Floor Statements

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

Mr. Chair, my amendment is number 42.

I ask unanimous consent to withdraw amendment No. 41.

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

Mr. Chair, my amendment would prohibit funds from being provided to assist Ukraine.

Over 1\1/2\ years ago, Russia invaded Ukraine, but now the United States has basically taken over Ukraine and is fighting a proxy war in Ukraine that we never voted for. We are funding their government. We are paying for their small businesses. We are paying their farmers. We are handing military equipment and weapons over to Ukraine and paying for their war.

According to the Congressional Research Service, in 2022, the United States provided $113 billion in total assistance to Ukraine. Every single year, the United States spends billions of dollars on foreign aid, much more than any other country. Ukraine has now taken the top spot.

The $50 billion State and Foreign Operations bill includes an unspecified funding amount for Ukraine. Section 7046(b)(2) would make funds available for Ukraine to support the ability of the Government of Ukraine to defend their sovereignty and withstand the impacts of Russia's invasion, combat corruption, and promote transparency and democracy.

This is nothing more than a blank check for Ukraine that Joe Biden's State Department will get to write. Even more dangerously, they get to waive oversight, claiming national security. All this will do is fuel another never-ending war and push the United States even closer to the brink of nuclear Holocaust.

After Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan wars, haven't we had enough of taxpayer-funded State and foreign operations. They tell us we have to fight them over there so we don't have to fight them over here, but paying for wars in foreign countries will eventually have consequences on our country. We will bring the war to America, and we will end up fighting them here when countries have had enough of the United States.

After 1\1/2\ years of being engaged in this conflict, the American people no longer support the additional assistance to Ukraine. My amendment will help stop this brutal war and help push for peace in Ukraine, which should be our ultimate goal.

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

Mr. Chair, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Illinois (Mrs. Miller), my friend.

Mr. Chair, it needs to be recognized that we represent the American people, and the polling shows very clearly, the American people do not support continuing to fund a war in a foreign country when our own country has been having a war waged on us by the Mexican cartels.

Fifty-five percent of Americans say the U.S. Congress should not authorize additional funding to Ukraine. Fifty-one percent say the U.S. has already done enough to help Ukraine.

Americans demand their hard-earned tax dollars be used to secure our own southern border and stop the Mexican cartels' war on America that is killing 300 Americans every single day.

Speaking of human trafficking and sex trafficking, we should care about the women and children who are being trafficked at our own southern border, not pay to defend another foreign country and worry about another country which, by the way, is not the 51st State. We only have 50 States in the United States of America, and our tax dollars should pay to defend our States here.

Mr. Chair, I urge the House to adopt my amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Chair, I demand a recorded vote.

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

Mr. Chair, my amendment would prohibit the Secretary of State from using funds to initiate a drawdown and delivery of defense articles and services from the Department of Defense stocks to Ukraine.

Those stockpiles of our equipment and weapons are for the United States of America and should not be sent to Ukraine. I will reiterate and remind everyone: Ukraine is not the 51st State.

Just this past weekend when we were sent home, I had an emergency townhall in my district, and many of my constituents showed up. Most of them were veterans, and they made it very clear to me that they would rather fight a war at our southern border against the Mexican cartels that are leading an invasion into our country, thousands and thousands every single day smuggling deadly fentanyl across our border, and many other drugs, killing 300 Americans every single day, than they would ever support a single penny of their hard-earned dollars to go fight a war in Ukraine.

Our veterans are fed up, and there are 22 million of them in this country. They want our border defended.

The Secretary of State plays a central role in the initiation and coordination of these drawdowns, and they put Ukraine first.

Since August 2021, the Secretary has exercised authority delegated by the President to direct 44 drawdowns of defense articles and services from the United States Department of Defense to Ukraine, which, by the way, is not the 51st State.

As our southern border is being invaded every day, Joe Biden and Antony Blinken are shipping all of our weapons and equipment to Ukraine.

Nearly a week ago, President Biden announced that the Department of Defense is sending an additional security assistance package valued up to $325 million more American hard-earned tax dollars, which would include AIM-9M missiles for air defense; additional ammunition for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems; Avenger air defense systems; 50- caliber machine guns to counter unmanned aerial systems; 155-millimeter artillery rounds; 105-millimeter artillery rounds; tube-launched, optically tracked, wire-guided missiles; Javelin and AT-4 anti-armor systems; over 3 million rounds of small arms ammunition; 59 light tactical vehicles; demolition munitions for obstacle clearing; and spare parts, maintenance, and other field equipment.

By the way, that also goes for our paying farmers in Ukraine while our farmers are going broke and paying small businesses in Ukraine while our small businesses are going out of business under Biden's ridiculous inflation. This is America last across the board.

This security assistance package will utilize assistance previously authorized under Presidential drawdown authority for Ukraine.

This is utterly disgraceful. This administration will continue to deplete our military readiness and strength in favor of fueling another forever war in Ukraine that the American people no longer support.

While our own country is weakened and destabilized by the daily invasion of our border at the southern border and the northern border, and while we go even further in debt fighting Russia in Ukraine, not even defending our own border, China is getting stronger.

They are beating us economically. They are growing their military, growing their equipment. They are not wasting it on some other country defending their border. They are saving it up to fight us.

I am sick and tired of hearing we have to fight Ukraine in order to stop China from invading Taiwan. That is the biggest lie that is being told to the American people.

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

Mr. Chair, I yield 45 seconds to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Gaetz).

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

Mr. Chair, I demand a recorded vote.

Madam Chair, I have an amendment at the desk.

Madam Chair, today I will introduce an amendment that uses the Holman rule to slash the Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin's salary to no more than $1, and $1 is too much money.

Let's talk about the job description of the Secretary of Defense. That role oversees the Defense Department and acts as the principal defense policymaker and adviser to the President of the United States.

The Department of Defense's mission statement states: ``With our military tracing its roots back to pre-Revolutionary times, the Department has grown and evolved with our Nation. Our mission is to provide the military forces needed to deter war and ensure our Nation's security.''

Secretary Austin has not fulfilled his job duties. As matter of fact, he is destroying our military.

During Secretary Austin's tenure, military recruitment has reached crisis levels of low recruitment. The numbers show that the Army expects to fall 15,000 recruits short of its annual recruiting goal this year. The Navy is expecting to be short 10,000 recruits. The Air Force is down another 3,000.

This cannot stand, especially with our government funding and fueling a war in Ukraine that is leading us undoubtedly to world war III.

Secretary Lloyd Austin failed America with his withdrawal from Afghanistan, making American forces leave in retreat and feeling like a failure.

Secretary Austin also forced more than 8,000 troops to be kicked out of

the military for refusing the COVID vaccine.

My amendment is a strong amendment, and many Americans agree. We do not want the United States military led by failure causing us to be weak. We need to pass my amendment.

Madam Chair, I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Chair, I yield to the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Van Orden), who has also proudly served in the United States military.

Madam Chair, there is no excuse. You can't blame President Trump for the failure in Afghanistan. That failure lies on Secretary Lloyd Austin, Joe Biden, the President of the United States, and his administration.

President Trump would have never led our troops to failure in Afghanistan. He would have never abandoned $7 billion worth of military equipment. President Trump would have never left the Afghan people in complete ruin to be controlled by a terrorist government, the Taliban.

That is a complete excuse. Democrats need to stop blaming President Trump and his administration for Joe Biden's failures.

I urge the House to adopt my amendment, Madam Chair, to take Secretary Lloyd Austin's salary using the Holman rule, which is a rule that allows us to fire failures that are serving our government and serving our country.

Lloyd Austin is not serving the United States military.

Lloyd Austin is leading the United States into failure.

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

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

Mr. Chair, my amendment will prohibit the Department of Homeland Security from implementing any mask mandate for the employees of the Department.

This is an extremely important amendment. Our current appropriation bills completely stop the mandates for vaccines but do not stop the mandates for any future mask mandates.

We need to recognize as a country what Americans have already recognized, COVID is over. This is something that we even passed a resolution on, and the President himself signed it, declaring COVID is over.

We all know something to be very, very true: Masks don't work. They did not stop the spread of COVID. They were really a violation of people's rights. Even Dr. Anthony Fauci himself said that masks do not prevent the spread of COVID, and he said so in a personal email to one of his friends, advising her not to wear a mask when she flew on an airplane.

However, the Biden administration forced our TSA agents, forced everyone to be masked every single time they flew and every single time TSA agents showed up to work.

This administration insisted that illegal aliens posed no threat to spreading COVID, yet treated Border Patrol agents as if they were the COVID superspreaders. We saw many migrants come up illegally invading our country with no masks on, a constant, steady stream of thousands and thousands of people coming into our country from countries all over the world, bringing all kinds of diseases, but yet Homeland decided that it was Border Patrol agents and ICE agents who had to be masked, not the people coming into our country illegally, bringing all kinds of diseases with them. They weren't worried about COVID. It was about control.

Border Patrol agents and all DHS employees were required to wear masks when fulfilling a number of official duties at a time when there was almost no enforcement of these same mask requirements for these same illegal aliens coming across the border.

In light of Democrats' attempts to manufacture the resurgence of COVID, my amendment will protect employees of the Department of Homeland Security against all tyrannical mask mandates.

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

Mr. Chair, this is laughable. This is absolutely pathetic. All the whining and complaining about shutdowns coming from Democrats, who forced shutdowns on Americans by shutting down their businesses, shutting down their freedom of speech, shutting down their churches, shutting down their playgrounds, shutting down beaches, shutting down every human right that Americans possessed, shutting down their freedoms. Listen to Democrats whining and complaining about working late at night.

Americans wanted to work late. They wanted to work all the time, but Democrats forced shutdowns. Do you know how many small businesses closed? We don't know the actual number, but it is a casualty to the American Dream. Businesses were forced to shut down, and they went out of business.

Children are behind in schooling because their schools shut down, and they were forced to stay home doing virtual schooling. We have kids all over America who can't read, can't do math, and this is all happening under the Biden administration that wants to use all of our hard-earned taxpayer resources to pay for migrant children in our taxpayer-funded schools.

Yes, it is important to have an amendment in the Department of Homeland Security appropriation bills forcing there to be no mask mandates because we know the truth: Democrats will do everything they can to bring COVID back, scare Americans, and convince them that a piece of paper strapped on their ears with rubber bands is going to protect them from the man-made COVID-19 virus that came from the Wuhan lab.

This is outrageous. I can't listen to the pathetic whining. It really is pathetic.

We remember last Congress. Last Congress, Democrats had us in here late at night practically every night. I can remember many times sitting on the House floor waiting for them to get all of their things together and voting past midnight.

This is what hard work looks like. We don't want to hear government employees getting a taxpayer-funded paycheck whining about a shutdown when this comes from the very party that shut down America, and we haven't recovered yet.

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

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

Mr. Chair, my amendment will prohibit funding for the Uniting for Ukraine program.

This is a streamlined, categorical parole process that allows an unlimited number of illegal aliens into our country from Ukraine.

There have been over 9 million illegal aliens who have invaded our country since Joe Biden took office. It is unprecedented.

Just last month, over 300,000 illegals invaded our country, the most ever recorded in a single month. Over this past weekend, Border Patrol reported there were over 11,000 illegal alien encounters in just a 24- hour period.

I deeply sympathize with the innocent people in Ukraine, especially since our government is forcing a proxy war there by funding and fueling the war instead of pushing peace in this country.

However, America is facing our own war at our southern border, and we cannot stand to address every global crisis when our own house is not in order, not safe.

We cannot afford to violate our own immigration laws on behalf of a global crisis, especially a global crisis that the United States Government is fueling and funding. The United States is fueling the war in Ukraine by sending tanks, ammunition, F-16s, and over $113 billion taxpayer dollars and counting, especially when the debate in Washington and the argument is about more money for Ukraine.

The Uniting for Ukraine process grants mass categorical parole to these individuals, which is a complete violation of our own immigration laws. Parole is to be granted on a case-by-case basis, as required by the law. Although many claim the specific process is granting parole on a case-by-case basis, based on a proven track record, this administration doesn't even know what case by case means. They just know mass migration into the United States.

Joe Biden and Secretary Mayorkas continue to abuse our immigration laws and create categorical parole for illegal aliens into our country. Secretary Mayorkas has already granted temporary legal status to 75,000 Ukrainians under the temporary protected status designation, which includes benefits such as work permits, Social Security numbers, and driver's licenses.

This Uniting for Ukraine process has no numerical cap, which means an unlimited number of illegal aliens from Ukraine can come and displace American workers. Our country needs to put American citizens first for once.

We need to win the war at the southern border that the Mexican cartels are waging on our country before granting parole to an unlimited number of individuals and allowing them to remain here for an indefinite amount of time.

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

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

Mr. Chair, I will remind the House and the American people watching at home that Democrats aren't worried about shutdowns. They love shutdowns. They shut down America for almost 2 years.

People are still suffering from the Democratic, communist shutdowns. I don't know why they keep complaining about it because they are the party that forced it on the American people while they are complaining about it for themselves. That is so pathetic.

Everyone here gets a taxpayer-funded paycheck, so don't whine about shutdowns when you shut down America on the very people who pay your salary.

Let's talk about allowing an unlimited number of Ukrainians into the country on the American taxpayer dime. This war is not supported by American taxpayers, not Americans. Over 55 percent of Americans do not want to fund it anymore.

We want to talk about funding Border Patrol agents. Let's talk about funding Border Patrol so they can secure our border, not be the welcoming committee to the entire world for the United States of America.

Mr. Chair, I ask the House to pass my amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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

Mr. Chair, my amendment uses the Holman rule, which is different from other amendments that have been introduced. This uses the Holman rule to reduce the salary of Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to $1, and $1 is too much money.

Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has aided and abetted the complete invasion of our country by deliberately flooding our Nation with drugs, terrorists, and illegals from over 160 countries from around the world.

The mission of the Department of Homeland Security States right here: ``With honor and integrity, we will safeguard the American people, our homeland, and our values.''

Being that Secretary Mayorkas has direction, authority, and control over the entire Department, he has failed in his duties to safeguard the American people and our homeland, and he deserves to be fired and impeached.

His job is to protect our homeland and strengthen the national security of our country. Yet, his policies, directives, and statements have created a national security crisis, and has tragically resulted in the deaths of thousands of Americans each year.

Since assuming office, he has allowed approximately 7.5 million illegal encounters at our border; over 250 people on the terrorist watch list to be caught crossing our border, and those are the ones we know of, approximately 1.6 million known got-aways to evade U.S. authorities. Imagine how many we don't even know about.

Just this fiscal year alone, Border Patrol arrested over 32,000 illegals with criminal convictions and over 167 MS-13 gang members.

Remember, there are 1.6 million that got away.

Are these terrorists? Are these gang members?

I am sure they are. How many of them have criminal records?

Secretary Mayorkas has allowed fentanyl, the number one killer of Americans between the ages of 18 and 45, to overwhelmingly flood into our country and kill around 300 Americans every single day. This fiscal year alone Border Patrol has seized approximately 24 pounds of fentanyl attempting to be smuggled into the United States. That is enough fentanyl to kill every single American 15 times over, but the fentanyl keeps coming because 300 Americans are dying every single day.

His open border policies have allowed unaccompanied children to be exploited, and now over 85,000 of them are unaccounted for. Where are these children?

Tens of thousands of other children have been forced into slave labor, and that is according to The New York Times.

He has provided copious amounts of baby formula to illegal aliens at one of the largest processing centers in the country, while American mothers and infants were intensely suffering from severe shortages and couldn't find baby formula on the grocery store shelves.

He flooded hospital maternity units with illegal aliens, so much so that American mothers were turned away and forced to delay inductions. That was in Yuma, Arizona.

He canceled border wall construction contracts established under President Trump that would have secured our Nation's border and was securing our Nation's border, but now the materials lay rusting on the ground.

He has repeatedly pulled border agents from actually securing our border and has moved them to processing roles, welcoming committees, leaving huge gaps for the Mexican cartels and drug smugglers to exploit and gain control of our border, and they are controlling our border.

He has violated the law by directing DHS to mass-parole illegal aliens into the U.S. when Federal law specifically prohibits this. He has encouraged asylum fraud, abused the credible fear standard, and exercised mass catch-and-release policies.

He has turned every single State into a border State. Veterans are even being kicked out of their hotel rooms to make room for illegals.

He has even caused approximately a 1,700-percent increase in just one sector of the northern border. He has not only enabled child exploitation, sex and drug trafficking, and fentanyl overdoses, but he has also done everything in his power to put Americans last.

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

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 1435, the Preserving Choice in Vehicle Purchases Act.

Democrats' radical Green New Deal agenda is once again being forced on the American people. This comes on the heels after the Biden administration has sold 40 percent of our oil reserves and none have been replenished, endangering our national security.

They passed the Green New Deal and multiple bills, the infrastructure bill, to build 500,000 electric vehicle charging stations in the U.S., even though there is no mass demand for electric vehicles. They are also forcing Americans to go net zero by 2035, a date that our current President will unlikely ever even see.

Forcing Americans to have no choice in the type of automobile that they drive, on the type of engine that they prefer is forcing every American's knee to bend to China, our worst enemy.

This is traitorous to autoworkers, traitorous to auto unions, and traitorous to every American auto consumer.

Mr. Chairman, first I would like to acknowledge all the amazing women that serve in our Nation's military and the mothers that serve in our Nation's military.

But I will respond to something I heard a few minutes ago here, the pronouncement, the actual statement that abortion is women's healthcare.

I state for the record, abortion is not healthcare in any way. Abortion is the murder of the unborn child in a woman's womb. Abortion is defined as taking a life. It doesn't save a life. It kills a life.

Abortion methods are brutal, horrific, absolutely some of the worst things in today's times; ripping the limbs off an unborn baby, ripping its head off, killing it with chemicals inside of its mother's womb.

This is not something that taxpayers should have to ever pay for. This is something that honestly should not exist. Abortion is murder, and it is evil.

We should be supporting mothers in the military. We should be supporting women's actual healthcare, and that is not abortion.

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

Mr. Chair, I rise today to ask the House to support my amendment No. 3, which will cut the $73 million increase in funding for the NATO Security Investment Program. This is simply keeping the NATO funding at the same level as last year's appropriations level. I think this is very important.

The United States overwhelmingly contributes more than our fair share to NATO for Europe's defense, and it is time for European countries to pay their dues.

While our own border is overrun by border-crossers and deadly, poisonous fentanyl daily, we continue to send hundreds of billions of dollars to NATO to defend Ukraine's democracy, even though they aren't even a NATO member nation.

Investing in NATO security is an America-last policy. All increases in funding should be investing in the United States of America's security and the defense of our own border.

President Trump was exactly right when he called on European nations to put the required minimum of 2 percent of their GDP toward NATO defense spending. Most NATO countries still don't meet that requirement, and the U.S. ends up paying for 70 percent of the alliance's defenses. This is outrageous. The American people do not like paying for other countries' defenses when our borders are overrun daily.

The current 2023 defense expenditure for NATO countries has the United States at $860 billion. The United States of America's military is not meant to be the world's police. As we find ourselves funding a war in Ukraine, when the United States' position should be pushing for peace, not paying for and not funding war and the death of innocent people, we should not increase our spending and increase the amount of funding by $73 million more to the NATO Security Investment Program.

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

Mr. Chair, perhaps my colleagues are confused. Ukraine is not a member of NATO. Ukraine has not been accepted into NATO. Why are they using defense of Ukraine for their argument for an additional $73 million increase for the NATO security investment program? That makes absolutely no sense.

If you want to talk about national security, Mr. Chair, let's talk about the American people's national security. My colleague across the aisle speaks of hostile nations and how they present a clear danger to America's national security. Well, you have to look no further than the southern border. The southern border is where hostile nations are invading our country every single day with poisonous fentanyl, which is murdering over 300 Americans a day.

If there is going to be an increase in funding for the defense of any nation, it should be the United States of America's border in defense of American lives.

Mr. Chair, I would like to add, my position and the position of most Americans is peace, not funding the murder and death in continued foreign wars, defending other countries' democracies while completely ignoring our own.

Mr. Chair, I ask the House to pass my amendment that keeps the spending level at the same level it was this previous appropriations bill--the same level. An increase in $73 million is another step towards funding world war III.

It is another step in United States aggression over a country that is not even a member of NATO in the name of a NATO security investment program. This is absolute madness. It is outrageous.

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

May I inquire how much time I have remaining?

Mr. Chair, I will wrap this up. It is very simple. We are at $32 trillion in debt. There is no need to increase spending over the level that it was last year. Americans are already spending $860 billion for NATO for the defense of other nations. There is no reason to increase it by $73 million.

My amendment is very simple: It is asking to keep the appropriations level the same as it was this past year.

Mr. Chair, I ask the House to support my amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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

Mr. Chairman, my amendment asks the House to support striking the funding for the Office of Resolution Management, Diversity and Inclusion.

The Office of Resolution Management, Diversity and Inclusion in the VA is charged with promoting woke DEI initiatives. My amendment would strike over $86 million of funding for this woke office which provides training for VA employees to teach them about their implicit bias.

Just for you to understand what implicit bias means, Mr. Chairman, because it was something I had to look up myself, implicit bias--this is ACORN--implicit bias refers to a person's unconscious attitudes about other communities that can affect their behavior to those members.

Unconscious attitudes? We are funding $86 million for people to be trained about things they feel that they don't know that they feel?

This makes absolutely no sense for the care of our great veterans.

Instead of spending millions of tax dollars on woke ideology, we should put that money toward making the VA

an agency that actually helps our heroes and our great veterans who served our military and our country and who desperately need good care.

When I am at home in my district and I speak to veterans there, that is what I hear them talk about to me constantly: is the care that they want to receive at the VA, but yet they are failed so many times?

Sick and injured veterans suffering with PTSD, depression, and mental illness and who are on the verge of suicide don't care if VA employees serving them have checked their White privilege. They just want to get the treatment that they need.

Just for some examples for the House to hear about the type of training that happens in this DEI department that is costing the American taxpayers $86 million, a few examples are managing gender diversity in the VA, managing implicit bias--remember those are feelings you don't know you have--valuing workforce diversity in the workplace inclusion; participating effective diversity and inclusion in the workplace for managers, supervisors, and team leaders; understanding micro behaviors in the VA work environment.

It is time to put $86 million to taking care of our veterans' healthcare needs. That is the right place to spend the money.

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

Mr. Chair, the great news for all of us here today is that the Constitution declared long ago that all of us are created equal. It is time that we started acknowledging that in all of our funding, in all of our departments, and all across America, and, as well, that our veterans are created equal. We don't have to spend $86 million on educating everyone on how different they are. It is time to start treating everyone equally.

As far as sexual harassment claims, private businesses all across the country are able to handle these without having special diversity, equity, and inclusion departments to handle sexual harassment. That is usually handled in human resources or among managers who can handle the situation.

Management has always been a problem in the VA. We do not need to fund $86 million creating a big, woke department that is actually already created. We should spend $86 million, again, toward helping our veterans. Our veterans have enough issues they face.

Not too long ago there was a tragic story in Georgia where one of our veterans committed suicide while waiting for the care in the waiting office at the VA. This should never ever happen.

This type of funding, $86 million, again, should not go towards educating people about gender and gender bias, educating people about their skin color, and educating people about how they think unconsciously without knowing how they think. These are the type of woke ideologies that divide and separate Americans and that veterans could care less about.

They care about the care that they will receive, they care about having their appointments, they care about their medical treatment, and they care about one another.

One of the things veterans care most about is the fact that they suffer with PTSD from all the foreign wars that they have been sent to and served in.

It is time we take better care of our veterans and stop dividing America with identity politics.

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

Mr. Chairman, I yield 30 seconds to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Mast).

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

Mr. Speaker, on January 21, 2021, I introduced Articles of Impeachment against Joe Biden, and less than 2 weeks later, I was kicked off all of my committees by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. They said it was for Facebook comments and replies and likes, but we all know the truth. It was because my Articles of Impeachment on Joe Biden were correct. He was indeed abusing his power as Vice President of the United States.

Now we have more information to prove that not only was I right then, but it was more damning than we already knew, but I will roll back. President Trump was wrongfully impeached twice, and both of these impeachments must be expunged by the House of Representatives.

Mr. Speaker, what I would like to talk about is the difference in the type of information we have. The Democrats brought out the Steele dossier. The Steele dossier was written as a Democrat political opposition research paper. The information was written by a contractor, and it was fed to the FBI with no transparency on sub sources. The contractor had no primary source information, and the FBI operationalized uncorroborated claims to secure FISA warrants on political campaign officials of the opposing political party.

Information was later debunked by Congress, the Inspector General, and special counsel investigations; but the mainstream media won Pulitzer Prizes on the bogus Russian narrative, and then they led the witch hunt leading to impeaching President Trump over a phone call with the President of Ukraine.

Mr. Speaker, let me tell the House what type of information we actually have. We have an FBI form called an FD-1023 form. Here is the difference for the public listening. On the FD-1023 form, the information originated from an FBI informant who had been relied on for many years and was considered the FBI's top informant and was also paid roughly $200,000 over multiple years by the FBI.

Information was written by the FBI agent on the official FBI form and relied on with no additional sub sources. The FBI informant was a direct ear- and eyewitness to the information provided.

The FBI apparently took no action to further the investigative claim. The FBI has refused to describe any investigative steps to assess the investigative information; therefore, it has not been debunked despite the White House's lies and false claims.

The mainstream media has largely ignored the story or parroted the White House false claims.

What does the FD-1023 form tell us?

I will tell you exactly what it says, Mr. Speaker, because not only have I read it, but I also have it in my possession right here.

This is a form that the American people and the entire public should have because it is unclassified. Nevertheless, Christopher Wray, the Director of the FBI, forced us to read it in a SCIF and would not hand it over to us.

Thankfully, Senator Chuck Grassley released this form because it was provided to him by a brave whistleblower. This form entails the damning information that then-Vice President Joe Biden took a $5 million bribe from

the oligarch that owns Burisma. Not only did Joe Biden take a $5 million bribe, so did Hunter Biden.

What did Joe Biden deliver as Vice President of the United States?

He got Viktor Shokin, the Ukrainian prosecutor general, fired from his job.

How did Vice President Joe Biden get that done?

He threatened to withhold $1 billion of USAID to Ukraine until Viktor Shokin was fired.

Do you know what, Mr. Speaker? He was fired.

In 2016 Joe Biden himself bragged to the foreign council and told them that he got him fired. He bragged about it. It is on video.

Even so, that is not all they have done. Hunter Biden has also gotten his father on the phone over two dozen times to talk with his business partners and talk with them about the business that they are doing.

Even more so, in our possession through our investigations on our Republican-led committees, we also have a WhatsApp chat from Hunter Biden which says: I am sitting here with my father, and we would like to understand why the commitment made has not been fulfilled.

Who is his father?

Joe Biden.

It continues on: Tell the director that I would like to resolve this now before it gets out of hand, and now means tonight.

What I am demanding is that the Republican-led House of Representatives move forward on an impeachment inquiry on Joe Biden because this type of corruption should never be allowed to stand.

We must expunge President Trump's wrongful impeachments, and we must impeach Joe Biden.

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

Mr. Chair, I rise today to ask the House to pass my amendment to pull the funding for the war in Ukraine.

I am the proud daughter of a Navy combat veteran who served in the Vietnam war. I am also a grateful American for the freedoms I have the great honor to possess, and I fully respect our country's brave men and women who have fought and those that died so that Americans can be free.

I believe that in order to achieve world peace, America must have the strongest military in the world but only cautiously use our tremendous force when our national security is threatened.

In recent years, we have seen our great military and those who serve our country be used too often for the defense of foreign nations, and we have far too many veterans today who suffer physically and mentally from the foreign wars they were sent to fight. We have seen too many American flag-draped caskets return home to grieving families.

While our troops are not yet on the ground in Ukraine, fighting to defend another country's border that is not our own, most Americans fear that could soon be the case because they know Washington's bloodlust for war is an addiction that seems almost impossible to be undone.

While Americans struggle with the record-high inflation caused by failed government policies, many hardworking Americans can barely pay their bills. After decades of America-last policies that have built up other countries' economies while destroying American manufacturing, sending our jobs overseas, and crippling the middle class, creating the massive divide between the rich and the poor, Americans no longer want to pay for and go fight Washington's forever foreign wars.

Yet, disconnected from the will of Americans just over a year ago, Congress voted to send $113 billion to Ukraine, a sum of money that is approximately 10 times the cost of building our own border wall. Today, we are debating the National Defense Authorization Act that contains even more money to be sent to Ukraine while the $113 billion already authorized has not yet even been spent.

The amendment I am offering today will pull the $300 million in funding to Ukraine from the National Defense Authorization Act.

The National Defense Authorization Act is one of the most important funding bills that Congress passes year after year. This is the funding of our Nation's defense. This is the funding for the Department of Defense. This is the funding for the good men and women who serve in our military.

The Department of Defense's website makes its mission clear. It says that its mission is to deter war and protect our Nation's national security.

With the Department of Defense mission being very clear in stating what the mission is, no money funding and fueling the Ukraine war belongs in our National Defense Authorization Act because this is for our Nation, not for another nation, not for Ukraine. Ukraine is not the 51st State.

Sending money to fund a war in a foreign country does not deter war, it continues it. It causes it. It enables it and it allows it. Sending money to fund a war in a foreign country against a nuclear-armed nation does not protect our national security, it endangers our national security. It endangers every single American. It endangers the entire world. We do not want World War III.

I rise today to encourage all of my colleagues to consider that they can pass another funding bill to fund money going to Ukraine without it being in our National Defense Authorization Act. I ask my colleagues and urge my colleagues to vote ``yes'' on this amendment.

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

Mr. Chairman, I again remind Congress that Ukraine is not the 51st State of America. This is not a NATO ally, and this is our National Defense Authorization Act, for our Nation, for the United States of America with 50 States.

I would also like to remind Congress that the Department of Defense has failed its audit every single year, year over year. Last year alone, they could not account for over 61 percent of their assets.

The Department of Defense is not doing a good job with the money that Congress allows for it to have for our Nation's defense, and I think that it is important, again, for everyone in Congress to realize the American people don't work hard every single day to pay for other countries' borders to be defended. They want our border defended.

We have 300 Americans dying every single day from fentanyl poisoning that is coming from China and the Mexican cartels. If our Department of Defense wants to defend America, we should be defending our border and not proclaiming our righteousness talking about a war in Ukraine.

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

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

Madam Chair, I demand a recorded vote.

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

Mr. Chair, I rise today to address the House about our National Defense Authorization Act. I want to remind the House that the National Defense Authorization Act is to fund the Department of Defense, whose mission is stated on their website. That says that their mission is to deter war and protect our Nation's national security interests.

My amendment is to stop cluster munitions or cluster munitions technology from being sold or transferred to Ukraine. Cluster bombs are brutal and inhumane weapons that cause lasting harm to civilians in areas where they are used.

When a cluster bomb is deployed, it launches multiple different submunitions, which are smaller bombs, in all different directions. The impact radius of cluster bombs varies but can be as high as several football fields. This causes more widespread destruction, imposing a greater risk to civilian areas, which kills lives. It doesn't save lives.

Also, this is an escalation in war. It doesn't deter war.

The dud rate varies per bomb, and the dud rate is very important. They can typically be anywhere between 2 percent and as high as 40 percent. These bombs are very unreliable, which makes them very dangerous.

Congress even passed a law in 2009 that says the U.S. cannot deploy or transfer cluster munitions with a dud rate higher than 1 percent, but the President can sign a waiver to bypass this restriction.

The Biden administration says that they will not deliver cluster bombs to Ukraine with a dud rate higher than 2.35 percent. Again, the dud rate is known to be anywhere between 2 percent and as high as 40 percent, which means we do not know.

Also, over 120 countries are party to the Convention on Cluster Munitions banning the use, production, transfer, and stockpiling of these weapons, including most of the U.S.'s NATO allies, which is extremely important. I remind the House that Ukraine is not a NATO member nation.

What is next? Chemical or biological weapons? Nuclear weapons?

Again, this is an escalation of war that does not belong in our Nation's funding bill for the Department of Defense.

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

Mr. Chair, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Jacobs).

Mr. Chair, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Gaetz).

Mr. Chair, I urge the House to pass this amendment. Our National Defense Authorization Act is for the funding of the Department of Defense. It is for our Nation, for the United States of America, and there should be no funding for a foreign war. There should be no weapons sent that increase war.

As a matter of fact, it leaves bombs behind for generations to come. That hurts the Ukrainian people.

For anyone to say that this must be done to help the Ukrainian people doesn't care about the innocent Ukrainian lives that will be killed for years to come from these cluster munitions.

Mr. Chair, I urge the House to pass my amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, there are a lot of things that happen here in Congress that waste the American people's hard-earned tax dollars, but one of the most outrageous wastes of hard-earned taxpayer dollars has been the Russian collusion hoax led by Adam Schiff.

Adam Schiff lied to American people by leading the fake Russian witch hunt against President Trump. He weaponized the House Intelligence Committee to abuse all principles of due process and perpetuate the lies of Russian collusion, and he did that in the media over and over again.

His committee conducted approximately 53 interviews during its 2017- 2018 Russia probe. These transcripts from the Director of National Intelligence, former Obama Attorney General, former Deputy Attorney General, and the FBI director, among others, proved that there was zero direct evidence of criminal conspiracy.

He not only refused to release these interview transcripts, but he also continued to peddle lies to the American people that Russia interfered in the elections.

He falsely claimed that Russians offered help, that the campaign accepted help, that the Russians gave help, and that the President made full use of that help when referring to allegations between President Trump and Russia during the 2016 election.

In November 2020, he specifically asked Twitter to take action against spreaders of misinformation by removing content that questioned his baseless claims of Russian collusion. The biggest spreader of misinformation was Adam Schiff.

As we know, the Mueller report determined there was no criminal collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. Thanks to the Durham report, we know now the entire Russian hoax

was bought and paid for by Hillary Clinton and the DNC.

During the probe, Schiff also abused his position on the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and violated civil liberties by subpoenaing phone records from AT&T and a former Republican colleague on an entirely baseless claim.

His lies and abuse of power continued during the sham. During the Hollywood-produced January 6 Committee witch hunt, he and his staff doctored a text message between Representative Jim Jordan and former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows to deliberately manipulate information presented to the American people. What a lie.

He displayed a graphic of a text message which cut a sentence in half--in half--and eliminated the final two paragraphs of a detailed legal summary that were contained in the original text message.

He did this to peddle more lies to the American people and to perpetuate the fake narrative that January 6 was an insurrection, and it was not.

Mr. Speaker, now Adam Schiff is running for Senate in California. California has a lot of things messed up, and California is not the model that the United States needs. As a matter of fact, their government policies are atrocious.

So if California decides to send Adam Schiff to the Senate, they will be sending a proven liar, and that is what he is aiming to do. He is raising money off of being a liar and running for Senate.

Mr. Speaker, today I announce that I am writing an appropriations rider to defund Jack Smith, Special Counsel, his office, and the investigation.

This is a weaponized government attempt to take down the top political enemy and leading Presidential candidate of the United States, Donald J. Trump. We cannot allow the government to be weaponized for political purposes.

I would also ask all of my colleagues to join me in this effort. We have to use the power of appropriations to stop the weaponization of government, especially in light that we know that there are others who are guilty of true crimes. Never forget that former Secretary of State and Senator Hillary Clinton had classified documents on Anthony Weiner's laptop, who was convicted of sexting a minor inappropriate pictures.

This is not how classified documents should be handled. There should have been an investigation done into that.

Don't forget Joe Biden's documents that are sitting in his garage next to his Corvette where the door opens and closes.

Mr. Speaker, America sees this for exactly what it is, and we will not allow it to stand.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to provide a report to the United States House of Representatives that Americans support impeachment.

Last week, I introduced Articles of Impeachment against five people who have abused the power of their positions and provided corruption and disservice to the American people.

I introduced Articles of Impeachment against U.S. Attorney Matthew Graves at the Department of Justice. Matthew Graves refuses to prosecute 67 percent of the crimes in Washington, D.C., and abuses his office in a political pursuit of people who he deems political enemies while persecuting people for January 6, people who just walked through the Capitol.

Matthew Graves must be impeached. He should prosecute criminals in Washington, D.C., that commit all kinds of crimes every single day, not care about the one day when people have already been arrested and are rotting in jail.

Last week, I introduced Articles of Impeachment against FBI Director Christopher Wray. By turning the FBI into Joe Biden and Merrick Garland's personal police force, Chris Wray has made himself a lackey of the regime.

Under Wray's watch, the FBI has intimidated, harassed, and entrapped American citizens that have been deemed enemies of the Biden regime. The FBI even raided Mar-a-Lago on August 8 of 2022 in an unconstitutional raid of a former President's home.

FBI whistleblower Garret O'Boyle told congressional investigators the FBI created a terrorist threat tag following the Dobbs Supreme Court decision in 2022.

O'Boyle confirmed that the purpose of the tag was to target pro-life individuals, and now Wray has weaponized the FBI against his own agents.

These brave FBI whistleblowers have been stripped of their salaries and their security clearances simply for coming forward and bravely telling the truth. FBI Director Christopher Wray must be impeached.

I introduced Articles of Impeachment against Attorney General Merrick Garland. Since Merrick Garland took over as Attorney General in March of 2021, he has completely weaponized the Department of Justice.

The politicization of the Department of Justice has resulted in the persecution of the left's political enemies and a real two-tiered justice system in America.

Garland has used the FBI as a personal police force for his boss, Joe Biden. The Department of Justice's persecution of Joe Biden's primary political adversary, Donald J. Trump, is antidemocratic.

Raiding the former President's home for legally declassified documents is a transparent violation of justice.

Persecuting a declared candidate for President of the United States is nothing short of election interference.

Not only that, from investigating parents who protest their local school boards to going after pro-life activists and Catholics, Merrick Garland must be impeached.

What I will tell the House of Representatives today is a Rasmussen poll was released just last week indicating that 53 percent of voters in America--Republicans, Independents, and Democrats--support the impeachment of Joe Biden for high crimes and misdemeanors.

I introduced Articles of Impeachment on Joe Biden last week because of the national security crisis at our border.

I also introduced Articles of Impeachment against Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas for failing to do his duty to secure America's border, but he is only doing the bidding of his boss, Joe Biden.

At 5 p.m. yesterday, I simply released a survey on my social media asking: Do you support impeachment?

Mr. Speaker, 8,600 people responded, and that was just from 5 p.m. last night.

Mr. Speaker, 77 percent said, yes, they support impeachment. Only 23 percent opposed. If anyone reads the comments on my Twitter account, you know for sure it is not just Republicans that follow me.

Joe Biden has deliberately compromised our national security by refusing to enforce immigration laws and secure our border.

He has allowed nearly 6 million illegals from over 170 countries to invade our country. He has caused an approximate 1,700 percent increase in border encounters in just one sector of our northern border.

Under his reign, there have been approximately 1.4 million known got- aways who have evaded U.S. authorities.

He has allowed fentanyl, the number one killer of Americans between the ages of 18 and 45, to overwhelmingly flood into our country and kill over 300 Americans every single day.

Joe Biden should be impeached.

In my district alone, we have had an increase of 350 percent of fentanyl murders.

Joe Biden must be impeached.

Mr. Speaker, I remind everyone that Republicans believe in legal immigration. As a matter of fact, we are very proud of our former first lady, Melania Trump, who immigrated legally to the United States. There is a clear difference in policies when we talk about border security for the United States of America.

I think it is very important to remind my colleagues across the aisle what our oath of office actually says. We swear an oath that we will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.

That is a very important oath to swear, and it is one to uphold, but this was not being upheld in the past 2 years under this administration.

We have seen nearly 5 million people cross our border, and it is unsustainable. As a matter of fact, on Monday, a record was set for border apprehensions.

Just yesterday, that record was defeated because they had even more border apprehensions. Two records, and I don't even know what today is yet. We don't have the numbers, but soon we will know.

The clear difference between Democrats and Republicans, when we talk about border security and about these policies, is that Democrats don't serve Americans. They serve migrants. They serve foreign countries and their borders, but not Americans, American tax dollars, and America's border.

As a matter of fact, according to the Border Patrol Chief, five out of the nine sectors are out of control and in the hands of the cartels.

Yet, the most important thing the Democrats across the aisle are attacking is the Second Amendment and taking away Americans' guns because they are claiming that will keep Americans safe from the cartels. That is insanity.

Democrats serve migrants so much that they are interested in bringing more into the country. When they talk about hiring more Border Patrol agents, it is because they want Border Patrol agents to be the welcoming committee.

H.R. 2, which I strongly support, hires more Border Patrol agents and gives them bonuses so that they can do the job that they were hired to do, which is to protect our southern border and, by the way, the lives of migrants who are dying nearly every single day as they try to cross our border.

It is really interesting. Unfortunately, this administration and the Democrats serve migrants so much more than Americans, and it seems that Biden serves any country that is willing to write him a check as long as they make it payable to the Biden family LLCs. How about that?

Title 42 lifts tomorrow.

Mr. Speaker, I have the great privilege of serving with many veterans here in Congress, and to them, I am so grateful for their service. This is also why I rise in support for this resolution, to pull our great military from Syria.

I would point out, on the official website for the U.S. Department of Defense, when it tells who the Department of Defense is on the ``about'' page, it says: We are your defense. The Department of Defense is America's largest government agency. With our military tracing its roots back to prerevolutionary times, the Department has grown and evolved with our Nation. Our mission is to provide the military forces needed to deter war and ensure our Nation's security.

That is the job of our Department of Defense, not to wage war in foreign lands and foreign countries at the expense of the American taxpayer. It is to deter war.

It is also the role of the Department of Defense to ensure our Nation's security, but our border is being ignored. Every single day, our border is invaded by thousands, and over 300 Americans die daily from fentanyl brought into our country by Mexican cartels. I would say those are the enemies we need to be focusing on, not in a country called Syria where no one in my district ever demands: ``Marjorie, we must go to war in Syria.'' I never hear that request from anyone who voted for me.

As a matter of fact, the veterans in my district say: We are sick and tired of foreign wars. We are fed up with it, and too many of our American military have died in foreign lands serving their foreign borders and their foreign causes.

I thank my colleague, Matt Gaetz, for introducing this resolution, and I strongly encourage all of my colleagues to support it.

Mr. Speaker, today I announce that I am reintroducing my bill, the Protect Children's Innocence Act. This bill will stop gender-affirming care on children. It will protect children from the heinous and evil ideology that is grooming kids and making a profit off of horrific surgeries that mutilate their genitals, give them life-altering medications like puberty blockers, hormone therapy that will have permanent damage to their bodies for the rest of their lives before these kids are even grown up, before they have graduated from high school, before they are old enough to vote, before they are old enough to get a tattoo--ink on their own skin--before they are old enough to join the military, before they are old enough to make adult decisions.

This is an important bill that Congress must pass.

My bill will charge any person who knowingly performs gender- affirming care on a minor with a Class C felony. It will prohibit all taxpayer-funded gender-affirming care. It will prohibit institutions of higher education from providing instruction on gender-affirming care.

There is nothing affirming about lying to children that they can change

their gender because you cannot change your gender.

My bill will deem aliens who are determined to have performed gender- affirming care on a minor as ineligible to receive visas or be admitted into the United States.

We need to take a strong stand in the United States of America that we do not abuse our children or sexualize them in any way.

This is an important bill that must be passed, and I will give you some examples.

In 2021, there was a father in Texas who lost custody of his twin 7- year-old sons because he attempted to stop one of the boys from transitioning his gender. The mother began transitioning the boy when he was only 2 years old and then tried to enroll him in a pediatric gender clinic at age 5. This child, this young boy, needs to be protected, and his father has the rights to do it. They didn't give him his rights.

Last summer, Boston Children's Hospital released videos promoting gender dysphoria and offering sterilization, castration, and mutilation of children. These videos not only explained its genital mutilation surgeries, but they were also promoting these surgeries to kids and their parents. By the way, this is for profit.

Also, just recently, Jamie Reed, who worked at one of more than 100 pediatric gender clinics across the United States, publicly came out to discuss the atrocities happening to children at these gender clinics.

When a female takes testosterone, the profound and permanent effects of the hormone can be seen in a matter of months. Voices drop, beards sprout, body fat is redistributed, sexual interest explodes, aggression increases, and mood can be unpredictable. One of the side effects includes sterility.

As a matter of fact, after only 4 to 5 years of taking testosterone, there have been many young women under the age of 18 that have had to have hysterectomies because of the damage done inside of them.

Even more horrific is the Governor of California, Gavin Newsom, signed a bill into law to provide refuge for trans kids and their families. This bill will protect trans kids and their families that flee to California from States like Alabama, Texas, or Idaho, or any other State criminalizing the parents of trans kids for allowing them to receive gender-affirming care.

My bill will protect these children and stop a State like California and the monsters and the groomers and the child predators in that State that look to damage them before they ever grow up.

There are many States that are working hard to protect kids, but we don't have enough States doing it. That is why it is the responsibility of Republicans in Congress to protect children.

This is imperative.

We know what the left is trying to do, and we should have listened to them when they told us. Remember the San Francisco men's choir actually singing a song announcing that they are coming for our children? That is a threat that we should not ignore.

We have had enough with drag queen shows in elementary schools and middle schools and high schools. We have had enough of drag queens gyrating in front of children in the public square.

These groomers and child predators must be stopped because they are sexualizing children for profit in a multibillion-dollar medical industry that looks to grow and grow. Something must be done to protect the sacred identity of children because God made children and God made all of us, male and female, in His image, and God doesn't make mistakes.

I urge every single Republican and all Members of Congress to cosponsor my bill. We must get it passed. This isn't just a Republican issue. This is an issue across the board. All voters agree.

Mr. Speaker, I announce that I am introducing a House Resolution to designate antifa as a domestic terrorist organization.

America has had enough of these terrorists.

Just this past weekend, antifa-affiliated rioters set fire to the future Atlanta police training facility by attacking it, an organized attack that is all captured on video. Molotov cocktails and other destructive items, fireworks were fired at police officers, and the construction site was set on fire causing much damage.

There were over 30 people arrested.

Now, here is the issue: only two of them were actually from Georgia. The rest of them were from other places in the country, and several of them were from other countries like France and Canada. One of them happened to be an

attorney for the Southern Poverty Law Center. That is disgraceful.

This all comes on the heels of antifa terrorizing Americans for years now.

Never forget in the summer of 2020, antifa caused over $2 billion in damage; setting fires to cities, businesses, attacking police officers, and killing people. Yet over 95 percent of those arrested had their charges dropped.