoming even more stretched and more tapped--the food bank had run out.

She ended up calling a friend who bought some groceries for her. She said that the cost of everything is so expensive now that even cutting out spending any personal money on personal things or elective things or maybe luxuries by having maybe a little meat on your plate, she is still unable to pay her bills.

She doesn't have cable or TV. She listens to the free books on tape from the Library of Congress. She said that she holds President Biden directly responsible for what is happening, the President and the policies of the majority here in Congress and even in Sacramento, in my home State of California. She does hope that President Biden can hear how the economy doesn't work for low-income people.

I think she understands that trillions and trillions of dollars of debt, and spending money you don't have and printing more money-- inflation-causing money--isn't going to get her out of it either. We have to have an economy that works for normal people, productive people, and so folks like her can be helped.

Even after all this, though, you have to admire her. She said she considers herself lucky because she still has a roof over her head.

Another story in a different sector is about a family who lives just south of the Oregon border in what is known as the Klamath Basin, the Klamath River area. There are a lot of farmers up there. There are issues with the dams that are in place that help make low-cost hydroelectric power.

So one day after the public comment period closed on the Klamath Dam destruction that is being put in place with the help of the Federal Government and a lot of lawsuits--this was in April--the family patriarch suffered a stroke and was found by his children unconscious and unresponsive.

Madam Speaker, if you don't think the stress of being put out of business by a government that has taken away your water, your electricity, and driving your costs through the roof wouldn't have a part in that stroke for that family member, the family patriarch, you are not paying attention.

He was airlifted to Klamath Falls in Oregon which is only a 15-minute flight but a 2\1/2\ hour drive. You are getting the picture, I think, of what rural issues we are dealing with, the challenges of people trying to farm so the country has food in this case.

Now, every week the entire family has to make the trek back up to Klamath Falls since it is the closest specialist in occupational therapy. So they schlep that trip back and forth with expensive fuel and long distance, but they need to do it in order to do what they do. They need to stay the night in a hotel since the drive over and back is a little too much to do in 1 day given the appointment schedule.

So the husband is only getting a little less than $500 a month from disability for the family to live on, and each week they must make that 5-hour trip, gas, hotels, meals, et cetera. Of course, these costs are devastating to them. Inflation is driving much of this cost.

Things are going to happen to people--that we know. But at least making them a little more affordable by having an economy that works for the American people, especially lower- and middle-income folks who are suffering firsthand from the high cost of everything driven by a government policy that is hurting us.

This green new deal stuff is not an answer for low-and middle-income people. Forcing them to be in an electric car--let them eat cake is what it practically sounds like when the Transportation Secretary says that we can just replace it with electric cars.

No, we have to endure some pain. Nobody in Washington is enduring any pain, not in the Cabinet and not in Congress. No one would feel sorry for us anyway, and they shouldn't. It is the American public who is enduring the pain while people just callously say: Well, these high prices on fuel are just part of the transition to an electric future.

Well, in my home State, electricity barely stays on as it is now because they are pulling out the hydroelectric dams, as I just mentioned, on the Klamath. The water they are running out of Lake Oroville and Lake Shasta down through the river and out through the delta, that doesn't make hydroelectric power during part of the year.

Lake Oroville, for example, ran out of the ability to make hydropower because the lake reached historic lows in its entire history. We are seeing that getting ready to happen in Nevada on Lake Mead, dead pools soon.

These are government policies that drive inflation, the cost of food, the cost of electricity, and everything that is harming the American public.

So I have to ask the question, once again, to President Biden, his Cabinet, and even the majority in these two Houses here: Whose side are you on? A green new deal, a la-di-da agenda, or the struggles of the American people?

I hope the American public asks that question of themselves: Who is trying to help and who is causing the harm?

Think about that really hard I ask you. We are not here just for kicks. I am not here because I love to wear a suit. We are fighting for you. We are fighting for what is right. So please pay attention and decide for yourself who is trying to help and who is causing the harm.

I know Mr. Johnson is doing great work by helping us with this message. If people aren't going to pay attention to what is really causing it, then I don't know how we can help them. But please take this message away with you and we will do what we can. We are fighting here in Congress. We are fighting to get the message out and put policy reforms in place that indeed are going to help.

So I thank the gentleman for the time tonight and for his faithful efforts here.

Madam Speaker, this time last year, President Biden claimed that high prices and rising inflation were temporary; that if we continued down this administration's path and trusted their policies, then prices would go down again.

Well, last month's Consumer Price Index score came out and revealed that inflation has soared to 9.1 percent, the highest rate in 41 years. So obviously, his statement that inflation was transitory, temporary, what have you, is false. The numbers aren't bearing up.

Now, the Commerce Department is days away from releasing its first estimate of the economy's output in the April through June quarter. The economy already shrank 1.6 percent in the January through March quarter, and many economists are forecasting another negative output rate.

Two outputs in a row means that--the ``R'' word, the one that the Biden administration and his Cabinet don't want to say--it could mean the recession.

Now, that will validate the feelings of Americans across the country who are struggling to afford the basic necessities amid rising prices.

Despite record-high prices, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is trying to spin the definition of a recession, claiming that since our Nation's unemployment rate isn't that high, then our economy must be doing great. That is not being felt at home. That is obviously false.

The American people are feeling unprecedented financial pain in all aspects of their lives. Fuel, electricity, their healthcare, homes, everything is going up. It is becoming unaffordable for lower-income and middle-income Americans.

Wholesale prices have surged 11.3 percent. Small business confidence has dropped to a 48-year low with businesses struggling to hire new employees and fill open jobs.

These high-up bureaucrats in the Biden administration aren't suffering the financial consequences that their policies are causing average Americans. They don't feel them the same as regular people do.

This is the same administration who, when gas prices hit an all-time high, told people to go out and buy brand new electric vehicles. Sure, no problem; $50,000 $65,000.

Our Secretary of Transportation says it will require more pain to benefit electric car drivers and owners at $65,000 vehicles with Chinese-made replacement battery packs.

Our Nation is facing a recession, meaning that the sales of new homes, consumer confidence, spending, and real wages are dropping, and inflation is still rising.

President Biden has allowed the American people and Main Street businesses to suffer while his reckless spending policies continue to make things worse. I have heard this firsthand from my own constituents, real people out there that deal with this every day.

The price of everything at the cash register, at the supermarket, is all going up, and their wages, effectively, are going down.

In a telephone town hall I hosted recently, I asked participants, have rising costs impacted your spending habits? Ninety percent said yes. They can spend less; they can do less.

There are similar figures across the board. A new FOX News poll revealed that 75 percent of Americans reported experiencing hardship because of inflation.

We need to work to repair our economy through cutting wasteful spending, burdensome regulations, our dependence on foreign oil. Why are we going to Saudi Arabia and asking for their oil when we have so much in our own backyard, our own energy, that we could make ourselves completely self-sufficient, as we were a couple of years ago, and help our allies around the world with that as well.

Focus on things that help the American people, lower-income and middle-income families especially, instead of helping more illegal immigrants come to the country; instead of helping China become richer with more and more of our assets and more of our business.

I keep having to ask the question: President Biden, and your Cabinet, whose side are you on?

Madam Speaker, while President Biden is fist-bumping with the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Americans are still facing record-high prices at the gas pump.

When he was campaigning, President Biden claimed he would crack down on Saudi leaders, and then he turns and shares a warm greeting with one before begging them to sell us their oil.

President Biden showed weakness on the world stage, and he showed the American people he cares more about keeping up friendly appearances with OPEC than the well-being of the American people.

Let's be clear: The Biden administration halted the Keystone XL pipeline on day one and destroyed 11,000 American jobs to line the pockets of OPEC oligarchs.

Why else would President Biden be begging Saudi Arabia and other OPEC countries to increase oil production when producers and refiners right here on U.S. soil have struggled for months thanks to the Green New Deal agenda?

Whatever happened to making America self-sufficient in energy? We are a country that can depend on ourselves for our energy, but the Biden administration is continuously doing whatever they can to block this from happening.

Instead of traveling 8,000 miles across the ocean to beg for oil from others, he should continue the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline and the rest of our American infrastructure, support American workers, and maybe fist-bump them for a change.

Mr. Speaker, with all the issues people are dealing with, the inflation, the high cost of everything, now we have the Securities and Exchange Commission's incredulous new proposed rule requiring small, privately run family farms to produce huge volumes of climate-related information to be able to then sell their products to public companies, which is going to be nearly impossible for small farms. Inflation being driven by SEC new regs.

Farmers are facing an assault of repeated increases in regulations and rises in inputs cost. When world leaders are warning of coming food shortages, don't make it harder for farmers to do their jobs and grow food for people to use.

Small family farms are struggling financially to keep their operations up and running. They don't have the funds to hire a full- scale environmental compliance department to meet the SEC's ridiculous proposed demands. Farmers are producing more food and fibers with less inputs, like water, land, and labor than ever before.

The SEC needs to think about the unintended catastrophic consequences this new rule will have on our Nation's farmers, and in turn, on our food supply, which is already going to be short.

We need to fight together in a bipartisan effort to combat this blatant government overreach.

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from Louisiana (Mr. Johnson) for continuing to lead these in order to get this important message out on what is facing Americans not because of a naturally caused crisis but a man-made one, a government-made one. We are doing it to ourselves.

Instead of addressing the economic crisis that is plaguing Americans, the Democrats are prioritizing liberal initiatives and increasing Federal spending, with some accounts receiving double-digit and even triple-digit percentage increases typically through regulatory agencies that are going to make our jobs harder to do.

We have issues. Mr. Speaker, this is just a small example right here of some of the prices of things that are going up. It is not because we have had hurricanes or things like that that have wiped out crops. No. We have had a lot of droughts, but in my home State of California, some of that drought and some of the shortages of water, indeed, are because of government action.

The priorities that we see for spending include giving 20 percent more money to the EPA. I have had the EPA work in conjunction with the Army Corps of Engineers to stop people from farming fields in my district because they think it might have an effect on the Clean War Act or something like that. These are fields that have already been farmed in the past and have been fallow for a period of time, and they want to put them back into production. Oh, no, you need a permit. They didn't think they needed a permit. They didn't know they needed a permit, and so they get fined, big-time.

As Americans face this runaway inflation caused by out-of-control government spending and other regulatory issues that drive up the cost of everything, these are the solutions we get: even more government.

I put some reasonable amendments across recently to try and move things

in the right direction and not have these outlandish spending ideas take hold.

For example, in my home State of California, Mr. Speaker, you may have heard of our high-speed rail project that supposedly would link San Francisco to Los Angeles. Well, it sounded like a neat idea on paper when it was proposed and finally voted on by the voters to put $9 billion of bond money toward that back in 2008 for a $33 billion project.

So, they voted for it. Actually, they delayed the election several times because they didn't want to vote in another bond in an atmosphere that might not have been perfect, so they chose 2008, and somehow, it passed 52 to 48 percent. At $9 billion, that was triggered by the voters saying build a high-speed rail; you can't subsidize it; it has to carry its own weight. The price soon, when we figured it out, 3 years later, tripled from $33 billion to $98.5 billion. It is projected now to be about $105 billion.

I had a recent proposal saying: No more spending on this until we actually have a handle on a few important items. They are not even compensating the landowners in the valley so far for the land they are taking by eminent domain that is in the right-of-way. They have all this money, it is such a great idea, and they aren't getting around to even paying the people whose land lies in the way of it. What is that all about?

As well, they are not doing the environmental stuff properly to see that the path is going to be properly handled as far as what might be environmentally sensitive in that area.

Thirdly, they don't even have the whole route laid out. They don't know how they are going to get south of Bakersfield through the Grapevine, over the Grapevine, and around the Grapevine into L.A. Are they going to build a $25 billion tunnel through there that might be subject to seismic? Who knows. But they are still pursuing it anyway.

It has received $3.5 billion of stimulus money from the Obama era of 2009 money--2009, we are talking. Then, they want to get another $2 billion from the so-called infrastructure bill that passed recently. That is $5.5 billion of Federal taxpayer money that all the 49 other States get to pay for, for this boondoggle that, so far, they can maybe lay their hands on $25 billion, the projection, for a project that is going to cost $105 billion. They are going to be searching for $80 billion more. They have already gotten five out of the Federal Government, pretty much. They want $80 billion more.

The whole premise of high-speed rail was that private investors couldn't wait to come in to be part of this project to help build this fast train from L.A. to San Francisco. The investors are staying away until and unless you make guarantees that they will make money, and that is not even allowed in the original proposition that was barely passed by the voters.

There really is no end here on this. They will continue to pursue Federal money because they don't have it at the local level. We have to put a stop to that. That is why I offered an amendment.

This is at a time when people need lower priced fuels for their cars. That is all driven by policies that are happening here in Washington, D.C., pretty much. You can't blame it all on Ukraine and Putin. Yes, we import maybe 7 or 8 percent of our oil. We could have made that up quickly with known reserves of energy we have here, energy we can produce in this country.

We don't need Russian oil. We don't need Putin oil. We don't need foreign oil. We can do it here. We should be doing it. But Biden is making us pay the price with this incredible transition thing he is talking about. It is just hurting the American people. Energy affects the cost of everything, even the final bit where if you got it, then a truck brought it.

In the meantime, California, under a bill called AB5, is putting owner-operator trucks out of business because they are not part of an employment--they don't belong to a union or what have you. In Washington, D.C., they want to emulate that bill called AB5 under what is called the PRO Act and have it cost everybody in the whole country over that.

The ideas coming out of here are not helping the American people. It is very tone-deaf here in Washington, D.C., and in the White House of what the American people are struggling with, with inflation and more profligate spending coming out of this place.

As I mentioned, the Army Corps of Engineers has been busy as a tool of the EPA, working on something called the waters of the United States. They want to be in charge of every drop of water that hits the ground in the country. Even if it hits your roof, Mr. Speaker, and runs down your gutter, there are some jurisdictions that want to control that.

It is pretty ominous, especially when you look at my colleague before me who spoke about the wheat situation in Kansas, as well as they are having difficulty with their wheat crop down in Texas. I have wheat growers up in the northern part of my State in the Klamath Basin that if they could get just enough water, they could get a wheat crop. But they are taking the water away and flushing it down the Klamath River, ostensibly to help the fish population. But that doesn't even work because they are trying to flush some disease or virus out of it, and it doesn't even work. Yet, they keep doing it anyway.

It is kind of like with the delta in California, flushing water out to save the delta smelt. The delta smelt population is basically extinct, and they still flush millions of acre-feet of water out through that.

So, California's agriculture is suffering. California's economy suffers. Those people who are productive are now unemployed, needing assistance instead of being part of the assistance. These are all government regulations coming from D.C. and from California.

It also affects low-cost energy, renewable energy, hydroelectric power. When they take that water away from the Klamath, when they take it away from Shasta Dam and run it out the ocean, that means your electricity prices go up, Mr. Speaker. This all affects the economics of American families because of regulations and profligate spending here in Washington, D.C.

As we look at the world food situation, as my colleague from Kansas has talked about, we are not getting the wheat crop out of the Midwest. There is not enough to run a combine. As he mentioned, we can't even run a combine up in Klamath Basin.

If they don't get the water for the wheat, where are they going to run a combine to help us? Ukraine? They are dodging bombs right now. Russia has 27 million tons of wheat tied up that they are not letting out of the ports in Ukraine.

Where are we supposed to get the food? Hungary is cutting off their exports of wheat. India is cutting off their exports of wheat. We can't grow it in this country. Where in hell are people supposed to get food? No one is going to come to help us.

America is always the one helping everyone else. We need water for ag. We need the money they are wasting on high-speed rail, $105 billion. You could build 21 $5 billion dams for that and grow the food in California that so many people depend on.

I will have an update on that as well as to why California food is important not just in California to growers and workers there but to people in New York, people in Pennsylvania, and people all through the Midwest. What we grow is important not just for our local economy but actually to keep things on the table that people need and demand. Instead, we would be importing them or not having them at all.

It all starts here in Washington, D.C., with misplaced priorities coming out of this administration that are not helping. I have to ask often to the Biden administration and even some of my colleagues in these two Houses here: Whose side are you on?

Madam Speaker, Speaker Pelosi and her sham partisan committee are desperately trying to distract the American people from all the crises their party philosophy has caused.

The American people are not fooled. No amount of scripted, teleprompted, overproduced political soap opera can distract the American people from the pain they are feeling at the gas station, the grocery store, and the electric outlets, or the tightening of their purse strings, thanks to the Democrats' wage-killing price hikes.

It has been 18 months since Washington fell into Democrat one-party rule. Since then, inflation has skyrocketed; gas prices are at an all- time high; and we are headed into a recession.

Why is Speaker Pelosi and her sham January 6th Committee still obsessing over the former President?

While President Trump lives rent-free in Democrats' heads, Republicans are working on real solutions to help the American people. We are trying to rein in reckless spending to bring down inflation and restart American energy dominance.

Democrats should take notes. The polls show the American people want these solutions.

Enough of this nonsense January 6 witch hunt.

Madam Speaker, President Biden has allowed the American people and Main Street businesses to suffer while his reckless spending policies continue to make things even worse.

With this crisis weighing heavy on us all, the President and Senate Democrats are pushing to add a trillion dollars in higher taxes on Main Street small businesses. That will only lead to more higher prices, wage cuts, and supply shortages, exacerbating the inflation problem significantly.

Instead of working to address America's inflation crisis, House Democrats will spend this week pushing for trillions more in government spending, which will only worsen America's inflation crisis further.

Instead of addressing the economic crisis, Democrats are prioritizing liberal initiatives and increasing Federal spending with some accounts receiving double-digit and triple-digit percentage increases.

Some of these out-of-touch woke spending priorities include taxpayer- funded abortion. Funding for FDA--the same agency that failed to prevent the infant formula crisis--has increased 10 percent. And partisan climate change initiatives, even though the American people are facing the highest gas prices on record.

The American people don't need any of these far-left priorities.

They need a responsible spending plan.

They need the Biden administration to unleash American energy independence and domestic production.

They need the Republicans to stop the Biden administration's radical policies from driving our Nation straight into another recession.

President Biden's denial of inflation that his policies have created are leading the Nation straight into said recession.

Last week, June's Consumer Price Index score came out and revealed that inflation has soared 9.1 percent. That is right, the largest 12- month increase in over four decades. I kind of believe 9.1 percent might be a lowball number when it gets right down to kitchen-table issues that regular, everyday Americans have to deal with. So even though inflation is up by 9.1 percent, the American people are paying far more for just about everything, such as gas, approximately 44 percent; airline tickets, 33 percent; used cars, 23 percent; hotels, 23 percent; suits, 22 percent; bacon, 18 percent; oranges, 17 percent; tires, 16 percent; furniture, 15 percent; milk, 15 percent; coffee, 14 percent; deliveries, 14 percent; bread, 14 percent; baby food--if you can find it--13 percent; soup, 13 percent; cereal, 12 percent; eggs, 10 percent; dry cleaning, 10 percent; then the rents on their homes and apartments and such, averaging about 30 percent.

And we saw that a little over a year and a half ago, lumber had gone up quadruple. It is coming back, but it is still double of 2 years ago for lumber in order to build homes and build anything else.

So where are we at? These outrageous prices are crushing the American Dream.

Last July, the President claimed that inflation was only transitory; that if we continued down this administration's path, then prices would go down again.

Certainly. Right.

Obviously, that was false.

Now it is the blame game: Putin. The war in Ukraine. Gas stations. Or Republicans. We are not the ones doing the big spending.

Inflation is indeed a tax on all Americans. It is caused by Biden and the House Democrats' out-of-control spending--trillions without accountability.

Small businesses can't afford the increase of input costs across the board. Farmers' fertilizer and all the other things that you would use to grow something, build something, manufacture something, are driven at their core by high energy costs. That is at the base of everything, energy costs.

So workers are effectively--because of all these costs--really seeing their wages cut. Even though they have seen some increases on paper, the higher costs of doing everything is hurting low- and middle-income Americans badly.

What I hear coming out of Sacramento and out of the White House doesn't seem to be helping. It seems to be more focused on a handful of agenda items. The religion of climate change--which, by the way, I will remind you again, carbon dioxide is only 0.04 percent of our atmosphere.

So we have to get back to business and rely on Americans to do business and produce things domestically. Let's not import all this stuff from China. We don't need their stuff. We can make it here. We can make it efficiently. We can make it more ecologically sound with our energy than it can be done anywhere else in the world.

Madam Speaker, let's put Americans back to work and let's get the government off their backs and out of their wallets.