Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, can you explain to the Members of the Chamber what is happening with the Iran War Powers Resolution that was scheduled to be voted on this evening?

Yes. That is my parliamentary inquiry. I just want to know what has happened with the Iran War Powers Resolution.

Mr. Speaker, further parliamentary inquiry.

Are we not voting on it because the American people are sick and tired of this illegal war that is costing tens of billions of dollars, gas prices are through the roof, and people can't afford their groceries?

Is that why you are pulling it? You guys don't have the guts or the balls to vote on this.

Mr. Speaker, to be a champion for human rights around the world, the United States must stand for those who defend fundamental rights.

One human rights defender who needs our help is Ruth Lopez, head of the anti-corruption unit of Cristosal, a legal rights group based, until recently, in El Salvador.

One year ago this week, Ruth was detained by Salvadoran authorities. For

most of this time, she has been held incommunicado, without access to family or legal counsel.

Her arrest and judicial proceedings are full of irregularities. A judge refused her request for a public trial, siding with the government to keep it secret.

Ruth is being targeted for political reasons by an autocratic regime. This is arbitrary detention, a human rights violation. She should not be in jail at all.

We call on the Salvadoran authorities to respect her right to a fair, speedy, and public trial, and have access to her family and lawyers.

I asked the U.S. Embassy to help Ruth. There was no response. I fear our government is siding with the abusers rather than the defenders of human rights.

Free Ruth Lopez.

Mr. Speaker, last week in Massachusetts, I had the pleasure of speaking at the AMPL Institute's annual convening to learn about the latest research and hear directly from experts in the field of medically tailored meals.

Based within Community Servings, the largest nonprofit provider of medically tailored meals in New England, the AMPL Institute combines pioneering research, policy work, and provider education aimed at transforming the healthcare system so that medically tailored nutrition becomes a universally accessible standard of care.

The incredible work of Community Servings is what got me interested in, and now passionate about, expanding the reach of medically tailored meals. They are the reason I have introduced a bipartisan bill to pilot coverage of MTMs in traditional Medicare at hospitals across the country.

Medically tailored meals have the power to transform lives. They improve health outcomes, support vulnerable patients, and strengthen the Food Is Medicine movement.

It is time to pass my bipartisan bill, the Medically Tailored Home- Delivered Meals Program Act, to really advance the Food Is Medicine movement in this country.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Griffith) for yielding me the customary time, and I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Virginia for his remarks. I honor

our law enforcement officers, as does everybody on the Democratic side. Yet, as I look at the list of bills that Republicans are bringing to the floor this week, I have to say that the American people deserve way, way better than this.

I mean, Republicans love to talk about supporting the police, but talk is cheap. Look at what they do. There is not a single penny of public safety funding in any of these bills--not one.

I mean, these guys are more interested in passing press releases than they are in passing meaningful legislation that will make a real difference in our communities.

At the same time, Donald Trump's own budget--get this--calls for massive cuts to programs that support law enforcement.

Mr. Speaker, go read it yourself. The President's budget cuts 55 percent from Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grants. It cuts more than 60 percent from the COPS program, a program that Trump's own Justice Department calls the cornerstone of our Nation's crime-fighting strategy. I mean, how is this possible?

Let's not forget that mere hours after he was sworn in, on his very first day in office, President Trump pardoned the violent criminals who attacked police officers on January 6. Let me say that again in case anyone forgot. Donald Trump, on his first day in office, pardoned felons who viciously beat police officers at the Capitol Building.

Mr. Speaker, some of the people he pardoned have since gone on to do even more terrible things, including in my district, where one of them was just rearrested on child pornography charges.

Don't come down to this Chamber and lecture people on law and order. The leader of the Republican Party wants to cut funding for public safety after he pardoned his own supporters who violently attacked police.

Talk is cheap around here. Look at what the radical, far-right people in charge of this government are doing. Look at how they vote. Look at their agenda for this week. Look at their priorities. This is another week without a single bill to make life more affordable and without a single bill to address the cost of living.

Why not? Well, the answer is simple: Republicans are not focused on your grocery bill. They are not focused on how much you pay at the pump. They are not focused on your rent, your healthcare, your utility bills, or your paycheck. They aren't focused on you.

They are focused on their obedience and obsession with Donald Trump, on his tariffs, his war, his billion-dollar ballroom, his arch, his reflecting pool paint job, and his golf course on the Potomac. Whatever he wants, they just say yes, and the rest of us pay the price for their radical MAGA extremism.

They ripped healthcare from millions of people in this country. They cut food assistance for kids, veterans, seniors, and Americans with disabilities. They raised the price of everything from utilities to groceries. They did it all to give tax breaks to their billionaire donors and rubberstamp every dumb idea that President Trump comes up with.

Yesterday, the President said the quiet part out loud. He finally told the truth about something. When asked a simple question of whether he thinks about the terrible economic situation that he has put American families into, thanks to his illegal war, do you know what he said? ``Not even a little bit.''

Now, let that sink in. The President of the United States of America was asked if he cares how badly he screwed up your family's finances with his stupid, illegal war, and his answer was: ``Not even a little bit.''

Your gas is $4.50 a gallon. He doesn't care, not even a little bit. Your pay isn't keeping up with inflation. He doesn't care, not even a little bit. Your health insurance is way up. He doesn't care, not even a little bit. Your fridge is empty until payday. He doesn't care, not even a little bit.

That is what he said. That is what he believes. That is how this radical, far-right majority in Congress is governing.

Those at the top are doing better than ever. The Epstein-class billionaires and special interests who write the campaign checks are doing great. They can't thank my Republican friends enough. Yet, the rest of us--for my constituents and for everyday people in this country--Donald Trump's economy sucks, and Republicans don't care, not even a little bit.

They tell themselves over and over again that everything is going well. Well, it is time for them to listen, to listen to the American people, who have had it up to here with these failed economic policies and who are sick and tired of a government that bends over backward to help those who are well-off and well-connected and turns a blind eye to the struggles of the working people in this country.

We have to do better. We have to do better.

Mr. Speaker, as we come together this week to honor our law enforcement officials, those who serve our communities and protect our communities, the least we could have done is brought a bill to the floor that would actually provide real help to our local police departments to be able to hire people and to be able to obtain the equipment that is necessary to protect our police officers.

Instead, we got a press release. We got a press release.

Mr. Speaker, I urge a ``no'' vote on this rule, and I reserve the balance of my time.

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

I would just say to the gentleman there will be at least 5 hours of debate to talk about these less than impressive bills that he is bringing to the floor today. There will be even more debate on a handful of amendments that have been offered.

We are talking about the rule today, and the rule basically is Republicans' agenda for the week. It is not about lowering the price of groceries. It is not about dealing with the high price of gas. It is not about dealing with the rising costs of healthcare. Republicans'

agenda is to avoid talking about the real problems that Americans are facing as we gather here on the House floor.

I want to talk about your agenda, and your agenda sucks. I mean, I don't know how else to put it more plainly. It is a disgrace that my Republican friends spend more and more time trying to avoid dealing with the real issues that are hurting their constituents, but that is what their agenda is all about.

I get it. Everybody over there is afraid of the guy in the White House. Maybe you should be more afraid of your constituents.

Mr. Speaker, I am going to urge that we defeat the previous question, and if we defeat the previous question I will offer an amendment to the rule to bring up H.R. 7711, which would prohibit the use of Federal funds to compensate individuals who were prosecuted for their involvement in the attack on the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021.

Mr. Speaker, as you know, it is Police Week, and Republicans will come to the floor, as we have just heard, and talk about how much they support and honor our law enforcement officers. We all support law enforcement officers who keep us safe and protect our communities. But what most, if not all, of these Republicans will fail to do, and have failed to do repeatedly, is condemn the pardons that Donald Trump issued to over 1,500 individuals that attacked this building and attacked our democracy on January 6. Many of them were convicted of violent felonies.

For those who weren't here that day, go back and look at the videos, and you will see exactly what I am talking about. Over 140 brave Capitol Police, the ones in this Chamber now, the ones protecting all of us every single day were injured. Some tragically died.

What did this President do on his first day in office? He pardoned every last one of those violent offenders.

Now, these rioters outrageously are seeking tens of millions of dollars in damages, claiming that the indiscriminate use of force by police officers repelling the attack caused them physical and emotional injuries. Are you kidding me? I mean, where is the outrage on the Republican side over this? It is a disgrace.

If my Republican colleagues cannot denounce the actions of the President's supporters that day or condemn the pardons maybe--maybe, at least they will vote to ensure that these convicted felons aren't awarded millions of taxpayer dollars by the Trump administration as a reward for attacking police officers. I will give them a chance to do that with the previous question.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to include the text of my amendment in the Record, along with any extraneous material, immediately prior to the vote on the previous question.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2\1/2\ minutes to the gentlewoman from North Carolina (Ms. Ross) to discuss our proposal.

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

You have got to love these guys. I remind everybody, especially those who may be watching this on TV, that four out of the five bills that we are considering today are under completely closed rules, number one.

Number two, I appreciate the gentleman expressing some concern about what happened on January 6. He said that some of them, you know, expressed their concern about the President's pardon publicly, so I just kind of Googled what my colleague from Virginia said to his local newspaper. He said that he has mixed feelings about President Trump pardoning those who were charged in connection with the January 6 attack on the Capitol.

I don't know what ``mixed feelings'' means, but if my friend were genuinely outraged by what happened that day and by the pardoning of these people who violently attacked the police officers that were defending us that day, then I guess my question to the gentleman would be: Then why did you vote consistently against hanging a plaque honoring those police officers who protected our lives that day?

Again, I find the silence on the other side of the aisle not only in regard to

what happened in this Chamber on January 6--I find it particularly disturbing--but the silence in the aftermath of Donald Trump pardoning all of these criminals.

Again, we have police officers who were severely wounded. Some ended up losing their lives. I mean, if you have objections and you have concerns, and even if you have mixed feelings, whatever that means, about the President pardoning all of these people, then does that mean that the gentleman will support our amendment that we are bringing up here that would prohibit the use of Federal funds to compensate individuals who were prosecuted for their involvement in the attack on the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021?

I mean, I am not going to hold my breath, but I am willing to bet that virtually every Republican, if not every Republican, will vote against this amendment.

Again, we get a lot of lectures about law and order from Republicans. Let's not forget, again, the leader of their party, the President of the United States, pardoned over 1,500 of his own supporters who violently attacked this building, including pardons for hundreds of convicted felons who violently and viciously beat law enforcement officers on January 6, sending many of them to the hospital with serious injuries.

Donald Trump pardoned every single one of them. Many are repeat offenders who are now back in our communities because of the radical, far-right policies of this President and because of the acquiescence and the silence of the party that controls this Chamber.

I mean, Matthew Huttle, a man with 12 prior criminal convictions, including a shocking case where he pled guilty to brutally hitting his 3-year-old son, leaving bruises all over his child's backside and neck, after he was pardoned by Donald Trump for the crimes he committed on January 6, went back to Indiana, where he was killed during a violent confrontation with law enforcement. He was a child abuser with a history of violence, who put law enforcement in danger again after he was pardoned by Donald Trump.

Theodore Middendorf, accused of sexually assaulting a 7-year-old child--this guy pled guilty to this horrific crime in 2024, and he was sentenced to 19 years in prison. That wasn't all. He also pled guilty to destroying government property and using an American flagpole as a weapon during the Capitol riot. He was pardoned by Donald Trump.

Peter Schwartz, a man with 30 prior criminal convictions, including abusing and assaulting his wife, biting her and repeatedly punching her, was convicted of attacking police officers on January 6 with pepper spray. He is another repeat offender pardoned by Donald Trump.

Andrew Taake was arrested in 2016 for soliciting a minor online for sex, but his criminal history didn't stop there. He assaulted police officers with bear spray and a metal whip on January 6. He is another repeat offender pardoned by Donald Trump.

Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress are complicit in these crimes. I mean, thanks to these pardons, we have child sex predators and violent criminals back on our streets. We even have January 6 perpetrators who have been rearrested on new charges after being pardoned.

Daniel Ball, a convicted felon because of his involvement in the Capitol insurrection, was pardoned by Trump on January 20, only to be rearrested 2 days later on gun charges.

How dare you guys come down here and talk about law and order when you are complicit in these crimes? How dare you come down here and talk about supporting the police after you let out violent criminals who attacked law enforcement officers on January 6?

I mean, I get it. We have different opinions on a lot of issues, but the one thing that should unite us is our praise and our respect for those who defended not only all of us who were here on January 6 but also defended our democracy.

Because the guy in the White House doesn't want anybody to acknowledge that that was a terrible day, everybody just caved. Everybody caves on the other side.

I don't have any mixed feelings about what Trump did. I think it was outrageous. I think most Americans that I talk to, and I think most Americans across this country, don't have mixed feelings. They think what happened that day was outrageous. These guys should not have been pardoned. Some of them should still be in jail.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

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

First of all, Mr. Speaker, let me apologize to the TV station that I called a newspaper. What a terrible sin. I appreciate the gentleman's clarity in reading that I have mixed feelings because some of the people deserve some of the time. Boy, that is really a strongly worded condemnation.

I want to disagree with the gentleman on one thing he said, and that is somehow this is not on the agenda today. The gentleman just read off what the Republican agenda was and the votes that the Republicans want us to consider on the floor today.

Mr. Speaker, I urge that we defeat the previous question.

Our staff handed my friend's team the amendment that we want to vote on. The next vote that we have, by the way, will be on whether we would prohibit the use of Federal funds to compensate individuals who were prosecuted for their involvement in the attack on the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021. I guess that is the next vote. So people are going to have to vote ``yes'' or ``no'' on that, and it is in front of us.

I don't really understand why the gentleman would say that it is not in front of us. If he wants to support what we are trying to do here and make sure that the people who viciously attacked Capitol Police officers on that day on January 6 that threatened the lives of those who work here and who destroyed all of this property, that is well- documented, all of this is on video, I am happy to yield to the gentleman if he would like to endorse what we are trying to do so maybe we can agree on something.

Okay, well, I guess I am not going to get that support.

Again, Mr. Speaker, the next vote, again, I remind people, will be on whether or not we want to prohibit the use of Federal funds to compensate individuals who were prosecuted for their involvement in the attack on the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021.

The President is hinting that maybe he would be favorable to compensating some of these people who are responsible for the terrible crimes on that day. I find that sickening, quite frankly. He wants to give money to criminals, the people who attacked our democracy, who beat up our police officers, and yet he doesn't want to give money to our police officers, as I pointed out in the beginning. There is not a penny contained in any of these bills that actually help support our local police officers.

Let me also bring us back to what I think this debate is all about. It is about priorities. This is another wasted week, and the debate is really about what Republicans are not doing and what they refuse to do. It is about their wasted time in the majority and their total failure to bring up legislation to help everyday people.

People are begging us. They are begging us to do something about inflation. They are pleading with us to bring grocery prices down, to lower gas prices, to make life more affordable, and to stop the war and reverse the tariffs that are eating into their paychecks and killing their finances.

What do Republicans prioritize week after week after week after week?

It is billionaire tax breaks, loopholes for the rich and powerful, giveaways to the giant corporations, the price gougers, and the big donors who line their pockets with campaign cash.

Listen to me, America: These guys promised to lower your prices on day one. It is year two for God's sake, and who are you going to believe, them or your empty wallet?

Republicans have done nothing--nothing--to lower your costs. Their agenda does nothing to help everyday people. Their bills do nothing for working families. Their leader said so on TV yesterday.

He doesn't even think about how his reckless, illegal, vanity war hurts your pocketbook. He thinks about his arch. He thinks about painting the reflecting pool. He thinks about his golf course on the Potomac River. He thinks about bailouts for foreign governments and corrupt, shady deals that enrich his inner circle.

He thinks about his ballroom. Boy, does he bring that up every day. He wants $1 billion of your money for his tacky ballroom.

However, when it comes to helping you, when it comes to helping your family, when it comes to the medical bills piling up on your kitchen table, and when it comes to figuring out how to keep your fridge full until your next paycheck, he told us the answer himself: He doesn't care, not even a little bit.

Mr. Speaker, I urge a ``no'' vote on this rule, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from Minnesota for yielding me the customary 30 minutes, and I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, this rule is what happens when you try to make a deal by telling people what they want to hear. It is what happens when you come to an agreement by telling one group of people one thing and another group of people the total opposite.

That is the situation that Speaker Johnson finds himself in. He can't keep his word to his own Members, can't manage his own Conference, can't figure out how to pass a bill, and apparently can't keep his stories straight between the two groups he was negotiating with. The incompetence takes my breath away.

We are now wasting floor time to basically undo something Republicans did last week, to unattach an E15 bill from the farm bill after Republicans had us vote to attach an E15 bill to the farm bill. You can't make this stuff up.

That is what this is all about: shady backroom deals falling apart because Republican leadership can't keep its word and just hoped that everything would somehow work out and nobody would notice anything.

Former Speaker Kevin McCarthy used to do the same thing: promise everything to everyone, cut one side deal after another, and hope nobody noticed. How did that work out for him?

Maybe, just maybe, there is a lesson here. If you are going to make a deal, make an honest deal. If you are going to write a bill, know what is in the bill. If you are going to promise your Members something, maybe don't come back 3 weeks later and say: Actually, never mind.

I have to say I am a little surprised that some of my Republican colleagues from the Midwest are going along with this strategy because if you think separating E15 from the farm bill will help you get what you want, I have a degree from Trump University for you.

This is not some brilliant legislative maneuver. It is a quick way to make sure the Senate never takes it up. The reason I know this is because the way the bill is written. The reason why this doesn't have much of a future is because--get this--this bill will cost over $2 billion, billion with a b, and none of it is offset.

What happened to the deficit hawks? $2 billion, basically, that is just going to be added to the debt. It will be dead on arrival at the Senate, and again I think everyone knows that.

If I represented a corn-producing State, I would not be thrilled that my leadership took one of my top priorities and pulled it out of a bill that possibly had a chance to move and said: Trust us.

I don't know whether the gentlewoman read the rule because it sounded a little bit confused here, but here is the rule. It is one sentence. It doesn't talk about bringing E15 to the floor. It doesn't allow for there to be a debate or an amendment on an offset so that we don't add $2 billion to the credit card. It basically just is a rule that will detach E15 from the farm bill. That is it. I don't know. I wouldn't feel particularly comfortable if that is all that we were doing today, that that is all that the bill is accomplishing.

What we have here is a majority that cannot manage its own Conference, cannot keep its promises, and cannot pass its own agenda without completely breaking into disarray. The American people see this.

They see a Republican majority that spent weeks fighting with itself over the farm bill.

They see a Republican majority that cannot decide whether E15 belongs in the farm bill, outside the farm bill, attached to the farm bill, detached from the farm bill, or shoehorned into something else.

They see a Republican leadership that panders to the American people talking about lowering costs and inflation and then does none of it.

Here is the thing. Republicans are bad at governing because they do not actually believe in governing. They believe in power for the sake of power. They believe in theatrics. They believe in blaming everybody else. When the time comes to do the basic work of this House, they fall apart. They block amendments. They shut down debate. They cut food assistance and healthcare, while protecting the rich and powerful. They fund Donald Trump's vanity projects, while families are getting crushed by the cost of groceries, rent, gas, and medicine. They know that their agenda is unpopular, and that is why they are not trying to earn people's votes anymore. They have given up on that.

Instead of changing their agenda, they are changing the rules of democracy itself. Instead of earning votes, they are rigging maps. Instead of persuading people, they are silencing them. Instead of serving voters, they are choosing their voters. Just look at what is happening across this country.

Donald Trump demanded that red States start gerrymandering so Republicans can cling to power in this House, and Republican politicians lined up to do it--the hell with democracy, the hell with what the people want.

It is a very different story in States like Virginia where they actually had a vote on the new maps. People voted. Guess what. Voters approved a redistricting plan to fight back against the staggering Republican assault on our democracy. A narrow majority on the Virginia Supreme Court tossed it aside--an awful, awful decision in my view.

Now, the United States Supreme Court has taken another wrecking ball to the Voting Rights Act, a law that for generations helped protect many communities from having their voices diluted and their powers stolen.

Guess what, Mr. Speaker, we are not going back to the days of Jim Crow. Too many people have fought too hard for equal representation in this country.

A party that is confident in its ideas does not need to make it harder for people to vote.

A party that is proud of its record does not need to dilute people's representation.

A party that knows how to govern does not spend its time making shady side deals and begging courts to save it from voters.

But this Republican majority is not confident, not proud, and sure as hell not competent. Case in point: today's rule, a rule to undo just one more mess of their own making.

Mr. Speaker, the American people deserve a hell of a lot better than this.

I reserve the balance of my time.

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

Mr. Speaker, I think there is some confusion here. I have the rule. Maybe I have the wrong rule, I don't know, but the resolution says: ``Resolved, That section 11 of House Resolution 1224 shall have no force or effect.''

Mr. Speaker, I am happy to yield to the gentlewoman if she could tell me where in this rule it says that we are bringing E15 to the floor. I am happy to yield to the gentlewoman to tell me where in this rule it says that.

I yield to the gentlewoman from Minnesota.

I reclaim my time, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, in the other rule we did, it makes it in order. It is already in order. It can be called up right this second, but in this, it basically doesn't make it in order. There is nothing here that says that this bill will be brought to the floor. This decoupling makes it more likely that the Senate could ignore it.

It doesn't even guarantee that we are going to have a debate on the House floor on this, otherwise, it would say that specifically.

The rule that we are voting on today does not bring E15 to the floor. If it did, it would say it.

Again, this is a good education, I think, for my colleagues here. Read the rule because my friends on the other side don't always explain the rule correctly and here it is. It is one line, and it does not bring it up.

What it does is, it decouples E15 from the farm bill, which makes it more likely that the Senate will kill it if it ever gets over there.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

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

Mr. Speaker, I have to read the rule again for my colleagues on the Republican side: ``Resolved, That section 11 of House Resolution 1224 shall have no force or effect.'' Just like Midwest House Republicans if they agree to this deal.

Bottom line is, you fought to get this provision attached in the farm bill, and now we have a rule that basically detaches this issue from the farm bill. It doesn't even give us a pathway to bring it to the House floor. I am stunned by all of this.

Mr. Speaker, I urge that we defeat the previous question. If we do, I will offer an amendment to the rule to bring up H.R. 8698, the Lower Prices at the Pump Act, which would make it a Federal crime for oil companies and gas stations to price gouge the American people under cover of President Trump's illegal and misguided war in Iran.

Mr. Speaker, today, the average price of gas across the United States increased to more than $4.50 per gallon. That is up from roughly $3 per gallon a year ago before Trump launched this disastrous war.

What are Republicans doing about this price gouging? Nothing. Not a thing. They don't care if people are struggling to put gas in the tank. When asked just yesterday about the situation, the President said: ``I don't think about Americans' financial situation.'' However, 1 month before the 2024 elections, Donald Trump said: ``within 1 year, you are going to have electric bills and energy bills and gasoline for your cars is going to be 50 percent cheaper than it is right now.'' That is what Trump said. What a crock. What a crock. I need a neck brace for the whiplash here. If my Republican colleagues actually want to address the cost-of-living crisis, they will vote with Democrats to defeat the previous question, which would allow us to vote on legislation to bring down gas prices.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to insert the text of my amendment into the Record, along with extraneous material, immediately prior to the vote on the previous question.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Washington (Ms. Schrier) to discuss our proposal.

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

Mr. Speaker, I am just kind of amazed listening to my colleagues on the other side of the aisle. Republicans fought tooth and nail to get this attached to the farm bill. I mean, they said this was like a huge, huge issue, and now, they are leading the charge to detach it from the farm bill. I mean, I don't get that.

That means that if it gets sent over on its own to the Senate, and it is not going to have an offset, then it is not going anywhere, even if you can pass it in the House.

I mean, it is a complete capitulation by midwestern House Republicans. I mean, it is stunning to me that my friends are caving like this.

This whole E15 debacle is a great example, I think, of just how dysfunctional Congress has become under Republican rule. Year-round E15 was included in a bipartisan, end-of-year spending package back in 2024, a deal that was negotiated by none other than Speaker Johnson. That was 1\1/2\ years ago.

Guess what happened. Elon Musk and President Trump blew up the deal. Musk tweeted about how much he hated the bill over 100 times and, over a 2-day span, threatened to fund primary challenges to anybody who voted for it. Then, later that second day, President Trump came out against the deal.

Fast forward to this January, where Republicans in support of year- round E15 threatened to vote against their own party's agenda until they got an up-or-down vote on their proposal. They said that this issue was existential to the farmers they represent.

Yet, in the end, they caved like they always do, and a deal was cut between midwestern Republicans and the leadership to create an E15 Rural Domestic Energy Council. They didn't get a solution. They got a do-nothing task force.

At the time, Representative Miller-Meeks of Iowa said that the Council was created because Republicans ``failed in our primary duty to deliver immediate relief to rural America.''

The partisan task force failed to produce a bill by the February 15 deadline, breaking another promise. Months later, at the end of April, text mysteriously appeared from some back room in the Capitol.

The text was filed by Representative Fischbach as an amendment to the farm bill. She even tried to sweeten the deal by adding billions of dollars in taxpayer-funded handouts to the oil industry, but that amendment was, once again, blocked by Republican leadership, and it never got a vote.

Instead, Speaker Johnson told one group of Republicans that E15 will get its own vote and be added to the farm bill, while telling a different group of Republicans the exact opposite.

Now, here we are, debating a bill to detach the E15 proposal from the farm bill after just passing a rule that combined the E15 proposal with the farm bill.

I hope my midwestern Republican friends take note. They all got bamboozled. If this rule passes, E15 will be delinked from the farm bill and ignored by the Senate, and they will be back at square one.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

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

Mr. Speaker, a couple of things I will say to my friends who are talking about how important E15 is. Supporting the rule makes it less likely that it is going to become law. I don't understand the way they think.

In any event, the gentlewoman earlier chastised me for talking about other things besides this one-sentence rule. The reason why is because the Republican agenda sucks. It is awful. It doesn't address what real people are dealing with every day.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to include in the Record the Trump administration's own analysis of rising food costs.

Mr. Speaker, the USDA's April 2026 Food Price Outlook makes it clear that prices are not down. They are up. They are way up. Food prices are up 2.7 percent from last year. Restaurant prices are up 3.8 percent. Beef and veal prices are up over 12 percent. In fact, the average cost of a pound of beef is more expensive than the Federal minimum wage. I mean, let that sink in. Veal prices are up. Fresh vegetables are up 7.5 percent. Nonalcoholic beverages are up 4.7 percent. Grocery prices, overall, have gone up around 2 percent.

These are not Democratic talking points. These are the Trump administration's own numbers after 16 months of total Republican control in Washington.

They control the House. They control the Senate. They control the White House. They passed tax breaks for those who are well-off and well-connected, billionaires and millionaires. At the same time, they cut SNAP by $200 billion. I hope they are proud of themselves.

They imposed tariffs. They started the war that is driving up food and gas prices. The price of fertilizer is going through the roof.

All they do is blame Biden, blame Democrats, and blame anyone, while they fail to find any solutions. They promised lower costs. What a crock. Their own USDA says that families are paying more because of their disastrous economic policies.

We are going to continue talking about things that my Republican friends think are extraneous because these are real issues. These are real issues that everyday families are struggling with right now.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

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

Mr. Speaker, again, the gentleman makes a strong case for his position. I don't know if he read the rule or not, but what he is doing with this rule is making it less likely that this will ever become law.

The reason why this was going to be attached to the farm bill is because I think my Republican colleagues understood that that may be a vehicle that was moving but that the Senate would not consider this legislation on its own.

Why is that? Well, according to the Congressional Budget Office, this measure would cost $2.27 billion, billion with a b, and none of this is offset. If this were a program to help feed hungry people or if it were to help people get healthcare, my Republican friends would be quoting CBO left and right, but not in this case.

Some Republicans have a problem with the fact that this is $2.7 billion added to the debt. My friends know that just sent over on its own, it is going nowhere in the Senate.

What we are doing today is Republicans are reversing their position. Again, Republicans insisted and fought to get this so that it would be attached to the farm bill, and now we have a rule that will unattach it to the farm bill. I don't know when the Speaker will bring this up for a vote, but I think everybody is pretty certain that the Senate isn't going to take it up, certainly not adding $2.7 billion to the debt.

I don't understand the way my friends who claim to be champions for the farms in the Midwest--I don't understand why you flip-flopped on this issue, but you can explain that to your farmers.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

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

The gentleman just said the wheels of progress don't always turn quickly. Well, you guys are turning them backwards.

Nobody has explained to me why my Republican friends are leading the charge to undo what they demanded be done in the first place. So this doesn't smell right.

Mr. Speaker, let me just say on another issue that electric bills are up. Gas bills and prices are up. Grocery prices are still too high. Inflation is at the highest rate it has been in 3 years.

And what is the President focused on? He is focused on a ballroom-- get this--a ballroom, a billion-dollar security request tied to his White House makeover. Even some Senate Republicans are saying they need more details. Good. I hope they actually mean what they say. They should because the American people deserve the details, too. They deserve to know why Republicans can always find money for Donald Trump's wide range of vanity projects around D.C. but somehow can't find money to lower the costs for average working families.

Last year, Trump had his big birthday military parades. Tanks were in the streets. Troops were marching through Washington. It was a taxpayer-funded spectacle that the Army said cost tens of millions of dollars for a parade that just happened to fall on Donald Trump's birthday.

Now he has a laundry list of renovation requests. He wants to repaint the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. Meanwhile, preservationists are warning it could permanently damage a historic landmark.

He wants to turn the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool bright blue like a swimming pool in Florida. A Federal contract for that project has been reported in the millions, and preservation groups are suing because they say the administration skipped required historic review.

He wants a UFC fight on the White House lawn with a 4,500-seat arena built on the grounds of the White House. He wants race cars roaring down the streets of Washington in August. He wants a giant triumphal arch near Arlington National Cemetery, a 250-foot monument that veterans and historians are already fighting in court.

He wants to turn humble, public golf courses in D.C. into championship-level resorts while also using some areas as a dumping ground for remnants of his historic East Wing.

Mr. Speaker, none of this is serious or necessary. This is a rich guy decorating national buildings and monuments like they are one of his hotels and sticking taxpayers with the bill: enough money for the parade; enough money for the ballroom; enough for the blue reflecting pool, the UFC cage fight, race cars, the arch, and the golf courses.

I say to my Republican colleagues: Stop funding the vanity tour, and let's get back to work to actually helping hardworking people in this country.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, may I inquire as to the time remaining.

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

Mr. Speaker, let's be honest why we are here. Republican leadership made promises they could not keep, and they are now back here asking the rest of us to help clean up their mess. That is the whole story.

The longer this goes on, the more the American people lose faith not just in this Republican majority--I think they have lost faith in the Republican majority in this Congress--but in the basic idea that Congress can actually solve real problems.

Again, nobody can explain to me why, after defending this program, we are here with the rule to basically make it more likely that this will never materialize. This will go nowhere in the Senate.

Two-thirds of the American people say this country is headed in the wrong direction. And what do House Republicans do?

They gutted healthcare so that billionaires can get another tax giveaway.

They supported Trump's unpopular war, which has killed American servicemembers and driven up costs for everyday families.

Know why gas prices are going up? Look no further than the illegal, risky and reckless war that this President has launched.

Here is what is really frustrating: The majority in this Congress can't even bring itself to have a serious debate and vote on whether or not to authorize the use of military force in Iran. They step away. They don't want to get involved in that debate.

On Trump's ballroom, Republicans want to spend a billion dollars, billion with a b, on his tacky, stupid, vanity ballroom. That is what they would rather do than lower your costs and fight inflation. It is insane, and it is outrageous.

To my midwestern colleagues, again, who care about E15, I hope you got more than a handshake from your leadership, because once this gets separated from the farm bill, lots of luck.

Then what do you say to your farmers? What do you say to the people who you promised that you would fix this?

The bottom line is, we all know what is going on here. Again, the Senate is not going to take up an independent E15 bill. I stand corrected. Earlier I said that it costs $2.2 billion. It is actually $2.27 billion that it adds to the deficit and the debt.

This place is no longer a serious place to get stuff done, to solve problems. The American people are hurting. They are suffering.

I just did a townhall in Massachusetts, and all people wanted to talk about was how everything was more expensive. They were saying: What are you doing about the affordability crisis?

To be honest, the legislation being brought to the floor today by the previous rule and even now is not going to do anything to help lower costs for anybody. That is sad because people are depending on us to help make their lives a little bit better, to help make their lives easier and more manageable.

People are hurting, and my Republican friends are just doing nothing. Legislation that amounts to press releases are now, you know, making it more difficult to pass legislation that my Republican friends say will help their farmers.

This is not the way government should be running.

I close by urging my colleagues to get their act together. I urge my colleagues to vote ``no'' on the previous question, vote ``no'' on the rule, and let's get back to doing the actual work of the American people.

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

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

Mr. Speaker, I demand a recorded vote.

Mr. Speaker, I demand a recorded vote.

Mr. Chairman, I want to remind everybody what is happening. I did this last night, but I feel I have to do it again today.

We are considering on the floor a 5-year farm bill that, quite frankly, does nothing for our farmers, screws over poor people, and maintains the nearly $200 billion in cuts to SNAP. It is going to make hunger worse in this country. It may not matter to my Republican colleagues, but it matters to many of us on this side of the aisle.

I want to remind my friends that hundreds of amendments were offered, including many by Republican Members of Congress, and hundreds of those amendments were blocked by this Republican leadership.

Republican amendments were blocked 70 percent of the time. That should bother everyone on the Republican side. Democratic amendments were blocked 90 percent of the time.

Most of this bill was debated in the middle of the night. I was on the floor at midnight, 1 o'clock in the morning. This is what Republicans do. They

bring important bills to the floor in the middle of the night. They are like vampires. I mean, they are afraid to talk about this stuff in the light of day.

Here we are now wrapping this up at 9:45 a.m., but the majority of this bill was debated when everybody was asleep. This is crazy.

This is a lousy process, and one of the things I have learned in my years here is that crappy processes give way to crappy pieces of legislation. In fact, the way this is written, if anyone bothers to read it, I mean, the word I would use to describe it, I can't use on the House floor because my words would be taken down.

We need to do better here, and this is a chance for my Republican colleagues to stand with us and say ``no.'' Let's do this right. This is a big deal. This is an important bill, and the way it is written, it is insufficient to meet the needs of our farmers, and it is insufficient to deal with the rising hunger crisis in this country.

I mean, for God's sake, let's legislate here, and let's not be afraid to have other people on both sides of the aisle be able to contribute. This is lousy. This is terrible. This process sucks. I am ashamed of what we are doing here today, and I thank the gentlewoman for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Georgia for yielding me the customary 30 minutes, and I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Another week, Mr. Speaker, another chance for this Republican majority to show the American people what they actually care about. Once again, sadly, it is not affordability. It is not lowering prices. It is not the issues that my constituents raise with me at townhalls back home.

For 16 long, long months, Republicans have controlled the House, the Senate, and the White House. Republicans have been running the show for over a year now, and what have they done?

Have they lowered prices? Not grocery prices; those are up. Not gas prices; those are up, too. Not healthcare costs; those are up, too. Not utilities or childcare; those are more expensive than ever.

That is the problem with winning power, Mr. Speaker. At some point, the problems you complain about become your problems, and if you fail to fix them, then that failure is yours. That is where this Republican majority finds itself.

You guys have failed to deliver big time.

Donald Trump promised he would end the war in Ukraine. Not only did he fail to do that, he started a new one in Iran.

Republicans promised they would lower prices on day one. We are now in year 2, and where are prices? They are not down. They are up, way up. Ground beef, vegetables, fruit, sugar, it is all up, according to Trump's own USDA.

Whose fault is it? Democrats did not start the war with Iran that is driving up food and gas prices. Republicans did that. It wasn't Biden who put in place tariffs that are hurting American farmers and jacking up costs. Republicans did that. The left did not give massive tax breaks to billionaires paid for by stealing from the program working families use to buy groceries. Republicans did that.

This administration and Republicans in Congress spent years claiming Democrats drove up prices and promising they would bring them down on day one. They failed. If you want to know why, look no further than the bills on the floor this week.

It is a greatest hits album of MAGA extremism, corporate giveaways, and political theater: a culture war bill targeting trans kids; a budget resolution that moves Heaven and Earth to give even more money to ICE and CBP while FEMA, TSA, and the Coast Guard remain shut down because Speaker Johnson refuses to advance a bipartisan Senate agreement that would pass overwhelmingly if brought to the floor; a FISA bill that lets the government spy on Americans without proper warrant safeguards; and a farm bill that locks in long-term cuts to SNAP, formerly known as food stamps, after Trump's big, ugly bill stole nearly $200 billion from the program in order to give tax breaks to billionaires.

We are talking about a food benefit that gives barely over $6 a day to some of the poorest people in this country, many working multiple jobs and still unable to make ends meet and many others who are seniors, who are veterans, who are children, and Americans with disabilities.

That is the meager benefit you guys cut to give tax breaks to rich people. Give me a break.

Let's not forget the provision in this farm bill that helps chemical companies dump toxic chemicals into our food system, poisoning farmworkers and polluting our air and water. Who the hell asked for that? Was it drafted in the Monsanto boardroom?

Thankfully, a popular bipartisan amendment was made in order by the Committee on Agriculture to fix the provision. While I am glad that we will be able to take a vote on it and see where Members lie on this issue--my hope is that it passes--it still doesn't fix the rest of this awful, terrible bill.

Costs are up. Corruption is up. Chaos is up, and you guys are screwing over poor people. This is beyond outrageous. It is immoral. It is sick. It is wrong.

After huddling in back rooms and arguing among themselves, Republicans are now sending to the floor a year-round E15 bill--get this, Mr. Speaker--that adds billions of dollars to the deficit. They are doing it in a very clever way. Once the E15 bill passes, it gets combined with the farm bill before it gets sent to the Senate.

Where are my Freedom Caucus friends? Do you even know that this provision is in the bill? Do you even know what is going on here? I mean, billions and billions of dollars are being added to the deficit. I thought you cared about the deficit, but apparently you don't. It is a reason to vote against this rule. If you don't know about it, then the leadership of this House pulled a fast one on you.

Since the day Trump took office last year, the national debt has gone up $2.8 trillion. Full Republican control--full Republican control has added nearly $3 trillion to the debt, and now we are

adding billions more with another Republican backroom deal.

I mean, during our Agriculture Committee markup, Chairman Thompson said over and over and over again that we had an obligation to remain budget neutral. He said that that is why we couldn't do anything to address the horrible nutrition cuts, why we couldn't do anything to provide any more support for our farmers, and why we couldn't modernize our conservation programs.

We can't do any of those things, but if it is for war or if it is for tax cuts for the rich or for this E15 bill, Republicans are more than happy to add to the debt.

Gut it. Gut it.

Mr. Speaker, people are struggling. They are working hard, and they are falling behind. If Republicans spent half as much time lowering costs as they spend passing nonbinding resolutions congratulating themselves, maybe we could actually get something done around here, but they can't help themselves.

The billionaires say, jump, and the Speaker asks: How high?

Monsanto says: Bail us out. Republicans ask: How much?

Big Tech, Big Ag, and Big Oil, they all run wild. It is pathetic, Mr. Speaker--pathetic.

The American people were promised lower costs. They were promised a Congress that would fight for them. They were lied to. Instead, they got extremism. They got a majority that wakes up every morning and asks how to make life easier for the rich and powerful. They got an administration and a Congress that covers up for Epstein-elite pedophiles instead of fighting for everyday people. Enough already.

This is an awful rule. It blocks 7 of 10 Republican amendments. It blocks 7 of 10 Republican amendments, 8 out of 10 bipartisan amendments, and 9 out of 10 Democratic amendments. No Member of this House has had an amendment debated on the floor in nearly 100 days. Now that we do, here is what we get.

In case it was not clear yet, Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to vote ``no'' on this rule, and I reserve the balance of my time.

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

Mr. Speaker, first, let me say to my colleague from Georgia: Keep bragging about gas prices and see how that works for you in November.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to include in the Record an article titled: ``U.S. Gas Prices Hit Highest Level Since Beginning of War in Iran.''

Mr. Speaker, I will say to my friend, the distinguished chairwoman of the Rules Committee: We offered amendments because we haven't had a vote on an amendment in nearly 100 days. No Democrat and no Republican has been able to vote on an amendment in nearly 100 days.

Mr. Van Orden, who is sitting there, had two amendments that were blocked. Mr. Neguse offered one of them last night, and every Republican voted against it.

Some of the amendments that we offered, quite frankly, I support. The Biggs amendment on FISA, I support. That was really an interesting display of theater because we had the votes, but one of the Republicans, Mr. Griffith, every time we brought it up, conveniently got up and walked out of the room so he didn't have to cast a vote. We called it up several times, and he kept on walking out of the room. If you want to talk about theater, that really does deserve an Academy Award.

There were a lot of other amendments, quite frankly, that we brought up that I support. By the way, we brought up amendments that I don't support, but just because I don't support them doesn't mean they don't deserve to be debated on the House floor.

That is one of the problems with the Republican leadership right now in Congress. You don't believe that this place is a deliberative body. You believe it is kind of your way or the highway, and it is not just Democrats who are getting locked out.

What is the percentage of Republicans? Republican amendments were blocked 70 percent of the time. Most of them were germane. Some of them weren't even particularly controversial in any way, shape, or form. They were blocked.

Bipartisan amendments were blocked 80 percent of the time. I know you don't care about Democrats, but 90 percent of our amendments were blocked. I mean, 70 percent of your own party were denied amendments in the Rules Committee. Again, it has been nearly 100 days since we have had a debate on any amendment, Republican or Democratic amendment.

Again, if that is how you all want this place to be run, have at it, but I would urge my Republican colleagues to take a stand now. Say ``no'' to this. Say ``no'' to this, and I guarantee you that it will change. Yet, going along to get along has resulted in even Republican Members being denied the right to offer their amendments.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from Minnesota (Ms. Craig), the distinguished ranking member of the Committee on Agriculture who has done an incredible job standing up for our farmers and for the most needy in this country.

Mr. Speaker, I yield an additional 30 seconds to the gentlewoman from Minnesota.

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

I want to say to the gentleman who just spoke, the chairman of the Intelligence Committee, I have great respect for him, but that is a lot of words basically to say that Democrats and Republicans will be denied the right to be able to debate and vote on a warrant requirement.

Madam Speaker, I have already spoken about how terrible the bills in this rule are, but let me just take a minute to talk about how much of a dumpster fire the last 48 hours have been from a process standpoint.

The way this place is being run by your so-called leadership, Madam Speaker, is beyond incompetent. It is pathetic.

We spent all night waiting around while Republicans fought amongst themselves. We were told nearly at midnight on Monday to go home. We were then told Rules would meet at 8 a.m. on Tuesday. We showed up for that meeting only to be told there would be no meeting because Republicans were still busy fighting with each other.

Madam Speaker, you guys had all weekend. Didn't you think to do a Zoom call or something like that with your members to find out where they were? On FISA, this thing has been going on for weeks. Didn't you have a meeting or a phone call or a text thread or something to try to work that out?

Finally, at long last, we convened and reported out a rule, but based on public reporting, it is not clear whether the rule that we are debating right now can pass.

So what the hell are we doing here? I mean, can somebody please, please call the Republican whip and ask his office if they have the votes? Maybe they can ask them if they know how to count. We keep running around in circles here, Madam Speaker, and I will tell you why.

You guys have a tiny, slim majority. Rather than trying to work things out with Democrats, you cut us out of the process. The result is endless chaos, endless incompetence, and endless delay, and everyday Americans are the ones who pay the price.

Here is just one example. Democrats tried to make in order many Republican amendments in the Rules Committee last night. One of them, authored by Representative Biggs, would require a warrant before the government spies on Americans. Last time the amendment came to the floor, it tied. Clearly, this is an important issue with members of both parties on both sides. It is exactly the kind of debate Congress should be having out in the open.

What did Republicans do? Well, there were two Republicans who voted with us to bring the amendment to the floor--again, an amendment to make sure the government can't spy on Americans without warrants. That was what the amendment was. Then, a third Republican, as I mentioned before, kept getting up and leaving the room every time we called the vote. It was really comical.

That is why we won't be having a floor debate, again, on a Republican amendment. That was a Republican amendment we tried to bring to the floor, and it was blocked by a Republican who literally had to get up and leave the room because if he didn't, it would pass. I just wonder who asked him to leave. What an embarrassment to this institution.

For the record, it isn't just one amendment Republicans have blocked here. It is hundreds. Seven out of 10 Republican amendments are blocked. Eight out of 10 bipartisan amendments are blocked. Nine out of 10 Democratic amendments are blocked. Let me repeat that: Nine out of 10 Democratic amendments are blocked in this rule.

Over 50 times in the Rules Committee last night, we asked to simply have an up-or-down vote on these important issues on the floor. Over 50 times, we were blocked.

I understand my ideas won't always prevail and win, but to not even be able to get a vote--I mean, what the hell are Republicans afraid of? Isn't it our job to debate and to vote?

This is an interesting statistic. For the record, we had more amendment votes in the Rules Committee last night than we have had on the House floor this entire year. That is not okay. We call ourselves one of the greatest deliberative bodies of the world, and we aren't deliberating on anything, for God's sake.

Republican leaders are blocking nearly every amendment, and that is what this rule does. It blocks idea after idea after idea from being debated and voted on.

We can't debate more aid for farmers. We can't debate more help for hungry families. We have Republican Members who are publicly threatening to take down this rule because their amendments were blocked, too. I disagree strongly with some of their ideas, and I would vote ``no,'' but they deserve a vote, don't they?

These bills are take it or leave it. The leadership dictates every single letter, every comma. This is no way to run this place. It is no way to run a banana stand. It is pathetic. It is a disgrace. The Speaker and the majority ought to be embarrassed by what is going on here. You are screwing over your own Members.

Madam Speaker, you write bad bills, and you block good ideas. You refuse to work with Democrats in a bipartisan way. You bend over backward to appease the people in your Conference who have no interest in governing.

Madam Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Colorado (Mr. Neguse), a member of the Rules Committee who was there during the entire fiasco in the Rules Committee yesterday, to further expand on what I have been talking about.

Madam Speaker, I yield an additional 1 minute to the gentleman from Colorado.

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

I would remind the gentleman from Wisconsin that he is in the majority party and that 100 percent of his amendments were blocked. I don't know what he did to tick off Mr. Austin Scott of Georgia, but he voted against his amendments in the Rules Committee last night.

By the way, I am somebody who believes that we ought to debate amendments, even the ones that I don't always agree with, because I think this is a place where diversity of opinion and ideas ought to be brought to the floor and ought to be debated.

I am sorry the gentleman doesn't share that passion. I will tell you this: If you vote for this rule, as you just said you would, you can look forward to your future amendments being blocked by the majority in your own party, because that is what they have been doing.

We haven't had a debate on a single amendment on this floor in nearly 100 days. I am not okay with that, and I hope my Republican colleagues are not okay with that, either.

They ought to send a message to your leadership that this bs has to stop now. Individual Members have to be respected, and their ideas need to be brought to the floor.

I will say one final thing on the E15 matter. I think it is a legitimate issue. Our problem with it is that we are told that we can't address the issue of hunger and food insecurity because it adds to the deficit and the debt.

The Republican leadership in here knows that the Office of Management and Budget has said that the E15 provision will cost billions--billions with a b. Rather than offset it, they came up with a clever way to vote on it separately and then merge it with the farm bill at the end and send it to the Senate.

Again, none of this is paid for. What happened to fiscal responsibility? I guess when it comes to helping poor people, everybody on that side is: Oh, we can't do it because we have to be fiscally responsible. On other things, the sky is the limit.

Madam Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Oregon (Ms. Dexter).

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

Madam Speaker, I am sorry that my colleague from Georgia does not believe that we can help both farmers and hungry families, but I do. That is what I am fighting for.

Madam Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Kamlager-Dove).

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

Madam Speaker, if we defeat the previous question, I will offer an amendment to the rule to adopt the Senate amendment to H.R. 7147, the bipartisan compromise bill that the Senate unanimously passed twice now to fund all the law-abiding agencies under the Department of Homeland Security.

Enough is enough. This is the deal to fund the Department of Homeland Security while we discuss changes in ICE and CBP. It is a bipartisan measure. It passed unanimously in the Senate twice.

The situation is so dire now that even the White House has sent a letter urging the House to pass the bill.

I am, once again, giving all Members of this body a chance to do the right thing and to provide a vote on this bipartisan DHS bill. Stop the games. Stop the games.

Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to insert the text of my amendment into the Record along with any extraneous material immediately prior to the vote on the previous question.

I urge all Members to reject this madness and the games my friends are playing on the other side of the aisle and vote ``no'' on the previous question so we can fund, finally, DHS.

Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I just wish the E15 measure was paid for and wasn't going to explode the deficit.

Madam Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentlewoman from New Mexico (Ms. Stansbury).

Madam Speaker, I don't have any more speakers, and I am prepared to close.

Madam Speaker, may I ask how much time I have remaining.

Madam Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, prices are up, debate in this House is down. We are debating culture war nonsense instead of adhering to an affordability agenda. We are giving more money to ICE and CBP that are lawless and that don't need any more money. We are giving more tax breaks to millionaires and billionaires. Farmers are getting screwed over, poor people are getting screwed over, hunger is going up in this country, and enough is enough. Enough is enough.

My friends on the other side do not care.

I will say to my Republican colleagues: If you are tired of getting rolled by your own leadership, then vote ``no'' on this rule. Vote ``no'' on this rule.

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

Mr. Speaker, I demand a recorded vote.

Mr. Chair, it is now nearly 11 o'clock at night. This is nuts. What the hell is wrong with you people? You guys are bringing this farm bill to the floor 3 years late in the middle of the night. It is prime time in Guam, for God's sake.

Republicans spent the whole day fighting with each other. You know what most Americans spent doing today? Working, going to school, taking care of their kids, living their lives, wondering, praying, if this institution might give a damn about their hopes and dreams, their concerns and fears.

What Republicans have shown time and time again is that they don't care. If they did, they would not be bringing this farm bill to the floor, because this bill makes hunger worse. It means more kids go to bed without food, more seniors end up in the ER after taking pills on an empty stomach, and more parents put groceries back on the shelf.

Hunger is a political condition. It is the result of decisions made in this Chamber. Republicans decided in their big, ugly bill to make hunger worse. With this farm bill, they are deciding to keep it worse by locking in massive cuts to food assistance.

Forty-eight million people in this country cannot afford food. As a Congressman and as an American, I am ashamed of that. I am ashamed that in a nation as rich and powerful as ours, the people in charge of this town don't seem to give a damn.

SNAP is food for seniors. It is food for families, food for veterans, and Americans with disabilities. That is the majority of who is on

Mr. Chairman, I have no problem with these amendments en bloc. What I have a problem with is all of the amendments that were blocked by this Republican majority.

Mr. Chairman, 362 amendments were offered to this farm bill by Republicans and Democrats, and 305 of those amendments were blocked. They were

blocked. Bipartisan amendments were blocked 80 percent of the time. Democratic amendments were blocked 92 percent of the time, and Republican amendments were blocked 70 percent of the time.

My Republican friends, I guess, are okay with having the majority leadership block their own amendments. I mean, it is ridiculous. This is an important bill. It is midnight, and we are on the floor debating the farm bill, a 5-year authorization. This is shameful.

To block hundreds of good, legitimate amendments by Democrats and Republicans because, what, you don't want to deal with them, you don't want to debate them, or it is inconvenient to debate more amendments at midnight? That is ridiculous.

The chairman of the committee may be proud of this bill. That is what he says. I am ashamed that we are bringing a bill like this to the floor--a bill of this significance and a bill that, quite frankly, is going to have an adverse impact on my constituents.

Please don't sugarcoat the SNAP cuts. Millions of people have already lost their SNAP benefits, and the worst hasn't even happened yet. We are going to increase hunger in America. That is not going to make America healthy again by making America hungry again.

We can do a hell of a lot better, but blocking hundreds of amendments--Democratic amendments, bipartisan amendments, and Republican amendments--this process stinks.

Again, I urge my colleagues to vote ``no'' on this flawed farm bill. Let's start all over again. Let's do this the right way. Let's debate it in the light of day so the American people know what the hell we are doing here.

Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, I demand a recorded vote.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to call attention to a grave injustice unfolding in Pakistan. Last December, an Ahmadi Muslim educator, Mubarak Ahmad Sani, was sentenced to life in prison; not for violence, not for incitement, but for possessing a Koran.

Mr. Sani was convicted under Pakistan's blasphemy laws. His sentence is a stark reminder of how these laws stifle the ability of religious minorities to study, to pray, and to express themselves freely.

Sadly, Mr. Sani's case is not an anomaly. It reflects a systematic persecution of Ahmadi Muslims who are denied equal citizenship rights in Pakistan. They are prevented from calling themselves Muslims under Pakistan's Constitution, jailed and prosecuted under anti-Ahmadi laws, denied the right to participate freely in elections, and even prevented from burying their dead with dignity.

In Pakistan, discrimination has been given the weight of the law. This has emboldened extremists to target the Ahmadi Muslim community. Extremist groups, most notably a far-right Islamist party known as TLP, have engaged in a coordinated campaign of persecution. They vandalize mosques, form intimidating and violent mobs near community events, and even kill worshippers.

Incidents such as these are reported with disturbing frequency. Those responsible are very rarely held accountable. On the contrary, local authorities often bow to extremist pressure. They fail to prevent or contain violence. Then, to add insult to injury, they detain the victims of the attacks.

This climate of impunity sends a dangerous message: that persecution is permissible and that some lives are less worthy of protection than others.

In recent months, the government has taken steps to crack down on the TLP. Ahmadi Muslim communities have been able to breathe a little bit of a sigh of relief, and that is welcome.

However, human rights are interrelated and interdependent. The right to religious freedom cannot be guaranteed without also guaranteeing the right to freedom of assembly, to freedom of expression, and to equal protection under the law.

That means the Pakistani Government must take serious, sustained steps to address these broader crises. It

must reform or repeal laws that criminalize religious identity, ensure accountability for acts of violence, and uphold the rights of all citizens equally regardless of belief.

Mr. Speaker, the implications of this injustice are global. When a state legitimizes persecution, it weakens the universal principles of human rights and emboldens similar abuses elsewhere.

I urge the U.S. State Department to speak out clearly and forcefully to press the Government of Pakistan to release Mubarak Sani from prison, end its persecution of Ahmadi Muslims, repeal discrimination and discriminatory anti-Ahmadi laws, and uphold its international human rights obligations.

I believe when all is said and done, Mr. Speaker, that if the United States of America stands for anything, we need to stand out loud and foursquare for human rights. I hope we will do so in this case.

Madam Speaker, hunger in America is on the rise. Food prices are through the roof. Half of Americans are struggling to afford groceries in this terrible Trump economy.

Trump and this Republican Congress have prioritized tax breaks for billionaires, illegal wars, and tariffs that have all come at the expense of cheaper goods for the American people.

Now, they are advancing a farm bill next week that locks in their $187 billion cut to SNAP enacted as part of their big, ugly bill in July for the next 5 years. That terrible policy enacted to give tax breaks to billionaires has already stolen basic food benefits from over 2.5 million veterans, seniors, and families with teenagers. Some of the worst provisions haven't even gone into effect yet.

SNAP provides people with about 2 bucks per meal to afford nutritious groceries. That is it. Republicans are decimating this program, making it even more difficult for families to afford food.

Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues who care about making food more affordable for working people to join me in voting ``hell no'' on this disastrous Republican farm bill and not be complicit in increasing hunger in America. For God's sake, let's come together to end hunger now.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Georgia for yielding me the customary 30 minutes. I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, are you kidding me? Who the hell is running this place? A 5-year reauthorization--5 years--and Republicans threw it together on the back of a napkin in the back room in the middle of the night.

There have been real bipartisan discussions about adding civil liberties and safeguards. Some Members support them, and some oppose them. Just about everyone agrees that this is serious stuff, the kind of debate that Congress ought to have in the open. Instead, Republican leadership just jammed us.

Does anybody actually know what the hell is in this thing? It is 11:30 at night. The bill was changed just minutes ago--just minutes ago--and they had to post a corrected version already. That is how sloppy all of this is.

Let me be crystal clear to my colleagues across the aisle. This is too damn important to do it this way, way too important--no hearings, no markups, no real process, no transparency, no time to read it, no time to vet it. Yet, we are told that there are major reforms in this bill. There is no real explanation, no real accountability, and basically no time for anybody to figure out what the hell is going on.

Now, we are all supposed to act like this is normal. Give me a break. We will have to live with this for 5 years. The American people have to live with this for 5 years. Democrats and, quite frankly, a whole lot of Republicans, too, have barely had enough time to read the text, let alone understand any of its implications.

I bumped into a handful of Republicans on the way up here. They asked me: What is going on? What changes have been made? What is in this bill? Your own Members don't know what the hell you are doing.

This mess did not come out of nowhere. Republicans knew for months that the April 20 FISA deadline was coming. They knew they had a vote problem before the Easter recess. Instead of staying here and doing their jobs, or spending the district work period trying to work it out, they kicked the can down the road and made this mess even worse.

Now, everybody can see the chaos. It is out in the open. They barely got a rule out of the Rules Committee. Three Republican Members in the Rules Committee had to skip the vote just so the rule could be reported out. That is how divided this Republican Conference is.

Donald Trump had to jump in and tell Republicans to ``unify'' just to drag this thing forward. That is how pathetic this has all gotten.

We are standing here more than 36 hours after we were supposed to debate this rule--36 hours--with a bill dumped on the House and the American public in the middle of the night as the deadline looms.

I have to tell you that this is not leadership. This is not legislating. This is not governing. This is not a functioning majority. This is a disaster. This is incompetence. This is incompetence.

After all the chaos and all the delays and all the backroom dealing, we are still left with the same question: What the hell is going on here?

Mr. Speaker, this process is embarrassing. This majority is incompetent.

If this is how Republicans handle something as serious as national security surveillance, then they have no business being in charge.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

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

Mr. Speaker, with all due respect to the chairwoman of the Rules Committee, this process stinks. She thanks all of her colleagues for coming together to try to work out this deal. As far as I can tell, it is a handful of people in a back room somewhere who put this together. Some of this is handwritten. This was not the result of everybody participating in an open and transparent process. This is a backroom deal.

It is 11:40, and people are going to see this for the very first time. Some of us, myself included, were hoping that we would have a serious warrant requirement in section 702. I talked to a lot of my very conservative Republican colleagues, and they agree with me that that was something that they thought was important.

This so-called warrant requirement in this draft that you just gave us has nothing to do with section 702. It is already the law that if the FBI has probable cause, they can go to court and seek a warrant.

What we are trying to solve is a different problem. Section 702 takes in a massive amount of U.S. person information, and nothing in this bill stops the government from searching it or requires them to go to a judge.

The gentleman from Georgia, who the chairwoman says knows everything about everything, let me ask: Is there anything new in this bill that requires a warrant to query U.S. persons in section 702?

That is a question.

Mr. Speaker, I am happy to yield for an answer.

Let me answer it since I am not getting an answer from the people in charge. The answer is no. The answer is no.

If anybody here is voting for this because they think that this issue has been resolved, please know it hasn't. If you vote for it, you are a cheap date because it doesn't solve the problem that we have had many discussions about.

We found this out in the 50 minutes that we had to read the text. Again, we just got this bill. Who knows what else we will find in a day or a week when experts have a chance to analyze it? Again, this is an important matter.

The privacy of American citizens is an important matter. The national security of our country is an important matter, and you are just piecing this together in a couple of minutes and saying: Take it. Trust us. We just pieced this together in a back room, just take it.

Well, we are not. This is a lousy process. This reflects the incompetence of the leadership of this House. It is a disgrace.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I thought the gentleman was going to answer my question.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 6 minutes to the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Raskin), the distinguished ranking member of the Committee on the Judiciary.

Mr. Speaker, I yield an additional 2 minutes to the gentleman from Maryland.

Will the gentleman yield? Because that is already in the law.

It is.

It is.

It is.

Mr. Speaker, this is all so damned frustrating because, basically, what the gentleman has done is kind of restated current law. The big reform that he is bragging about is that the administration has to report something to the administration. I mean, give me a break.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Raskin).

Mr. Speaker, may I inquire of the gentleman how many other people on his side want to restate current law.

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

Mr. Speaker, it is no accident that at midnight we are debating this. This is intentional. Again, this bill was kind of pieced together in a back room somewhere here in the Capitol Building with a handful of people. Here we are, and no one knows what the hell is in it.

I mean, the gentleman from Georgia is basically reading talking points that, quite frankly, are a restatement of current law that don't address any of the issues that many of us had with this legislation that we were trying to work out in a bipartisan way. We have been debating some of these issues for years.

When the gentleman says that his side has been working in good faith with us, this is good faith? We just got the text of this minutes ago. We were told to be on the floor at 11:30, and let's begin this debate with major changes in the text.

That is good faith? Boy, you and I have a different idea of what good faith is. I think good faith was some of the conversations that were ongoing leading up to this moment. You tossed that out the window like it doesn't matter.

Again, this process stinks. This is not the way you should be bringing important legislation to the floor.

Let me just say to my friends on the Freedom Caucus: I don't know. You know, I disagree with you on most things, but every once in a while, we find areas of agreement, oftentimes on issues of privacy protection and protecting and upholding civil liberties.

I appreciate when we can come together on that. I thought that that is what we were doing. That is what we were trying to get to. I am looking for some of my Freedom Caucus friends to defend this, so maybe there is something here that I don't see, but they are not here defending this.

The bottom line is there is nothing new in here to protect people in section 702. There is no warrant requirement that you need to go get a warrant from a judge in section 702. That is what we were asking for. That is what we were fighting for. That is not in this. Don't try to sell a bill of goods that somehow this legislation does something it does not. It fails in that regard. It fails in that regard.

You control everything, so you can bring bills up at midnight and have these debates and say whatever you want to say, but you should be ashamed of this process.

Again, this is not a sense of Congress resolution. This is an important matter. It is important not just for our national security, it is important for the privacy of American citizens to make sure that information gathered on them is not misused.

Unfortunately, most of the American public at this point is asleep, so they are not even paying attention to any of the things that we are saying here today because, again, it is midnight when you are bringing this up.

I would just close by saying this is a lousy way to run a Congress. My friends on the other side of the aisle who are trying to defend the indefensible, quite frankly, should be ashamed of themselves. People should vote against this rule, certainly. This is not the way we should bring legislation to the floor, and they should vote against the underlying bill.

Every time I think I can't get more disappointed with the way Republicans are running this place, you come out with something like this. Again, the gall and the incompetence is stunning. Again, shame on my Republican friends.

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

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

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

Mr. Speaker, I demand a recorded vote.

Mr. Speaker, school breakfasts and lunches are often the most nutritious meal a student eats in a day. That is why so many districts across the country are offering tastier, healthier meals.

With our incredible Democratic Whip Katherine Clark, I visited one such school in Watertown, Massachusetts, as part of my statewide End Hunger Now tour.

We were treated to a tour of the Hosmer Elementary School by two bright second graders and enjoyed a delicious salad for lunch, featuring lettuce grown down the street by the students at Watertown's very own freight farm.

The enthusiasm of the students about their locally grown, nutritious school meals was infectious.

Mr. Speaker, this Congress can help make sure that every single district across the country has first-class school meal programs. We must pass my bill, the Healthy Meals Help Kids Learn Act, to increase funding for school meal programs.

We must also reverse the devastating Trump administration cuts to local and school food programs that improve access to nutritious food.

Together, we can improve nutrition, improve learning outcomes, and end hunger now.