Jefferson Van Drew

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of this bill.

This is not about crime. It is about control. Once you can flag a purchase, any purchase, you can flag a person. Once you can flag a person, you can control what they buy, what banks they use, and even what they believe. It is wrong. It is un-American.

This bill is not just about guns. It is about the precedent that was set. If we allow financial institutions to become the surveillance arm of one party's political agenda today, there will be no limit to what gets flagged tomorrow.

Let me be clear: Buying a firearm is not extremism; buying a Bible is not extremism; reading the news you choose and want to read is not extremism; exercising a constitutional right is not extremism.

The extreme position is using America's banks to build a permanent list to track who people worship, what they read, and what constitutional rights they happen to choose to exercise.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to vote for privacy, freedom, and the Constitution of the United States of America.

Mr. Speaker, let us be clear about what is happening right now. The United States is confronting a regime that has spent decades chanting ``Death to America;'' a regime whose proxies like Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Houthis, just to name a few, have been responsible for the deaths of hundreds and hundreds of American troops; a regime that is working relentlessly toward a nuclear weapon.

A nuclear-armed Iran would not just threaten the Middle East. It would threaten the entire world and, yes, civilization as we know it.

Now, at the very moment when decisive action is being taken to dismantle a threat, this resolution would tie the hands of the President of the United States. Congress should not allow this to happen. Congress cannot allow this to happen.

Decisive action against the Iranian regime is about protecting America and about protecting Americans. It is about protecting our troops stationed across the Middle East. It is about protecting our citizens abroad and our allies in the region.

Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon.

For too long, the Iranian regime has acted with impunity as it murders its own people, tortures its own people, and destroys its own people. There is simply no justification for allowing this regime and its leaders to continue to exist.

America will not wait to be hit first and will not gamble with American lives. America will not allow the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism to obtain the most dangerous weapon on the face of the Earth.

For that reason, I urge my colleagues to vote ``no'' on this resolution.

Mr. Speaker, how is this even a serious debate? Think about what my colleagues on the other side are saying today.

They are saying that American minorities are not capable of showing an ID to vote. It is an insult. It is abusive. In reality, 76 percent of Black Americans support voter ID in poll after poll, and 82 percent of Latino Americans support voter ID in poll after poll.

What the left is saying is that they don't trust the American people to prove who they really are. Americans show an ID to board a plane. Americans show an ID to drive a car. Americans show an ID to open a bank account. Americans show an ID to enter Federal buildings and for a host of other reasons.

Of course we should expect it for American elections. It doesn't silence voters. It empowers voters. It only ensures that Americans are voting in American elections. For God's sake, why would anybody be opposed to that? Think about it.