Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, I was unable to vote on the following vote series. Had I been present, I would have voted YEA on Roll Call No 153, and YEA on Roll Call No 154.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Texas. What a great career he has had in public service. He has truly been an inspiration and a leader among his equals here in the people's House on healthcare issues. He was the founder of the Doctors Caucus. He was the Health Subcommittee chair at the Energy and Commerce Committee and the chair of the Health Care Task Force on the Budget Committee. There is nobody in this Chamber, and I would submit in the United States Congress, who knows more about healthcare and who has endeavored more over the years to make healthcare work.

Mr. Speaker, I thank my Democratic colleagues, Ms. Omar and Ms. DeGette. This is proof that we can work together in good faith, find common ground and consensus solutions to make this country and its government work for the people.

I thank Ms. DeGette for her kind words. We have young people in the gallery who got to hear something they don't often hear on cable news, which is a colleague from one side of the aisle complimenting another. What great decorum. What a great example of civil discourse in their Nation's Capitol. They need to see more of it.

I am grateful that we have an opportunity to address the triple aim in healthcare that often is underutilized because of simply the way we score it.

Healthcare innovation and technology can improve access and quality outcomes while bending the curve on costs, not just to our patients and to our fellow Americans, but also to the taxpayers. Healthcare is a third of the budget. It is a big driver of our debt, and we have got to look for commonsense solutions to improve across the board these important outcomes. Again, I thank Ms. Omar and Ms. DeGette for their leadership.

To my friend from the great State of Texas, what a legacy. We named this bill after Dr. Burgess. He was loath to allow that, but it is appropriate because of all that he has done to leave this country better than he found it. This no doubt will have a tremendous impact for the future. May God bless my friend, and Godspeed.

Mr. Speaker, I was not able to vote on H.R. 4723. Had I been present, I would have voted ``yea'' on rollcall No. 87.

Madam Speaker, last week, the President stood in this Chamber and declared the state of the Union is good and that our lives are better.

For the sake of our country, I wish that were so, but, unfortunately, we know it couldn't be further from the truth.

After 3 years of one self-inflicted disaster after another--border, crime spree, cost-of-living crisis, a more destabilized and dangerous world because of the weakness, the weak posture, the feckless foreign policies--we are supposed to believe somehow that life is better in America.

President Biden wasn't able to suspend reality even in a State of the Union speech. Why? Because the American people know better. They know

that under the reckless spending and failed policies of this President, their country has become weaker and more vulnerable, both at home and abroad.

Madam Speaker, if you think that the State of the Union speech was disconnected from reality and the needs of the American people, read his budget. He just introduced it yesterday.

In the midst of record spending-induced inflation, interest rates, and the cost of living that is crushing working families, and a fragile and uncertain economic future for the American people, and the slide toward socialism, the slide toward a sovereign debt crisis, here is his answer:

Double down on the borrowing and the spending and the taxing.

In fact, his budget proposes the highest sustained levels of spending, borrowing, and taxing in the history of the United States of America.

Adding $16 trillion to the debt over 10 years, $5 trillion from hardworking tax-paying Americans to attempt to pay for it, taxes on energy and agriculture producers, taxes on working families, taxes on our job creators who are competing not just here at home but in the international marketplace.

Then he expands mandatory spending. Understand that we have 75 percent of our budget on auto-spend. That is the driver of the debt. If we don't rein in mandatory spending and grow this economy, we will never get out of this dangerous and unsustainable fiscal path that will end with irreparable harm to this country, that will end with our children being robbed of their freedom and their opportunities.

It will upend the Republic and our leadership in the world. The whole world order will change, and China won't have to fire a single shot. Madam Speaker, he expands mandatory spending because he wants more climate subsidies and clean energy, green energy tax giveaways to corporations. It is more cradle-to-grave welfare without work, trapping more people in dependence on government and generations in poverty.

This is his vision for America.

One thing that is not in there is any consideration for this current fragile economy or our children's future.

Madam Speaker, I am concerned as the budget chairman of the United States House Budget Committee. I am concerned as a family man with three children, who are hoping to have the American experience that we have had.

Madam Speaker, the Republicans put forward their budget, their blueprint, that would put this Nation on a path to balance. Instead of adding the $16 trillion in debt over 10 years, we take that debt away. We reduce trillions of dollars in debt, we reduce our debt-to-GDP which, by the way, is the highest indebtedness in the history of our country, surpassing World War II when we were fighting Imperial Japan and Nazi Germany. We are in relative peace and prosperity, and we have higher indebtedness than we did in World War II, and it is going to get exponentially worse.

Today, our debt is 25 percent higher than the total economic output of the greatest and biggest and most robust economy in the world. It will be twice that in 30 years--$120 trillion on top of the $34 trillion debt that we are in now.

Now, if you can look at those CBO projections, if you can look at the unfunded liabilities 30 years in the future and not shudder to your core for the future of your country, then you are not reading from the same documents I am reading from.

Madam Speaker, look at the contrast between Biden's budget and the Republican budget. He says, show me your budget, I will show you your priorities. Look at his priorities and look at ours. I think you will understand that we choose economic freedom and fiscal responsibility and a bright future for our children.

God bless America and go west Texas.

Mr. Speaker, I thank our fearless leader and the good gentleman from Tennessee for yielding time.

Just a comment about this not being an invasion: No honest or objective American, from sea to shining sea, could characterize what is happening at our southern border in any way other than an invasion, and it is destroying our country.

It is because of willful neglect. It is because of dereliction of duty. It is because of the faithlessness to this Constitution and its first job: to provide a common defense.

I thank Chairman Green for restoring the dignity and integrity of the impeachment process. I think it is important that we are careful and that we make the fullness of due process an important feature, restoring what has happened over the last two impeachments.

This is a yearlong process, and I appreciate his fidelity to the Constitution and the integrity of this institution.

The bottom line, Mr. Speaker: I believe that the Impeachment Clause in the Constitution, according to our Founders, was to give remedy for this very circumstance, to remove someone who had violated their public trust in a way that resulted in serious and systemic injury to society.

I thank Chairman Green, again, for his leadership. I stand with him. This is the right and responsible thing to do in faithfulness to the Constitution, in the protection of the American people, and in defense of the sovereignty of the greatest Nation in human history.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Kansas who represents a district that may be the second largest production ag district only to west Texas, the food, fuel, and fiber capital of the world.

In all seriousness, spending is out of control like never before in this country. Our debt is unsustainable, which is an understatement, maybe the biggest one of the night, and America's fiscal health is in rapid decline.

What is the formula? Reverse Biden's spending spree, right-size this bloated and weaponized bureaucracy, rein in mandatory spending, reform entitlements, root out all of this trillions in waste and fraud, and then return to progrowth, prowork, proenergy policies.

That last piece is critical. In order for us to bring this indebtedness in this great country of ours--it has surpassed World War II as the highest levels of indebtedness in the history of our country. We have to have growth. Growth is essential not only to reining

in deficits. It generates more revenue for the country and reduces spending by giving Americans better-paying jobs and allowing people to save and invest more of their hard-earned money.

CBO projects over the next 10 years we will have a paltry 2 percent economic growth. If we grow 1 more percent, we can help bring the deficit down by $3 trillion. We need $16 trillion, Mr. Speaker, in order to balance the budget, so growth will play a critical role.

In 2017, Republicans and President Trump passed tax reform. After that, we saw unprecedented, record investment in R&D, capital investment, growth, job creation, lowest unemployment, lowest poverty rates, lifting 6 million people out of poverty in this country. It had tremendous value to the country as a whole. All boats rose on the tide of prosperity.

In fact, the CBO projected that we would only grow the revenue from the tax cuts by $327 billion in 2021, the year after, and the revenues actually grew by tens of billions more. The following year, 2022, the CBO projected $353 billion. They were off by $100 billion. We got record revenue.

One of the biggest progrowth provisions in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act was 100 percent business expensing. We need to give businesses the certainty to make the investment, supercharge America's competitiveness, and create more things in this country instead of depending on other countries for important products, making sure that we stave off what is projected to be a sustained recession if not stagnation.

We can do this, address inflation, save this country from a debt crisis, and reverse the curse of these failed economic policies and this unbridled spending. We can do it in part with progrowth, prowork, and proenergy policies.

I am proud to work alongside my friend from Kansas, a true leader on the Budget Committee, on the Ways and Means Committee, and on all things progrowth and making America the most powerful, most prosperous Nation in the world. I thank Mr. Estes for his leadership.

Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman from New Jersey for yielding, and I am thrilled to, once again, join forces with my close friend, ally, and champion for rural America, Henry Cuellar, to do some good not only for Texas or for the food, fuel, and fiber capital of the world, which is west Texas, but to provide energy dominance and agriculture security and independence for this great Nation of ours. That is no small thing for the hardworking, God- fearing, freedom-loving people in rural America.

Madam Speaker, I am not just talking about west Texas, where Henry and I are from; I am saying all up and down the backbone of the United States of America and heartland communities all the way from the largest inland port in Laredo, as the gentleman mentioned, to the Canadian border.

The ag and energy corridor is critical for our food security and energy independence, and it will more seamlessly and cost effectively and safely move that critical product to export terminals and markets around the world, giving our farmers, ranchers, and energy producers a much-needed advantage.

Mr. Cuellar and I worked together on many of the elements that I see as essential to the future prosperity of rural America. I always say, rural America is not just the energy basin and breadbasket, it is the backbone of America's traditional values.

Madam Speaker, again, I thank Mr. Cuellar for being such a loud and proud champion for these forgotten men and women. The formula is straightforward; namely, we need freer markets, less taxes and regulations. We need fairer trade deals for our producers and manufacturers.

Mr. Cuellar and I worked hand in hand on USMCA; a much better deal for these United States of America and especially the workers here, the best workers in the world here in the United States. It is a reliable farm bill safety net which we are working on. We have to get the next farm bill done so that we can provide stability in the ag economy and then, finally, critical infrastructure.

Mr. Cuellar and I have worked on new payment models for rural hospitals that provided greater access for these hardworking folks. Now we have got this artery from Laredo through my hometown of Plainview.

I grew up, Madam Speaker, not even a mile from I-27. To think that this project has come to fruition, at least on the Texas and New Mexico side, if we can connect those dots all the way to Canada, I think we are going to bless generations of not only folks in Laredo and the greater west Texas area, but we are going to bless Americans all over this country.

We have the lowest spend in terms of discretionary spending for families on food and a big part of that is our producers, but another piece is critical infrastructure.

Madam Speaker, I say hats off to Henry Cuellar, my Democrat co-lead. I thank Senators Cruz and Cornyn, the leads in the Senate. I also thank August Pfluger, Ronny Jackson, Teresa Fernandez, Troy Nehls, Lance Gooden, and then, of course, the folks from Ports-to-Plains led by John Osborne and James Beauchamp from Midland-Odessa who leads MOTRAN. We have a lot of partners here to make this a success, but what a great day for rural America.

Madam Speaker, in closing I just say, God bless my partner and friend, Henry Cuellar, and God bless those freedom-loving people working hard to feed and clothe the American people in rural America.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to celebrate and honor the life of my dear friend and a giant of a west Texan, Delbert McDougal, who passed away last week after 86 years of unwavering devotion to God, his family, and the Lubbock community.

Delbert was born and raised in Hockley County, USA, where he learned at a young age the importance of hard work by chopping weeds in a cotton patch for 45 cents an hour.

He met his wife, Carolyn, in 1954. Together, they started their family and began working to transform our community with countless real estate endeavors, including the largest privately financed urban renewal project in America.

The citizens of Lubbock enjoy a better quality of life and have a brighter future because of Delbert McDougal's big vision, his bold leadership, and his boundless love for all things west Texas.

God blessed west Texas with that great man, Delbert McDougal, and I pray that He will comfort the McDougal family in the days to come.

Go west Texas.

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

Mr. Chair, I rise to encourage my colleagues to support my amendment to the appropriations for the Department of the Interior to prohibit any funds from being used to finalize President Biden's proposed rule which would list two species of mussels in the Rio Grande River as ``endangered'' and their habitat as ``critical.''

Unfortunately, it appears to me that our President cares more about the Mexican mussel and protecting this critical habitat than protecting the American people against violent Mexican drug cartels who he has ceded control of our border to.

The only critical habitat that is endangered along the Rio Grande--I can say this as a Texan who has been there multiple times--are the people in the communities living alongside the Rio Grande because of the deluge of people, crime, and drugs pouring into our communities not only in Texas but throughout the country.

It is clear and evident to everyone in this country that our President has failed in his first and most important job, to provide for the common defense, to enforce the laws of the land, and to secure our sovereign border.

Eight million people have crossed our border illegally. Just in this past year, almost 3.5 million, a record. Last month, 270,000, a record. Record drug flow. Record migrant deaths. Record abuses and humanitarian crimes.

Title 8 of the U.S. Code says that no citizen can induce someone to break the law and they cannot harbor lawbreakers, but that is exactly what is going on. In title 8 of the Federal code, they call it aiding and abetting criminals. That is what our Federal Government, under our Commander in Chief and CEO, President Biden, is sanctioning and legitimizing.

Thankfully, there is a section in the Constitution, Article I, Section 10, that affirms that States have the sovereign right of self- defense. When there is an invasion or States experience imminent danger such that will not permit delay, they have the sovereign right to protect themselves.

Here is the deal. President Biden isn't only abdicating his first and most important responsibility as President and Commander in Chief, he is infringing on States like Texas and their right to defend themselves and their citizens.

This is the case with this Mexican mussel. He is harassing our Governor and State leaders as they desperately try to do what he has failed to do, and that is secure our sovereign border and protect the citizens of Texas.

Mr. President, if you want to protect mussels in the Rio Grande River, stop illegal crossings, not the buoys in the States that are desperately trying to protect their citizens.

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

Mr. Chair, I ask unanimous consent to reclaim the balance of my time.

Mr. Chair, I find it rich with irony that the President decides, in this administration, after Governor Abbott and our State leaders--in a desperate attempt to protect their citizens and our sovereign border as a result of the failure and abdication of border security, which is a national security issue and a responsibility of our Federal Government--put out these buoy barriers to prevent people from taking the dangerous trek across the river and to uphold the law of the land.

Here comes our President, who I think--and I hate to impugn such bad motives to our President, but I think he is more concerned about appeasing the open border left than he actually is about the Mexican mussel, quite frankly. He didn't care that there were millions of people crossing the border illegally, trampling this very ``critical habitat'' of the Mexican mussel.

Never once was that an issue for the Secretary of the Interior or this administration until Texans decided to stand up and fight for the safety of their citizens and to again honor and uphold the rule of law and our sovereignty as a State.

That is an indication that maybe this President isn't quite concerned about critical habitat.

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

Mr. Speaker, policies have consequences. Over the last 2 years, we have seen a string of self-inflicted crises because of the policies of my Democratic colleagues and this President.

Let me give you examples: $11 trillion over 2 years from my Democratic colleagues, $6 trillion of which went to the national debt, all of which lit the fuse on this inflation firestorm, this cost-of- living crisis that is punishing working families from coast to coast. We have to stop the spending that is bankrupting this great country of ours.

This President's dereliction of duty to uphold the laws of the land, his failure to provide for a common defense, to defend our sovereign borders, and to put the safety and security of the American people first has created an unmitigated and unprecedented crisis at the border, where we are being flooded with criminal activity and drugs that are killing people--300 a day, the leading cause of death in the United States.

We have a plan, and my Democratic colleagues are going to have to respond to that. We are going to fund the government and keep it open, but we are going to give you measures to secure the border and prioritize the safety of the American people and reduce spending. We are going to save this country and our children's future while we are at it because that is the responsible thing to do not only for our country and the citizens of our country but for future generations of Americans who will inherit the whirlwind if we don't start reining in this wasteful Washington spending.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the Republican funding bill, and I ask my colleagues to do the same.

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

Mr. Chair, I rise to offer an amendment to this appropriations for Homeland Security where we would include H. Res. 50, which affirms every sovereign State's right to self-defense.

In the face of this unprecedented and unmitigated humanitarian and security crisis, States do not have to be a passive victim of a failed Federal Government.

The Federal Government has failed because our Commander in Chief has failed to do his first and most important job, provide for the common defense. He has also failed to uphold the laws of the land. In fact, title 8 of the U.S. Code says that no other citizen can induce people to break the law, says that you can't harbor people who have broken the law. In fact, it goes on to say that if you are doing that, you are aiding and abetting lawbreaking.

I believe this administration has aided and abetted what I believe is an invasion by drug cartels pushing their poison into our country, my State, and our communities, killing our family and friends at hundreds per day. It is the leading cause of death in this country.

We have a President and a Homeland Security Secretary with the audacity to say that this border is under operational control of the Department of Homeland Security of these great United States.

Baloney. Nobody believes it.

I just got back from Eagle Pass. The chaos and lawlessness have never burned hotter. The people of those border towns have never felt more abandoned.

It is shameful that a country as great as the United States of America would surrender control of our border to paramilitary terrorist cartels.

Here is the good news. Here is the saving grace for Texas and every State in this country. They have the constitutional power of self- defense, and it is explicit and crystal clear in the Constitution.

The Federal Government didn't create the States. The sovereign States created the Federal Government. They made darn sure that in a situation like this, when the Federal Government failed in its obligation to repel an invasion, they would maintain the authority to defend their border and their citizens from this chaos and the criminal elements that are just deluging our great Lone Star State.

Article IV, Section 4, is the obligation of the Federal Government to repel an invasion for each and every State. Article I, Section 10, is clear: If there is an actual invasion or there is imminent danger such that will not permit delay.

Now, I want my Democrat colleagues to explain to me why the current conditions at the southern border, on account of this administration's failures, is not imminent danger to the citizens of Texas such that will not permit delay.

I stand with Governor Abbott and State leaders all along the southern border and everywhere in this country. Stand up, fill the gap, enforce the laws, deport, detain, secure the border, and for God's sake, protect the citizens of Texas and all the good people of this country and restore law and order.

We welcome the immigrant who wants a better life. We welcome the immigrant who wants a better future for their family, but we will only welcome those who respect our laws, our sovereignty, and the safety of the American people.

That is where I stand, Mr. Chair, and I can do no other, say no other. I am going to stand on that until we get a change up here in Washington or we have all resources deployed to do the job the Federal Government just apparently will not do on account, I believe, of a President who would rather placate and appease a fringe group in his party than prioritize the safety of the American people.

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

Mr. Chair, may I inquire as to how much time is remaining.

Mr. Chair, I love Henry Cuellar, and I couldn't disagree more. More is said than done in this town. Ain't nothing getting done on the border.

Texas, do your job. The Constitution is behind you, and so am I. God bless, and go, West Texas.

I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to the Biden administration's listing of the lesser prairie-chicken, and I rise in support of the prairie people in rural America who provide the food, fuel, and fiber for this great Nation.

Mr. Speaker, we wouldn't have the luxury of energy independence or food security if it wasn't for the hardworking, God-fearing, freedom- loving people in rural America. This CRA would put some common sense into this matter of conserving our natural resources.

By the way, no one conserves natural resources better than those who make a living off of the natural resources, so our ag and energy producers are our best stewards. As such, when they did their voluntary public-private partnership program of conservation for the lesser prairie-chicken, the lesser prairie-chicken increased 50 percent.

It is actually hard to even say this without laughing because we are talking about the lesser prairie-chicken, which has expanded under their voluntary efforts, and we are talking about a threat to American energy independence.

This isn't about the lesser prairie-chicken. This is about political chickens who pander to the left's extreme climate agenda. As a result, we are compromising not only our economic strength and our national security but America's leadership in the world. This is insane.

By the way, examples of this abound. It is not just the prairie- chicken. It is canceling pipelines, a moratorium on oil and gas leases on public lands, the signing of the Paris climate agreement, giving China and Russia a pass, delaying 4,800 drilling permits, depleting the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, and other more covert actions by the SEC and the ESG that run amok throughout every appendage of this Federal Government because it is a whole-of-government assault on the oil and gas industry, our fossil fuels, and our energy producers who have blessed this great Nation of ours.

My God, I cannot believe that we are having this debate, Mr. Speaker, but I appeal to the common sense of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to do what is best for our country and not put the lesser prairie-chicken over the prairie people who bless this great land.

Mr. Chair, I am grateful to my appropriator colleagues for rightsizing the bureaucracy and reining in the wasteful and unnecessary spending after this government grew 40 percent during COVID. The taxpayers deserve fiduciaries who spend their money like it was our money. That is really the prevailing philosophy we should all embrace. I, again, commend the appropriators for the painstaking efforts to rein this in.

I support the bill, but I highlight in an amendment one of the most egregious and largest wasteful spending categories, and that is improper payments. The Federal Government wastefully and fraudulently spends taxpayer money at an alarming rate. In 2021, it was almost $300 billion. Last year, it was $245 billion.

Mr. Chairman, that is money you could spend on a soldier or a sailor or on a safety net or infrastructure. It is going nowhere. It is larger than the Departments of Energy, Commerce, and Justice. It is a third of our defense spending.

The VA is not the only problem. It is pervasive. At the VA, there is a long-term care category that has an improper payment rate of 47 percent. Think about that. Almost 50 cents on every dollar is wasted in this program. It is unconscionable, Mr. Chairman.

If you look across the board, the earned income tax credit, 30 cents on every dollar wasted, $18 billion. The Medicaid program wasted $80 billion last year. The child tax credit wasted $5 billion. The list goes on. If we are going to rein in spending, if we are going to save the country from a debt crisis, we have got to get our fiscal house in order and focus on improper payments. It is not right.

Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that further consideration of the veto message and the joint resolution, H.J. Res. 45, be postponed until the legislative day of June 21, 2023.

Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that when the House adjourns today, it adjourn to meet at 9 a.m. on Friday, June 9, 2023; and further, when the House adjourns on that day, it adjourn to meet on Monday, June 12, 2023, when it shall convene at noon for morning-hour debate and 2 p.m. for legislative business.