Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, today, my heart and the hearts of my colleagues here are broken, especially the hearts of the citizens in southwest Missouri and Oklahoma, as we ache and mourn the devastating loss of Natalie and Davy Lloyd.

Last month, their lives were tragically cut short by gang violence in Haiti while they were serving as missionaries at an orphanage. Natalie and Davy were too good for this Earth. They were steadfast disciples of Christ, walking in his footsteps and spreading his love to all that they encountered.

Their faith was a guiding force that shaped every aspect of their lives. As we struggle with the pain of their loss, let's draw strength from the knowledge that they are now reunited with their Heavenly Father for all eternity.

Rest in peace, Natalie and Davy. Your faith-filled lives will continue to inspire us forever. You will be dearly missed.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize President Clif Smart of Missouri State University in Springfield, Missouri, as he retires following an outstanding career as the university's longest serving president dating back to 1961.

President Smart is the university's 11th president, and he is retiring after 13 years as the top official. During that time, the university achieved many notable milestones such as setting enrollment, retention, and graduation records, expanding academic offerings, raising more than $440 million in donations, and constructing or renovating dozens of buildings. More importantly, he accomplished all of this while raising tuition by less than inflation, allowing the university to be among the most affordable in the country.

President Smart graduated from Tulane University with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in political science, and from the University of Arkansas School of Law with his Juris Doctorate Degree. He served his country in the U.S. Army before joining the private sector as an attorney. He subsequently became Missouri State's General Counsel, and then was appointed the university's interim president before receiving the nod to take over as president.

President Smart's visionary development of IDEA Commons transformed an abandoned industrial area into a thriving hub for economic development, innovation, and community engagement. His collaboration with the University of Missouri to offer engineering and pharmacy programs significantly addressed workforce shortages and strengthened the state's economic and educational landscapes. He also facilitated the university's recognition as a doctoral-granting institution. These are just a few of his many, many accomplishments.

I want to express my deepest gratitude to President Smart for his outstanding leadership at Missouri State University and his profound effect on the broader community. I also want to extend my best wishes for his retirement and future endeavors. I am proud that he is one of my constituents.

Mr. Speaker, I hereby remove my name as cosponsor of

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that when the House adjourns today, it adjourn to meet at 8 a.m. tomorrow.

Madam Speaker, I think that this bill defies any kind of objective understanding of the reality of the situation that we are in.

We are at $34 trillion in debt. It is the highest debt-to-GDP that we have experienced in the history of the United States of America, higher than we experienced after World War II, and we just left a war.

Today, we are at that same level of debt-to-GDP, and yet we are facing potential wars. This situation is the greatest threat to national security that there is. To add more debt onto this Nation is only risking us even further.

Our border is a threat to national security, and yet we are doing very little to actually fix it in this bill. No matter how much we talk about some of the things that are in the bill, at the end of the day, I hear expressions like this, as the swamp people say: Somebody has got to govern.

Within that statement, therein lies the false pretense that government is the solution to our problems. Government is the problem.

Mr. Chair, I rise in support of the Creating Confidence in Clean Water Permitting Act, a bill that pushes back against the out- of-control EPA and ensures that important projects are approved in a timely manner.

The EPA has used the Clean Water Act to delay or block projects and ensure a radical climate agenda is fulfilled, all at the cost of projects that are critical for the United States.

The EPA is often inconsistent, not transparent, and unfair in its decisions to approve projects, even when those projects have no negative impact on the environment.

This bill will cut red tape, strengthen the permitting process in favor of those seeking the permits, provide clarity to the EPA to ensure that they are following what the law intends, and, most importantly, fight back against the militant climate agenda.

Look, we all know that the EPA can be a bad actor in the permitting process, but they are not the only ones that are standing in the way. We also have to deal with these environmental groups that continually sue to delay these projects from going through, claiming that the costs outweigh the benefits. Of course, we know what they really mean--these projects don't further their climate agenda, so they must be stopped.

That is why this bill includes my legislation, the Judicial Review Timeline Clarity Act. The Judicial Review Timeline Clarity Act ensures that any lawsuit seeking judicial review of a section 404 general or individual permit must be filed within the first 60 days of the permit's issuance.

If the court decides that the Army Corps did not comply with the law in approving projects, it will be remanded back to the Secretary, where they have 180 days to take action that the court has ordered.

Businesses are busy. They are already buried under regulation after regulation which takes obscene amounts of time and resources to comply with. In this case, they already have to demonstrate that these projects will have basically no impact on the health of water or show that they have exhausted all alternatives to discharging.

Even with these strict regulations, environmental groups sue to stall these projects, claiming that they will have a negative impact on the environment. The goal is to keep them held up in court.

Our court system is already being attacked from every angle. Let's not let the environmentalists continue to manipulate the courts to push their climate religion. It should be an efficient and speedy process so businesses can build the infrastructure that our country depends on.

The Creating Confidence in Clean Water Permitting Act will bring needed reforms to litigation and ensure any challenge to these permits are efficient, fast, and fair.

In closing, I thank the work of Chairman Graves and Subcommittee Chairman David Rouzer.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor Jaden Factor of Ozark, Missouri, who recently achieved the rank of Eagle Scout. Eagle Scout is the highest rank attainable in the Boy Scouts of America program, and since its inception in 1911, only 4 percent of scouts have earned this rank after a lengthy review process.

Jaden is a junior at Ozark High School and a member of Troop 201 of the Ozark Trails Council of the Boy Scouts of America where he has held numerous leadership positions ranging from den chief and historian to outdoor ethics guide and senior patrol leader, the highest youth position in a scout troop.

Jaden also is a master sergeant in the Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps at Ozark High. His Eagle Scout project combined his love of scouting with his military training. Jaden raised $2,500 to refurbish a Conex storage container that was in poor condition, which was used to house the Ozark JROTC Raiders team gear. He hired a trucking company to transport the container from the junior high school to a sandblasting company which stripped and painted it, and it was then moved to a new home at the high school. Jaden and a team of fellow scouts prepped the site for the container at the school, touched up paint when it was returned and restored a retaining wall adjacent to the container.

Scouting has been teaching valuable lessons in leadership since it was established in February 1910, and achieving the rank of Eagle Scout is an important accomplishment. This young man deserves our applause for a job well done. I am proud to have him as a constituent.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor Jackson Choi of Springfield, Missouri, who recently achieved the rank of Eagle Scout. Eagle Scout is the highest rank attainable in the Boy Scouts of America program. Since its inception in 1911, only 4 percent of scouts have earned this rank after a lengthy review process.

Jackson is a junior at Kickapoo High School in Springfield, and he has been in scouting since he joined as a Cub Scout in 2013. He is a member of Troop No. 289, where he has held several leadership positions. He also has attended three of the four high adventure camps earning him the Triple Crown Award from the Boy Scouts of America.

To earn the Eagle Scout designation, each individual must complete a project. Jackson's project was to update the bamboo fencing at the Mizumoto Japanese Stroll Garden at the Nathaniel Green/Close Memorial Park in Springfield. The garden was established by Springfield's Japanese sister city in 1985. The original bamboo fencing had fallen into disrepair, so Jackson studied the process and replaced 100-feet of fencing in the traditional Japanese way.

This accomplished young man deserves our applause for a job well done. I am proud to have him as a constituent.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor Franklin Lucore of Monett, Missouri, who achieved the rank of Eagle Scout just prior to his 15th birthday. Eagle Scout is the highest rank attainable in the Boy Scouts of America program, and since its inception in 1911, only 4 percent of scouts have earned this rank after a lengthy review process.

Franklin is a freshman in the International Baccalaureate Program at Central High School in Springfield and a member of BSA Troop 38 in Monett. He began his scouting career as a Cub Scout at the age of seven and since then has held numerous leadership positions with the troop, while also maintaining a 4.0 grade point average in school. He is a member of the Brotherhood of the Order of the Arrow, scouting's National Honor Society, and a member of the Tribe of the Lone Bear, an honors program of the Ozark Trails Council's Camp Arrowhead. He also has earned 36 merit badges, camped out more than 50 nights, hiked more than 100 miles and performed more than 36 hours of community service.

His Eagle Scout project provided improvements and outdoor furnishing to South Park, a 65-acre park owned by the city of Monett that caters especially to children and adults with disabilities.

Scouting has been teaching valuable lessons in leadership since it was established in February 1910, and achieving the rank of Eagle Scout is an important accomplishment. This young man deserves our applause for a job well done. I am proud to have him as a constituent.

Mr. Speaker, I thank my good friend from Texas (Mr. Roy) for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, here we go again.

Today, the House is set to extend the bloated and inflationary spending levels that have left our country $34 trillion in debt and fuels the government that is at war with the American people.

This is now the fourth time that we have kicked the can down the road since just last September. It is now the fourth time that we have shrugged our shoulders and said: Sorry, America. We just don't have the fight in us this time, but we will try again next time.

We all promised we wouldn't do this crap when we got up here. The American people have demanded responsible spending and border security for years, but we fail them.

When will we heed the calls of our constituents to rein in the wasteful spending, secure the borders, and defeat the bureaucracy targeting them?

The last line of the Declaration of Independence has a bold and courageous statement by the people who signed it. They said: ``We mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.''

Sadly, we are not serving with people of this same resolve today.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to vote against this CR.

Mr. Speaker, had I been present, I would have voted ``yea'' on rollcall No. 9.

Mr. Speaker, it was said by our friends on the other side of the aisle that this censure motion is profoundly stupid. What is profoundly stupid is an adult man, who has been elected as a Member of Congress, held to a high esteem, pulling a fire alarm like a child, like throwing a tantrum. What is worse is that he violated the law. He broke the law when he did it.

It wasn't just something to say, oh, I am sorry. He broke the law because he wanted to obstruct the meeting of this body, the vote of this body. The January 6 individuals have been talked about. If someone had done that on January 6, they would have been put in jail. The American people know it.

They see that there is a double standard. They see that this side of the aisle cleans up its House. The other side is going to let people who have committed crimes continue to sit in office.

The other side of the building is going to let someone who has taken bribes in the form of gold bars--apparently cash isn't good enough under Biden inflation. For a Democratic Member of the Senate to take cash is not enough. You have to take gold.

We clean up, and we have a standard on this side of the aisle, and the American people know it. The standard on this side of the aisle is high. What is clear today is the standard on that side of the aisle is not.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to celebrate the life and the legacy of William Jung, III, of Springfield, Missouri. Bill was born in Overland Park, Kansas, on May 24, 1941, and passed away in Springfield, Missouri, on October 17, 2023.

He is survived by his wife, Ramona, and their 9 children, 36 grandchildren, and 41 great-grandchildren.

He is also survived by two sisters and a host of friends and relatives.

Bill was passionate about life and his love for the Lord. He was involved in many civic and religious organizations serving wherever he could.

Bill had a passion for traveling and adventure. He and his wife visited more than 30 countries, including a cherished trip to Israel. He was always game for any adventure that came his way.

Madam Speaker, Bill was a dear friend of mine. His smile and warm personality will be greatly missed by me, his many friends, and his wonderful family.

Mr. Chair, I have an amendment at the desk.

Mr. Chairman, I rise in support of this amendment, which would increase/decrease funding to express that the Office of Personnel Management should renew the security clearance of David Grusch.

Mr. Grusch formerly served as a National Reconnaissance Office representative to the UAP Task Force, from 2019 to 2021. He recently testified before Congress, claiming that partial fragments and even intact vehicles have been found for decades by the Federal Government, our allies, and defense contractors. According to Mr. Grusch, objects and vehicles retrieved are of ``exotic origin . . . based on the vehicle morphologies and material science testing and the possession of unique atomic arrangements and radiological signatures.''

Mr. Grusch also told us that the U.S. is in possession of ``nonhuman spacecraft'' and dead pilots.

Finally, Mr. Grusch told us that he has spoken with intelligence officials whom the U.S. military had briefed about football field-sized aircraft, that the U.S. Government transferred some crashed UAPS to a defense contractor, and that intelligence officials were also briefed on malevolent activity from extraterrestrial beings.

Now, of course, all of this was very interesting to me and a number of my colleagues on the Committee on Oversight and Accountability. My first question for Mr. Grusch, when I had the opportunity, was to say that those were pretty incredible claims, but I am from the Show-Me State, so he would have to show me. I requested specific information that could not be conveyed in that hearing but in a secure setting. Unfortunately, he is unable to provide us with any supporting evidence to back up his claims because his security clearance has lapsed.

My understanding is that Mr. Grusch did go through the proper channels by turning over classified information to the IC inspector general. He ultimately filed a complaint to the IC inspector general, alleging that the information he presented to the IC has been illegally withheld from Congress.

Mr. Chair, I would like to know more about these claims, and so would a number of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle.

I am certainly pleased that the Committee on Oversight and Accountability is working hard to bring in the relevant inspector general so we can cut through all the roadblocks that have been presented since Mr. Grusch stepped forward. We need to cover all possible angles here, and if we can get Mr. Grusch in a SCIF with an active security clearance, that would go a long way.

This amendment simply expresses support for the Office of Personnel Management to renew the security clearance of David Grusch so that he can show us his work.

As a freshman Member, I have seen a lot of these increase/decrease amendments. While on its face they appear to not do anything, it is my understanding that the agencies generally pay attention to the legislative history and intent, which is why I am offering this amendment.

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

Mr. Chair, I have an amendment at the desk.

Mr. Chairman, I rise in support of this amendment, which would prohibit funds from going to the Charging and Fueling Infrastructure Program. This grant program was created in 2021 in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act to strategically deploy electric vehicle charging stations around the country.

The reason that I filed this amendment is simple. It is not the role of the Federal Government to subsidize the electric vehicle charging industry.

After spending billions of taxpayer dollars and bribing the affluent to buy electric vehicles, it turns out only one-third of the population wants to even buy one or aspires to buy one, and two-thirds are not even considering purchasing one. The two-thirds who are not considering it don't want to be forced to pay for the others.

Maybe you like electric vehicles. In fact, I actually do, personally. I test-drove a Tesla and loved it, but it would be immoral for me to force my neighbors and compel them through the force of government to subsidize my new electric vehicle.

In essence, we are robbing Peter to pay Paul. The fact is, this program will cost taxpayers $2.5 billion dollars, which will all be debt, for something that most Americans cannot afford and are unable to appreciate.

It is not the government's job to pick winners and losers in the energy market. That is the role of consumers and businesses operating in a free market.

Here we are, once again, using tax dollars to subsidize and force a product on people where there is little demand. If the direct cost to taxpayers doesn't bother you, the indirect costs, including the higher energy prices, the cost of making the electricity grid more reliable, and increased dependence on China are arguably worse.

When the government subsidizes the EV infrastructure, it does so by raising energy prices for everyone. The installation of new charging stations also makes our electricity grid less reliable, further putting Americans at risk to having blackouts, brownouts, or other reliability issues.

Finally, maybe worst of all, it is not just that Americans are being priced out of affordable, reliable energy; it is not just that we are rigging the market against our own constituents, but we are also selling them out to the Chinese Communist Party.

These electric charging stations and electric car batteries require a massive amount of resources from China, which controls the world's critical minerals supply chain.

America was energy independent just 3 short years ago, but through the government electric vehicle scam we have allowed Communist China to establish an EV monopoly all while Americans get poorer. It is time that we stop forcing Americans to foot the bill for other people and instead focus on making our energy system more reliable and affordable.

Mr. Chairman, I urge my colleagues to support this amendment, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Chairman, we didn't have to subsidize or have grant programs to create the very robust infrastructure of fuel stations that exist across this country. It happened on its own through the free market. That is all I am suggesting.

The average price of an electric vehicle now is around $66,000, and the median income is less than that. It is $59,000 a year. So when the government subsidizes an electric vehicle infrastructure, it is not free money. It is not free. It is taxpayer money. Because of the situation we are in, this is all debt.

It is not just a one-time cost, as well. These subsidies are a continuous drain on the public funds that could be used for real hard infrastructure that all Americans can use, things like roads and bridges.

The average family is priced out entirely from purchasing an EV in the market but is still paying for it on the back end with higher energy costs, higher taxes, and a less reliable grid.

Ultimately, it is the poorest people in this country who are hit the hardest when the Federal Government redistributes tax dollars to subsidize the EVs for those who can't afford it.

This is basically a reverse Robin Hood. I repeat, it is a reverse Robin Hood. Instead of taking from the rich and giving to the poor, we are taking from the poor, and we are giving it to the rich. We are making them pay taxes on someone else's luxury item while telling them to stop using cheap, reliable energy that they need to survive.

The Charging and Fueling Infrastructure Grant Program is just another classic example of the government picking winners and losers. If Americans want a product, then the market will reflect that without our need to artificially increase the demand.

Mr. Chairman, I urge support for this amendment, and I reserve the balance of my time.