Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, the United States is a nation of laws, not mob rule. Whoever leaked a draft opinion of Dobbs v. Jackson broke the law and did great damage to the integrity of our judicial institutions.

In the 5 weeks following the leak, protesters have taken to the streets of Justices' homes to intimidate and harass them for fulfilling their constitutional duty to interpret the law, and even one deranged individual plotted to assassinate Justice Kavanaugh.

Because of this, I am dumbfounded by the Speaker's refusal on three separate occasions to allow a vote to provide protections for the Justices and their families.

Finally, more than 1 month after the Senate passed the bill by unanimous consent, we were able to hold a vote today. It took way too long, but, thankfully, it wasn't too late.

Madam Speaker, last week the Wall Street Journal reported that a whistleblower employee at Abbott Nutrition filed a complaint with the FDA in February of last year, months before the originally reported date of October. If true, President Biden and his FDA must answer for why they ignored these alarming claims.

Parents in middle Tennessee are struggling to find baby formula as the out-of-stock rate has skyrocketed to 92 percent.

Ultimately, this is just another crisis that has been made much worse by the Biden administration, about which one White House official on the Domestic Policy Council gave the excuse that the administration's plate was full with ``a million crises going on.''

Unfortunately, President Biden's failed far-left agenda caused the million crises. Those many crises very well may have distracted his administration from initially taking the baby formula shortage seriously, as well as contributed to the administration's inexcusably slow reaction to the crisis, allowing it to get much worse than it should have.

We must get to the bottom of this failure and hold those accountable responsible, but in any case, the President must do better.

Madam Speaker, as the Biden inflation worsens and Americans are forced to choose between buying groceries or filling their gas tanks, Democrats will hold a prime time, Hollywood-produced sham hearing of their unconstitutional Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack.

Most Americans won't watch. In fact, America's most-watched news source, FOX News, won't even be covering the hearing live. That won't stop Democrats from trying to pull out all the stops to do whatever they can to distract the American people from their inability to effectively govern.

They have even hired a slick ABC News producer to produce the hearing to ensure their spectacle is ready for prime time.

I hope, come November, when folks head to the polls they remember Democrats decided to put politics first instead of focusing on the real-life issues we all face today. It is truly a shame.

Madam Speaker, in late April and early May when parents and Republicans in Congress began to sound the alarm about the unacceptable scarcity of baby formula, I thought to myself, Well, this is just another example of the compounding effect of the bad policies of the Biden administration.

But at the time, the facts had not come to light that the crisis is yet another direct result of the mismanagement and misguided Biden Presidency; a President focused on a woke, progressive agenda, while the basic functions of government are neglected or mismanaged.

The most critical fact that has come to light is that Abbott Nutrition's Sturgis plant supplied about one-fifth, 20 percent, of all infant formula in the United States before it closed. Furthermore, the company makes the majority of the formula for infants in the

Women, Infants, and Children program. That is more than 43 percent of babies in the United States. It is unfathomable that a facility this critical to the lives of our Nation's newborns can somehow slip through the cracks.

As of this past weekend, I am glad to see that the Sturgis plant is making formula again, but it could take a couple of months for supply to hit store shelves. Currently, the Nation's current out-of-stock rate is 74 percent. In Tennessee, it is 92 percent. This is indeed a worst- case scenario for parents and their vulnerable infant children.

How did we get here? Let's go through the timeline.

In September of 2019, inspectors found a handful of sanitary issues with the plant in Sturgis but allowed managers to continue operating while they implemented necessary changes.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the FDA conducted its first routine inspection of the Abbott Sturgis plant in 2 years in September of 2021. They found that the issues uncovered in the 2019 surveillance inspection had been resolved. At about the same time, in September 2021, the FDA receives the first complaint that a child was hospitalized with Cronobacter. Meanwhile, the Nation's out-of-stock rate for infant formula rose to 11 percent in November of 2021, when Dr. Robert Califf was nominated to serve as commissioner of the FDA.

December 1, the FDA received a second complaint related to the death of a child. The Centers for Disease Control determined that Cronobacter could have been a contributing factor.

In January of this year, the FDA receives their third complaint of a child hospitalized with Cronobacter, while at the same time The New York Times reports that baby formula shortages are, ``worsening throughout the United States.''

On January 31, the FDA begins a delayed follow-up inspection of the Abbott Sturgis plant. Thirteen days later, the nationwide out-of-stock rate of infant formula rises to 26 percent. Two days later, on February 15, Dr. Robert Califf is confirmed by the U.S. Senate as the new commissioner of the FDA.

Two days after that, on the commissioner's second day on the job, Abbott announces a voluntary recall and hold of certain powdered infant formulas produced at the Sturgis plant. The same day, the FDA receives a fourth Cronobacter complaint.

Why does this timeline matter? Because President Biden said he wasn't made aware of the issues with the stock of baby formula until late April.

Now just imagine, on your second day on the job, a fire breaks out in your office, and you don't call the President to let him know? I don't understand. I truly don't.

Again, this plant produces one-fifth of the Nation's supply of baby formula. The crisis was foreseeable and extraordinary steps should have been taken to avoid it. There is no doubt in my mind that the February formula recall followed by the Sturgis plant closure is the primary factor that turned an already increasing problem into a crisis.

There should have been more urgency. It should have been clear to the Biden administration in February that we were going to have a problem. Maybe it was and they just didn't want to tell the President, or maybe he was busy that day. Who knows. I am sure we will find out when Republicans take back the majority and conduct proper oversight of this administration.

Put simply, the FDA and President Biden fumbled the ball for months, and families across this country are paying the price. We cannot afford for this administration to take its eye off the ball again. The President must do better.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to address the heartbreak Americans continue to reel from, the horrible killing of 19 students and two teachers by a demented teenager in Uvalde, Texas.

As an elected Representative, as well as a parent, I am eager to find solutions that make our kids safer. Those solutions must include strengthening mental health services and school security across this country.

Democrats in Congress have a choice to make. Do they want to focus yet again on more gun control, which won't work and won't pass the Senate, or do they want to focus on mental health and school security improvements which will help, and on which we might be able to reach consensus and pass into law?

Madam Speaker, I believe we can enhance protection for our children without throwing away any of our hard-won freedoms. The ball is in the Democrats' court.

Madam Speaker, the average price of gasoline has more than doubled since President Biden was sworn into office. That is not a coincidence. After all, before he took office, he told us he would ``end fossil fuel.''

Now, Americans are finding out the hard way what happens when we elect a President that wants to end fossil fuels. The cost of living rises faster than we can keep up with because almost everything we wear, eat, and use is transported using fossil fuels.

Meanwhile, yesterday, the President announced he would be invoking the Defense Production Act to make more solar panels. Give me a break.

The President needs to concede his war against American energy and allow companies to drill and explore for new oil. It is that easy. Yet, he refuses.

President Biden simply must do better.

Madam Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from Virginia for yielding me time to speak on this very important and lifesaving program as we commemorate the 30th anniversary of the creation of the 340B program.

I applaud the gentlewoman from Virginia for her leadership on this issue and for organizing this opportunity for Members on both sides to speak about how important this issue is to each of our districts.

I also thank the other Members here tonight and those who routinely support the 340B program. More than 220 Members of the House recently joined a letter to Health and Human Services, urging the Department to crack down on drug companies denying 340B discounts. By having such a large group of Members in support of that letter, to which I proudly lent my name, we demonstrated the broad bipartisan support the 340B program enjoys across the entire country.

Madam Speaker, I include the text of that letter in the Record.

Congress of the United States,

House of Representatives,

Washington, DC, February 26, 2021.

Acting Secretary Cochran,

Department of Health and Human Services,

Washington, DC.

Dear Acting Secretary Cochran: We write today as leading

congressional proponents of the 340B drug discount program to

ask you to take immediate action to ensure that manufacturers

are prohibited from imposing unilateral changes to the

program in direct conflict with congressional intent and

decades of written guidance.

We were pleased to see 28 attorneys general urge former HHS

Secretary Azar to protect the 340B programs. We believe that

letter and the Department's Office of General Counsel's

advisory opinion, released on December 30 and described

below, represent some of the most compelling legal arguments

for the actions we ask you to take.

As you know, Congress enacted the 340B Drug Pricing Program

in 1992 following the creation of the Medicaid Drug Rebate

Program. In order for their drugs to be covered by Medicaid,

manufacturers are required to offer discounts to certain

public and nonprofit health care organizations known as

covered entities, including Federally Qualified Health

Centers, Ryan White HIV/AIDS Clinics, Medicare/Medicaid

Disproportionate Share hospitals, rural hospitals, and

children's hospitals. According to the legislative history,

Congress's intent in creating the discount program was to

``stretch scarce federal resources to reach more eligible

patients and provide more comprehensive services.''

The 340B statute requires drug manufacturers to ``offer

each covered entity covered outpatient drugs for purchase at

or below the applicable ceiling price.'' There are no

provisions in the statute that allow manufacturers to set

conditions or otherwise impede a provider's ability to access

340B discounts. The Health Resources and Services

Administration (HRSA), which oversees the program, has

indicated on multiple occasions, dating back to the early

years of the program, that the 340B statute requires

manufacturers to provide 340B discounts to covered entities

when covered entities purchase drugs to be dispensed through

contract pharmacies on a covered entity's behalf.

Beginning in the summer of 2020, several drug manufacturers

began to announce a range of actions to avoid honoring 340B

discounts for certain drugs, many with the highest prices,

delivered to covered entities' contract pharmacies. Some

manufacturers have announced they will no longer ship

discounted drugs to contract pharmacies; others will ship to

only one contract pharmacy per covered entity.

HHS has reviewed manufacturers' refusals to provide 340B

discounts to covered entities' contract pharmacies and found

them to be unlawful. In a December 30th 2020 advisory

opinion, then-general counsel Robert Charrow wrote, ``[T]he

core requirement of the 340B statute . . . is that

manufacturers must ``offer'' covered outpatient drugs at or

below the ceiling price for ``purchase by'' covered entities.

This fundamental requirement is not qualified, restricted, or

dependent on how the covered entity chooses to distribute the

covered outpatient drugs.''

Unfortunately, publishing the advisory opinion has not

deterred manufacturers from continuing with unlawful price

hikes. Many covered entities are struggling with severe

financial losses as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. They

cannot afford to be unfairly targeted by large pharmaceutical

corporations or be forced to pay higher up-front costs for

the drugs their patients need.

Furthermore, an information technology company has allied

with manufacturers to change the 340B program from one of

upfront discounts to post-sale rebates, a change that would

greatly increase costs for covered entities and give

manufacturers tremendous leverage over covered entities. Such

action is inconsistent with HRSA's long-standing guidance

that the 340B program is an up-front discount program.''

The December 14th letter from the attorneys general called

on HHS to ``address drug manufacturers' unlawful refusal to

provide critical drug discounts to covered entities.''

Consistent with that letter, we urge you to:

1. Begin assessing civil monetary penalties on

manufacturers that deny 340B pricing to

covered entities in violation of their obligations under the

340B statute;

2. Require manufacturers to refund covered entities the

discounts they have unlawfully withheld since 2020;

3. Halt, through guidance or other means, any attempt to

unilaterally change 340B upfront discounts to post sale

rebates; and

4. Immediately seat the Administrative Dispute Resolution

Panel to begin processing disputes within the program.

As the attorneys general stated in their December 14th

letter, ``Each day that drug manufacturers violate their

statutory obligations, vulnerable patients and their health

care centers are deprived of the essential healthcare

resources Congress intended to provide.'' Thank you very much

for your prompt consideration of these important matters.

Madam Speaker, even though the 340B program has received such overwhelming support from Members of Congress, multiple administrations, hospitals, doctors, pharmacists, and patients, it still finds itself struggling to survive from relentless efforts to undermine its existence by some pharmaceutical companies refusing to abide by the law. HHS must take immediate enforcement action against all of these noncompliant drug companies.

As many of us here tonight understand, the 340B program is an important avenue for offering lower drug prices for our most vulnerable citizens. It is often a lifeline of financial support for the small, rural hospitals in middle Tennessee and across the country. These very same hospitals are often the only source of care for communities in expansive geographic areas.

I have no other word to describe it other than ``unconscionable'' that companies founded to help sick patients by providing lifesaving medication deliberately undermine a law to increase affordable access to their lifesaving medications. It is truly disgraceful.

Tonight, we are going to hear more about this malpractice. I hope by highlighting this issue here on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives, we will encourage other Members of the House and the Senate to take immediate and decisive action to protect the 340B program.

Madam Speaker, I want to talk a little more about the importance of H.R. 4390, the PROTECT 340B Act of 2021, which was introduced by the gentleman from West Virginia (Mr. McKinley), my friend, and is co-led by the gentlewoman from Virginia (Ms. Spanberger), the lead organizer of this Special Order.

Passage of the PROTECT 340B Act of 2021 is essential in order to push back against recent attacks on the 340B program.

This bill would prohibit pharmacy benefit managers, otherwise known as PBMs, from discriminating against 340B providers or their contract pharmacies.

The PROTECT 340B Act is supported by America's Essential Hospitals, 340B Health, National Association of Community Health Centers, and Ryan White Clinics for 340B Access. To ensure PBMs are held accountable, it allows the HHS Secretary to impose civil monetary penalties.

This is the definition of a good bill. It has broad, bipartisan support in the House as well as among outside groups, and it even has an enforcement mechanism that hits the bad actors where it hurts them most--their pocketbooks.

Madam Speaker, again, I thank the gentlewoman from Virginia for yielding, and I join her in calling on our colleagues to join us in this effort to preserve and protect the 340B program.

I will share a success story that highlights how Members worked in a bipartisan way to solve a major issue within the 340B program.

Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, some hospitals lost their 340B eligibility due to the influx of COVID-19 patients that overwhelmed some hospitals and diminished their ability to meet the requirements of the 340B program. Two of those hospitals were in my district in rural Tennessee. However, the gentlewoman from California, Representative Matsui, introduced H.R. 3203, which was designed to restore eligibility to hospitals that lost their 340B status due to the pandemic. I was proud to lend my name as a cosponsor to this bipartisan bill.

I am happy to report that because of this bipartisan support and the leadership of Members like Representative Matsui, this issue was fixed in section 121 of the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2022. Because of this bipartisan effort, I am pleased to report back that both hospitals in my district in Tennessee have since regained that 340B eligibility.

Madam Speaker, I hope this story shows that Members are capable of protecting and strengthening the 340B program in a bipartisan way.

Madam Speaker, again, I thank the gentlewoman from Virginia (Ms. Spanberger). She has done a commendable job putting tonight's Special Order together, gathering support from both sides of the aisle to come speak here tonight about the 340B program, and being one of the Members leading the fight to protect the lifesaving 340B program.

Madam Speaker, by their presence on the House floor tonight and the persuasive and powerful words they have spoken, these Members have sent the unmistakable signal that we are all resolutely prepared to fight on behalf of our constituents who benefit from the 340B program, even if it ruffles some powerful feathers.

If Big Pharma would just play by the rules and abide by the law, I am sure we wouldn't be in the position we are today. However, the big pharmaceutical companies aren't playing by the rules, and they are showing no signs that they have an interest in doing so.

All we are asking is that they, too, are held accountable to the law. That is it. Nothing more, nothing less. In the meantime, we will continue to push back on their brazen attempts to undermine the law because I know we are on the right side of this fight.

I encourage all Members to reach out to the Federally qualified health centers, the Ryan White Clinics, Medicare/Medicaid Disproportionate Share hospitals, rural hospitals, and children's hospitals in your districts that are 340B participants. You will find that the 340B program has an enormous impact on communities all across this country.

Lastly, I reiterate my support for H.R. 4390, the Protect 340B Act, and I sincerely beseech House leadership to bring the bill to the floor for a vote.

Madam Speaker, 234,088 illegal immigrants crossed the southern border last month. That is a record-breaking number that I take no pleasure in saying aloud. This surpassed the previous record of 221,303 set just in March.

In President Biden's first 15 months in office, Federal law enforcement officials have stopped more than 2.75 million people attempting to cross into the U.S. illegally. To put things in perspective, that is more than the entire population of the Nashville, Tennessee, metropolitan area.

Despite continuously breaking these records, the President has shown absolutely no serious desire to stem the flow of illegal immigration, as evidenced by his rescission of title 42 and his stopping of construction on the border wall.

Madam Speaker, President Biden must do better.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to address an issue on the minds of many Americans and middle Tennesseans: Rising crime.

Twelve major cities broke homicide records in 2021. The Council on Criminal Justice says murders nationwide went up 5 percent from 2020 and up a whopping 44 percent from 2019. Aggravated assaults are up. Robberies are up.

There has been one decrease under President Biden's watch: a drop in the morale among the men and women in uniform.

In fact, the retirement rate for police departments across the country has jumped by 45 percent since 2019. The blame can be squarely placed on the left's antipolice rhetoric, including calls to defund the police.

When the left chooses to demonize and demoralize the thin blue line, officers' jobs become even tougher, as if they are not already tough enough. However, I remind them that they have our support, and we stand ready to defend and honor them as they protect and serve our communities.

Thank you to all our Nation's police officers.

Madam Speaker, today, I rise as average gas prices across the country approach $4.50. The average American household will now have to spend an extra $2,000 per year thanks to President Biden's war on American energy.

On his very first day in office, he canceled the Keystone pipeline. He has since raided the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, leaving us unprepared for national security emergencies. He has made it more difficult and expensive to drill for oil. And just last week, President Biden canceled drilling permits in Alaska and the Gulf of Mexico. It is apparent that he wants gas prices to continue to rise. I don't know how else to say it.

The folks of middle Tennessee know exactly who to blame for rising energy costs: President Joe Biden.

Madam Speaker, President Biden must do better. The President's energy policies are crushing middle Tennesseans while the answer to this crisis lies right under our feet. We can't afford to wait for the next President to unleash America's energy independence.

Madam Speaker, the leak of Associate Justice Alito's draft opinion on Dobbs v. Jackson was clearly illegal. That is why more than 20 Republican Members of the House joined me in calling on Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI Director Wray to open a criminal investigation into a potential violation of U.S. law.

Title 18 United States Code Section 2071 states in part: A person who willfully carries away any document filed or deposited with any clerk or officer of any court shall be fined or imprisoned or both.

Anyone trying to criminally undermine the division of power in our government should be held accountable to the full extent of the law, especially as the leak is already proving to be dangerous as Justices are facing harassment outside their homes.

Our country is built on the fundamental respect for law and order. It is clear to me and my Republican colleagues that the law was clearly violated.

Madam Speaker, Monday of last week was liberals' favorite holiday: Tax Day--which usually serves as an annual reminder of just how big the government has gotten.

However, instead of paying taxes on only one day of the year, Americans are being forced to pay an invisible tax every day this year: inflation--which is a constant reminder of the cost of Big Government and big deficit spending.

Make no mistake, President Biden's and congressional Democrats' willingness to borrow trillions of dollars to pay for ever-growing wasteful government programs has caused record-high inflation. Prices at the pump and at the grocery store were already skyrocketing well before Vladimir Putin's evil invasion of Ukraine.

Unfortunately, the Biden administration wants to double down on these disastrous, inflation-inducing spending bills. His budget proposal calls for shelling out $73 trillion over the next 10 years and would only add to the pain we all feel when we reach for our pocketbooks. Tennesseans can't afford another year of one-party Democratic control of Government.

Madam Speaker, I rise to honor the late Millard Vaughn Oakley, one of the greatest Tennesseans I have ever known. He passed away on April 21 after an extraordinary ninety-one years of life. He was a faithful husband, a loving father and grandfather, an exemplary public servant, and a passionate believer in his small town and the surrounding region. His legacy will live on in our state's history for generations.

He was born May 11, 1930, in Overton County, where he resided his entire life. Mr. Oakley was the son of the late T.M. and Cordia Vaughn Oakley and was the youngest of seven children. He graduated from Livingston Academy in 1947, then attended Tennessee Technological University, and earned a law degree from the Cumberland School of Law in 1951. He then went on to practice law for about 18 years and embarked on a lifetime of public service.

Millard served one term to the Constitutional Convention, four terms as a State Representative, and four terms as Overton County Attorney. His law experience brought him here to Washington in 1971, where he served as General Counsel for the U.S. House Select Committee on Small Business for two years before moving back to the Volunteer State to serve as State insurance Commissioner from 1975 to 1979.

Among his many accomplishments, Mr. Oakley was a business leader who played a key role in the economic development of the Upper Cumberland region. He started in life as a shoeshine on the Livingston Square and checked out as a multi-millionaire, chasing the excitement of the next great business deal, opportunity, or challenge.

If you took a trip to Overton County, you wouldn't have to look far to find someone directly blessed by Mr. Oakley. That is certainly true for me.

A lifetime ago, he became friends with my grandfather, Guy Williams from Fentress County. I admired my grandfather a great deal and learned much from him. Grandpa Williams was the consummate entrepreneur. He had successes and failures, but the latter never slowed him down. It is likely the reason he and Mr. Oakley hit it off so well. When my grandfather passed away, I lost a great mentor.

Years later, I became acquainted with my grandfather's old friend, Millard Oakley. Instinctively, I was drawn to him, and he was kind enough to show me the courtesy of being interested in my life. Eventually, a friendship grew out of an acquaintance and later this friend became one of my most trusted mentors and advisers.

We come from opposing political parties. I am a Conservative Republican. He was a Southern Democrat, but that never impeded his willingness to encourage me or hear me out. Our debates and disagreements were always cordial. There was never a time when I did not glean something valuable from a conversation I had with him. He cared and believed in me, and that meant the world. Countless Tennesseans would say the same about this mighty man. There was not a person in the entire town who Mr. Oakley did not endeavor to know. Whether you were the gas station clerk, a sheriff's deputy, or a student--you mattered to Millard Oakley.

What I will always miss is his most sincere compassion. He gave life to the dreams of many. His generosity will live on through his numerous funds and scholarships to multiple schools and foundations. You'll find many buildings at Cumberland University and Tennessee Tech bearing the name Oakley for their strong support of higher education. In 2015, the Oakleys donated Hartsaw Cove Farm, equaling about 1,400 acres in size, along with the farm livestock and equipment, to Tennessee Tech. That gift was estimated to be worth more than $9 million.

As you venture down Interstate 40 in Cookeville and exit to State Route 111, you will find yourself on ``Millard Vaughn Oakley Parkway,'' the main thoroughfare into the town so dearly loved by this treasure of a Tennessean. Up that State Route, you will find an impressive public library giving children and adults access to thousands of books and a new, magnificent county building, each made possible by Mr. and Mrs. Oakley.

You will also see a modest office in a single-story office complex, which is also home to the local radio station bearing his name, where he worked most days he was in town. You will also see First National Bank--his bank and a major employer in the region. It was through his financial institutions that he helped several small business owners expand and thrive.

Today, I sit in the emptiness of loss. I grieve in the void left by a giant. There is no replacing Millard Oakley, only honoring him by being better, doing better, and leaving this world a little better. In memory of a great Tennessean, who did it better than anyone I have ever known, I pray that we will each take up the mantle and leave our communities a little better than we found them.

Madam Speaker, reports of clandestine flights taking thousands of illegal immigrants across the country on behalf of U.S. taxpayers are extremely concerning.

In his 45 years as a United States Senator, and Vice President, and now President, Joe Biden has sworn to defend the U.S. Constitution from all enemies, foreign and domestic, on eight separate occasions, presumably including invasions of our border. Nowhere in the Constitution does it describe using taxpayer dollars to transport illegal immigrants to every corner of this country.

Employees of the airline in question are fearful that they may be participating in human trafficking as unaccompanied minors are on many of these flights.

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Mayorkas must answer whether American taxpayers are paying for these secret flights and, if so, why. All parties involved should be held accountable, including President Biden.

None of this would be an issue if we had just followed through on President Trump's plan to build a wall at our southern border and secure our borders. Instead, President Biden seems determined to make every town in America a border town.

Honoring the Life and Legacy of Millard Vaughn Oakley

Madam Speaker, I rise to recognize the late Millard Vaughn Oakley, one of the greatest Tennesseeans I have every known. His legacy will live on in our State's history for generations to come.

He started life as a shoeshine on the Livingston, Tennessee, square, and checked out as a multimillionaire, chasing the excitement of the next great business deal or opportunity or challenge. He was a faithful husband, a loving father, and grandfather, an exemplary public servant, and a passionate believer in his small town and the surrounding region.

If you took a trip to Overton County, Tennessee, you wouldn't have to look far to find someone directly blessed by Millard Vaughn Oakley. That is certainly true for me.

We come from opposing political parties. I am a conservative Republican. He was a southern Democrat, having served as a State Representative and State Insurance Commissioner under a Democratic Governor. But that never impeded his willingness to encourage me or hear me out. Our debates and disagreements were always cordial. There was never a time when I did not glean something valuable from a conversation I had with him. He cared and believed in me, and that meant the world.

Countless Tennesseeans would say the same about this mighty man. There was not a person in the town who Mr. Oakley did not endeavor to know. Whether you were the gas station clerk, a sheriff's deputy, or a student, you mattered to Millard Vaughn Oakley.

What I will always miss is his most sincere compassion. He gave life to the dreams of many. His generosity will live on through the numerous funds and scholarships to multiple schools and foundations.

As you venture down Interstate 40 in Cookeville and exit to State Route 111, you will find yourself on Millard Vaughn Oakley Parkway. That is the main thoroughfare into the town so dearly loved by this treasure of a Tennesseean. Up that State Route, you will find an impressive public library giving children and adults access to thousands of books and a new magnificent county building, each made possible by the generosity of Mr. and Mrs. Oakley.

There is no replacing Millard Vaughn Oakley, only honoring him by being better, doing better, and leaving this world a little better in memory of a great Tennesseean who did it better

than anyone I have ever known. I pray that we will all take up the mantle and leave our communities a little better than we found them.

Mr. Speaker, last week Customs and Border Protection released their monthly report detailing how bad President Biden's border crisis has become.

The numbers are quite startling. In March alone, CBP confirmed 221,303 migrant encounters at our southern border. This number is up a whopping 33 percent from February and an incredible 542 percent since 2020.

Making matters worse, the numbers show that 42 people on the terrorist watch list tried to enter our country illegally since President Biden took office. Thankfully, due to the hard work and diligence of law enforcement officers on the southern border, they were arrested.

Although this begs the question: If we found 42 people on the terrorist watch list since January of 2021, how many more are in our country today out of the more than 200,000 illegal immigrants whom we know evaded law enforcement?

Unfortunately, we will probably never know until it is too late. Thanks to President Biden's open border policies, Americans must come to terms with the fact that until Republicans regain control of Congress and the White House, potential terrorists continuing to file through our borders is just a way of life.