James A. Himes

Mr. Speaker, I want to start by thanking Chairman French Hill and Ranking Member Maxine Waters for doing a remarkable thing. In this polarized and angry Congress, we are actually getting something done, and we are getting something done that is really important.

Throughout my district, from Greenwich to Bridgeport, from Ridgefield to Oxford, I don't spend a day where I don't hear somebody say: I can't afford the rent. I can't afford to buy.

We have a crisis of housing in this country. While this won't fix everything, this is a huge step in the right direction.

There is a lot of work that remains to be done. Our colleagues at the State and municipal levels need to take a hard look at the regulations, at the land use policies, and at the zoning. It continues to inhibit the ability to build housing and, therefore, offer affordable rent and affordable mortgages to America.

What we are doing right here is big. I was delighted to be able to contribute a couple of things to this bill.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues at this point in time: Let's listen to the American people. Let's do something for them. Let's make housing more affordable.

Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend, the gentleman from Maryland for yielding. I rise very sadly tonight in opposition to this legislation.

I have spent hundreds of hours negotiating this, including with the ranking member of the Judiciary Committee, my friends on the Republican side, reauthorization after reauthorization. I have the scars to show for how much work has been done.

Here we are on the verge of a great deal. The Senate has a bill that reauthorizes FISA and puts in stronger safeguards than the bill that we passed here in the House. We are all ready to go, and we move on, and then the President of the United States decides that Bill Pulte, a man who has never held a security clearance, a man who I am not sure 2 days ago could have told you what the initials DNI stand for, a man who has distinguished himself in the role he currently has as an attack dog to go after the political enemies, that gets thrown in, and we are asked for yet more indulgence at that moment in time.

There is a simple way out of this conundrum. The President can follow the law and allow the Principal Deputy DNI, a Senate-confirmed appointee of the President, to assume the role of acting DNI until a suitable nominee can be confirmed by the Senate. That is all that needs to happen, and none of us needs to swallow what has just happened.

This is a funny moment because I have lots of Republican friends, and in person they have told me what a catastrophic appointment this is. We are not going to hear that on the floor or in public, but we all know that this is the path. It did not need to be this way. There is still time, though very little, to choose a new and responsible path consistent with our obligations to national security.

When this vote fails, and it will, I hope that the President sees the writing on the wall and puts national security first.

Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Meeks for yielding me the time.

Five days ago, I was in Ukraine, and I saw what so many of us have seen: truly remarkable courage, absolute commitment to fighting for their freedom, innovation like you would not believe, and, interestingly, something I had not seen before in my previous trips to Ukraine, which was the optimism and joy in the face of missiles and destruction that the Ukrainians are winning.

They are winning because they are executing deep strikes into Russia, which have resulted in 30 percent of Russia's refining capacity being eliminated. They are winning because they are retaking territory, and they are winning because they are inflicting a staggering and horrible number of casualties, 30,000 a month, on the Russians.

The Russians are responding to the fact that they are losing by lashing out in desperate fashion, saying diplomats should leave Kyiv, attacking Romania with a drone, because they know they are losing. This is an inflection point.

We could debate for 6 months or 12 months. We have done that before, and the Ukrainians paid with their lives for

that delay, or we could join the fight at the moment that it is being won.

The Ukrainians that I spoke to are the bravest people I have ever seen fighting for their freedom. They want to know one thing. They are wondering whether the people here, in the home of the free and the land of the brave, will be side by side with them. That is all they are wondering. They just want a little help. They don't want our people. They want our technology, and they want to know that we are there with them.

Look around this Chamber. This is the Chamber in which we made the sacrifices to defeat communism. This is the Chamber in which we made the decisions to defeat Nazism. Since 1857, when we have been meeting in this Chamber, we have stood for freedom and liberty. Those who opposed it with buts and conditions, history was not kind to their memory.

Let's do what we have always done and support the brave Ukrainians in their desire for freedom.