Floor Statements

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

Madam Speaker, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, I was absent on April 13, 2021. I designated Mr. Gosar as my proxy. Mr. Gosar attempted to proxy vote for me, but was advised by floor staff that he was not the proxy. Because of this misunderstanding, Mr. Gosar did not proxy vote on my behalf. Had I been present, I would have voted NAY on Roll Call No. 98.

Madam Speaker, the language of the equal rights amendment is simple, but don't be deceived by its simple language.

The reviving of the deadline and ratifying of this amendment would destroy all distinctions between men and women, enshrine abortion, and empower the woke feminist mob.

The equal rights amendment is dead and should remain dead. The States and Congress missed the deadline to have the amendment passed in 1979. The Trump Department of Justice issued a legal opinion in January that the deadline for the ERA has already passed, by any legal measure.

The ERA would be a new constitutional right guaranteeing abortion on demand. Have we not murdered enough people in the womb in this country, over 62 million?

Guaranteeing abortion on demand is completely wrong. It is not a constitutional right. As a matter of fact, the person in the womb should have the constitutional right. It is not a ``my body, my choice'' issue because the person in the womb is not the same body as the woman.

Also, NARAL Pro-Choice America claims: ``With its ratification, the ERA would reinforce the constitutional right to abortion.''

If anything, we should be guaranteeing a constitutional right to people in the womb. They should have the constitutional right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Let's carry on. VAWA, Violence Against Women Act. Democrats have hijacked a program designed to help marginalized women and have turned it into a political weapon that erases gender and destroys all religious freedom.

On the wall right here, it says: In God We Trust. God states that He created male and female, not a plethora of genders that anyone can choose from.

They want to let men calling themselves women sleep with women in domestic abuse shelters. The Democrats will not be satisfied until every battered woman is endangered so long as their sexual orientation and gender identity ideology advances.

That is not science. Science says that there are only two genders, male and female, according to the chromosomes.

Make no mistake about it, Democrats want to destroy our country. They want to close every church and nonprofit that doesn't capitulate to their oppressive agenda. Democrats want to put domestic violence abusers in the same room as their victims. Democrats want to dissolve all sex-based protection for women and girls through the relentless onslaught of gender identity.

Madam Speaker, the Violence Against Women Act, this is something that should protect women.

Unfortunately, the Violence Against Women Act has expanded its protection beyond women and girls into transgender or biological males who are calling themselves women.

You see, Democrats know this is a bad policy and agenda. In order to pass it, they have to hide behind real abused women.

The Violence Against Women Act incentivizes fraud in housing by allowing people who have been evicted from government-funded housing because of criminal activity to claim, after the fact, they are domestic violence victims in order to keep their housing.

The Violence Against Women Act also allows prisoners to pick their gender and be treated and assigned by their specific preference. This isn't fair to women who are in prison. Biological men should not be allowed to decide they are a woman and decide to tell people that they are a woman so they can be put in a women's prison.

The Violence Against Women Act provides no exemptions for religious organizations when they hire employees. That destroys religious freedom.

Democrats also refuse to support amendments to help women receive firearm safety training and self-defense courses to protect them against their abusers.

Republicans have introduced amendments having to do with gun rights. If you want to help protect women, make sure women are gun owners and know how to use a gun properly in order to protect themselves. That is the greatest defense for women.

Democrats want to use abused women to take away guns from everyone. Unfortunately, gun rights groups know how to pay attention to Democrat bills that affect Americans' gun rights.

Democrats want to completely dismantle housing contracts and leases in order to justify their hypocritical ``believe all survivors'' agenda, except when it comes to Governor Cuomo.

Democrats want to create a Violence Against Women czar at the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Now that they have destroyed the family and housing law, they want to push a progressive gender ideology through housing policy. That doesn't fit.

Make no mistake, Democrats want to create an authoritarian woke state where neighbors, partners, citizens, and employers are afraid to do anything in order to avoid the draconian policies imposed under the guise of protecting women.

We already know of many high-profile men who abuse women. Why don't we look in the mirror and take a hard look at the real abusers? I think Governor Cuomo would be a good one to pay attention to, rather than trying to criminalize every church in America for not following the advice of the transgender coalition of gender dysphoria.

Madam Speaker, I rise in opposition to the 39 amendments packed into one little grouping called en bloc.

The reason why I am opposed is that while some of these amendments are noble and worthwhile proposals on their own, they do not outweigh the underlying problems of the legislation or some of the truly bad amendments in this bloc.

These amendments include provisions that would further inject identity politics into the Violence Against Women Act, which we have heard over and over in this debate. There are studies about disparate impacts and measures that unnecessarily differentiate how we treat different groups of people.

This entire bloc of 39 amendments includes amendments that further encroach on the affairs of State and local governments by creating new grants and pilot programs and spending more of the American taxpayers' hard-earned dollars.

One amendment in this bloc is designed to incentivize States to legalize prostitution engaged in by minors to help sex trafficking victims. How does this make any sense? It doesn't.

Of course, we all want to stop sex trafficking, but this proposal has not been thought through and could have disastrous unintended consequences. I am going to say disastrous consequences.

We need to return the Violence Against Women Act to its original intent that Congress passed in an overwhelmingly bipartisan manner almost 30 years ago.

H.R. 1620 will expand and alter the fundamental nature of the Violence Against Women Act by imposing the trans agenda of putting biological men in women's shelters and prisons. It does more to advance the Democrats' progressive agenda than it does to protect women who need protection.

Also concerning is the fact that this legislation did not undergo committee consideration. One would ask: Why not?

There has been no committee hearing for this bill or these en bloc amendments. Why not?

There has been no committee markup for this in Congress. Why not?

Rather than rushing to pass this bill, we should have taken the time to truly examine the issues and determine what, if any, additional resources, reviews, or studies are necessary.

We all stand in opposition to any violence against women. Unfortunately, the government lockdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in an increased amount of domestic violence, increased depression, increased suicide, and increased suffering. We have an urgent need to address violence against women--and we should at all times--but not like this, by changing this so radically and including biological men.

Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to oppose these amendments and the underlying bill, H.R. 1620.

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

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

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

Madam Speaker, I thank the good gentleman from Texas for yielding.

I have to tell you, that Jared, who you spoke about, I met his aunt and uncle a few years ago. And he suffered a death that is too much to think about. And him being an American citizen, born here free and being murdered like he was by illegal aliens, criminals, animals, is just too much to bear.

This is the people's House. This is the House of Representatives that I have started to call the house of hypocrites. This entire campus right now is surrounded by a border wall with razor wire. It is a fence unlike anything at our southern border. This place is surrounded by the military. It is completely guarded. But we don't extend the same thing to the American people.

The Joe Biden administration, my Democratic colleagues here in Congress, Democrats in the Senate, they want the border ripped wide open, and that is what it is right now.

I just watched a video that was shared this morning from southeast Texas where there are hundreds, perhaps thousands of people lined up to cross the Rio Grande, and they are being smuggled into our country by human traffickers.

It is big business to come into our country illegally, and Joe Biden is rewarding the smugglers, the coyotes, the cartels in Mexico and these other countries by opening our borders up and welcoming them all in.

While they are forcing our kids to stay home and paying off these teachers' union bosses, they have wide-open, 100 percent capacity, in- person teaching for illegal children. What kind of country is this that rewards people that break into our country illegally, but yet abuses its citizens and taxpayers?

There needs to be a change, and this is Joe Biden's crisis that he will never recover from. People are not stupid, no matter if they vote one party or the other. But the American people are going to be sick and tired of being run over and treated this way.

Everybody wants to cry about COVID-19, the most politicized virus, a political tool that shut down America. Well, let me tell you something, all these people that I just watched on this

video, they are not wearing masks like we are required to do. They are bringing all kinds of diseases into our country, but yet, they are being welcomed in. Here, come to school. Here, here is a bus ride to another city. Come on in. Yet America is still not fully open because of COVID-19.

There are so many reasons why we can call this the house of hypocrites that we could be here all day long, but I appreciate the time.

Will the gentleman yield?

I definitely agree with the good gentleman from Texas. You see, it is unfortunate that our colleagues on the other side of the aisle use race as a tool to push their agenda, where here in this country every single one of us are equal. God created us equal and thank God we have a Constitution that affirms it.

And if we are to do anything we should look at Americans as one, because we are the citizens of this Nation, and all of our policies and laws should serve our American people, not divide it up by identity or politics or any other category.

And it is shameful that we have come to this place after we have come so far and achieved so much. And so, yes, I do agree with you, and it needs to be done away with.

I absolutely agree with the good gentleman. This is a place where we are sent to do a job for the people of our district. We should be able to vote on record and not have to hide behind a voice vote. We should be able to call for a motion to adjourn to give everyone pause and thought before they vote for such crucial, critical, radical, transforming legislation.

I absolutely fully agree with the good gentleman from Texas. Congress is a place where people should be working just as our regular American citizens are working 12-hour shifts, working in factories, working on job sites, paving roads, working in restaurants, serving us when we go to eat. This is absolutely a place where we should work, where we should be able to use tools to represent our districts and not have rules changed here in the people's House to stop us from being able to use good measures for everyone in Congress to vote, be on record, and do their jobs that they have been elected to do.

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague and the good gentleman here for explaining why $1.9 trillion in spending is reckless, irresponsible, and the wrong thing to do.

We still have $1 trillion set aside for COVID relief and spending. There is no need to enslave the American people, our children, our grandchildren, our great grandchildren, and generations going forward in more debt.

We are $28 trillion in debt. This Congress is ramming through unbelievable things at a rapid pace.

This must be stopped. We have to give pause and consideration to what we are doing. This is a waste of money and a complete waste of time.

Reopening America is a much better way to go.

Mr. Speaker, I move that the House do now adjourn.

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

Madam Speaker, I rise today in opposition of gun control bills.

I rise today in support of our Second Amendment, the greatest freedom that we have as Americans, and a right that people all over the world wish that they had.

The Second Amendment reads: ``A well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.''

H.R. 8 and H.R. 1446, both gun control bills, infringe on the people's right to keep and bear arms. We must stand up and stop the constant flow of gun control bills that constantly come out of this House. The American people have these freedoms for a very good purpose.

You see, the right to defend oneself is something that should never require us to be on a list. It should never require us to pay a tax. It should never require us to wait to be able to purchase a firearm to defend ourselves. It should never require rules or shame or condemnation from another American.

Right now, we are in a time where people are being shamed just for being a gun owner. Our government is constantly pursuing legal gun owners and making them out to be the bad guy.

Take, for example, in Atlanta, Georgia, my home State, just this past weekend at the NBA All-Star game, there were 13 shootings. These were all illegal shootings. None of those criminals signed up for a background check for their guns. None of those criminals considered that they needed a waiting period before they used their firearm. And none of those criminals cared about any of the laws on the books when they shot people.

Criminals don't care about gun laws. Criminals just don't care. They're going to commit their crime. They are going to murder someone, whether they have a legal gun, an illegal gun, a knife, a hammer, you name it. They are criminals. They break the law.

H.R. 8 requires a background check on gun owners. Everyone knows that for a background check, you have to submit all your information to get that background check done. It is actually nothing but a national gun registry list. And everyone knows that a registry list leads to gun confiscation later on. This is what gun owners know. This is what gun owners fear of a government that may become too tyrannical, which I would like to remind you is the whole reason why we have the Second Amendment in the first place. It is because our brave men and women who founded our country fought against a tyrannical government that was coming to take away their guns.

This is not what we want in America. We never want a war on our land, but we also don't want a government that becomes too controlling and overbearing and takes away the rights of gun owners.

You see, gun rights are American rights, and gun rights are women's rights. Yesterday was International Women's Day. It is a wonderful thing to be an American woman. We are the freest women in the world. For us to be able to have the right to own a firearm and protect ourselves when someone is trying to hurt us is a great right.

Madam Speaker, there is a woman named Carol Bowne, who was stabbed to death outside of her New Jersey home by her ex-boyfriend. Carol knew her best chance of defending herself from a violent ex-boyfriend was a gun, not a piece of paper, not a 911 call. She knew her ex-boyfriend was violent and wanted to kill her, so she went to buy a gun.

But you know what? It was a background check, the rules of the State, the oppressive gun rules of that State, that led to her being stabbed to death because it delayed her ability to buy a gun and defend herself from an ex-boyfriend that was out of his mind.

Carol Bowne had a restraining order. She was following the law against her boyfriend, so she had a restraining order. She had reported him to the police, but he still came to her house and killed her in the driveway. She was waiting for her approval of her gun permit-- literally, what we are talking about with H.R. 8, background checks, and H.R. 1446, a 20-day waiting period.

She was following the law, and she still got stabbed to death and murdered by her ex-boyfriend. You see, she had gone to the township police department 2 days before her death to check on the status of her languishing application.

Another indication of her fear of her out-of-his-mind ex-boyfriend, she had installed surveillance cameras around her home. Guess what? Those cameras recorded----

Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to call up H.R. 682, the Reopen Schools Act, to get our kids out from behind screens and back in the classroom.

Madam Speaker, I would like to remind my Democrat colleagues across the aisle that I am from the State of Georgia, where, proudly, we are open. My son has been going in person to school this entire school year. As a matter of fact, he played football, where they had practices and games and parents got to attend and sit in the stadium.

Children being kept home from school is about the worst thing that

you can possibly do. If you really want to do anything to help Americans, reopen the schools, reopen America, and stop wasting more American tax dollars.

It is a complete lie to the American taxpayers that you are going to save the day with your $1.9 trillion spending bill, and you think you are going to save children. If you want to save children, reopen the schools.

The Biden administration is fine with having 100 percent open schools at the border for children who are coming into our country.

Why are our children being forced to stay home in blue States and, many places, for no reason when their parents pay the taxes?

The best way to save America is reopen.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to Democrat gun control bills far and wide.

I would like to tell you about a gun law in Georgia: In order to provide for the emergency management of the city, and further, in order to provide for and protect the safety, security and general welfare of the city and its inhabitants, every head of household residing in the city limits is required to maintain a firearm, together with ammunition.

Mr. Speaker, that is Kennesaw, Georgia, where, over 6 years, there has only been one murder and a violent crime rate of 2 percent.

Would you like to know why? It is because every single criminal knows that if they are going to attack someone in Kennesaw, Georgia, they are going to go across a gun owner, and it is the law that every household and homeowner owns a gun and keeps one in their household.

You see, guns are not scary. The fact that we may not have guns is scary. Guns are a great form of protection. It is an equalizer to a criminal who could care less about all the gun laws that Democrats want to pass on Americans, infringing on their Second Amendment rights.

H.R. 8 and H.R. 1446 are just more gun control legislation violating Americans' great right to bear arms. I rise in opposition to both of these bills, and I hope that the Democrats will come to their senses and figure out that gun rights are American rights.

Mr. Speaker, on International Women's Day, I would like to discuss the Equality Act.

The Equality Act has completely destroyed women's rights. It has taken away women's rights in sports. It has completely canceled women, and I think it is a terrible thing that has happened to the women in America who have come so far.

Our grandmothers and mothers worked so hard to achieve our rights, and now with the passage of the Equality Act, they have put men in our little girls' bathrooms, sports locker rooms, playing fields, and seem to care less about women's rights whatsoever.

They have also completely destroyed religious freedoms and violated our freedoms and rights in every single way.

The Equality Act is atrocious and evil. It completely erases gender. God created us male and female in His image. He created us.

Women deserve their rights. We deserve our sports. We deserve our privacy and should not have the invasion of biological men in any of these areas.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to inform Democrats that the radical path you are taking will cause you to lose in 2022.

The American people are shocked at what you are doing and running through this House of Representatives. Passing a bill of $1.9 trillion that spends less than 9 percent on COVID relief is shameful. Passing the inequality act, which destroys women's rights, religious freedoms; puts men in our little girls' bathrooms, locker rooms, and on sports teams is unforgivable.

Trying to pass what I call the Democrats' hate police bill, H.R. 1280--which puts police on Biden's hit list and allows police to be targets, also gets rid of qualified immunity, opening them up to be sued every time a criminal is offended and gets their feelings hurt--

is reckless and dangerous for our police.

Mr. Speaker, because of H.R. 1, which is a federalization of our elections, I also, today, will make a motion to adjourn so that Democrats can think a little bit harder.