Matt Gaetz

Mr. Speaker, all the talk in Washington is about whether we will have this flavor of a continuing resolution for government funding or that flavor of a continuing resolution.

What that does is it presents the entire funding of the United States Government as an up-or-down vote, an up-or-down proposition. That is precisely the reason we are nearly $38 trillion in debt.

We have to break the fever dream of governing by omnibus spending bill and continuing resolution, and we have to get to single-subject spending bills where these agencies have to defend their budget in its programmatic review.

The reason that doesn't happen is because the lobbyists and the special interests who run this town and who own the leaders on both sides want it that way. They don't want any itemized review.

We have to get back to those single-subject bills or we will continue this path we are on where we are adding $1 trillion in debt to the national debt every 100 days.

The American people don't want it. Only the folks in Washington want it, and I am going to keep demanding a change in the way we think, breaking the fever dream, and getting back to single-subject bills. I will vote against these continuing resolutions.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to recognize the occasion of the commissioning of United States Ship (USS) Richard M. McCool Jr. (LPD- 29) at Allegheny Pier, Naval Air Station (NAS) Pensacola in Pensacola, Florida, on Saturday, September 7, 2024.

The USS Richard M. McCool Jr. is a 680-foot San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock produced by Ingalls Shipbuilding of Pascagoula, Mississippi, and assigned the identification of LPD-29. The vessel was laid down on April 12, 2019, launched on January 5, 2022, and christened on June 1 1, 2022. The vessel was sponsored by Shana McCool and Kate Oja, the granddaughters of the vessel's namesake.

The USS Richard M. McCool Jr. is named in honor of Captain Richard Miles McCool Jr., United States Navy, who received the Congressional Medal of Honor for gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty as commanding officer of the USS Landing Craft Support (Large)-122 during operations from June 10-11, 1945, against enemy Japanese forces in the Ryukyu chain during the Battle of Okinawa.

The commissioning will be attended by the 78th Secretary of the Navy, the Honorable Carlos Del Toro; local, state, and federal elected officials; community and military leaders; the vessel's commanding officer, Captain Jeffrey Baker; and the devoted officers and crew of the USS Richard M. McCool Jr.

The commissioning of the USS Richard M. McCool Jr. is the seventh such ceremony to be planned by the Greater Pensacola Commissioning Committee and the Navy League of Pensacola, led by Rear Admiral Donald P. Quinn, United States Navy (Retired), and it is the fifth to be held at NAS Pensacola. The City of Pensacola and Northwest Florida enjoy a strong Naval heritage and are honored to host this event.

Mr. Speaker, on behalf of the United States Congress, I am privileged to recognize the momentous occasion of the commissioning of the final USS Richard M. McCool Jr. at NAS Pensacola in Pensacola, Florida, the Cradle of Naval Aviation.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to notify the House of the creation of the Congressional El Salvador Caucus for which I will serve as chairman and for which I have appointed the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Vicente Gonzalez) to serve as the bipartisan co-chairman.

Congressman Gonzalez has extensive relationships and insights drawn from his time in El Salvador and throughout Latin America, and undeniably, that will assist in leading the caucus.

Mr. Speaker, El Salvador's President, Nayib Bukele, has converted El Salvador from the murder capital of the world into a reliable and stable partner for peace and security for the United States of America.

The Congressional El Salvador Caucus will exist to nurture and advance the U.S.-El Salvador relationship, to encourage strong borders, strong culture, and the strong reforms that President Bukele has put into effect.

They have defeated the gangs. They have put prosperity on the march in El Salvador. Even the 70,000 people who are incarcerated in that country are not just seeing their lives wasted away.

President Bukele has instituted a zero-leisure policy where they are now restoring buildings and murals and actually rebuilding the country that so many of them have a hand in ravaging through gang warfare.

The purpose of this caucus will be to vindicate the choices that President Bukele has made that, indeed, strengthen the U.S.-El Salvador relationship.

El Salvador's resurgence has not existed as a consequence of falling for the siren song of globalism. Instead, President Bukele believes that the way El Salvador can lead within Central America and, indeed, throughout the West, is by being the best version of itself; not being excessively reliant on some of these globalist institutions.

President Bukele has delivered instant justice to the satanic gangs and the endemic political corruption, but, in fact, no good deed goes unpunished.

Too often, our own government and even some Members of this Congress mount attack after attack on El Salvador and President Bukele, presumably because the comeback that El Salvador is having is a living, breathing indictment of other failed ideologies.

Through the inspiration from El Salvador's astonishing transformation, the great American rejuvenation can become a reality as well, so that we can experience a triumphant return of safety and prosperity that we once inspired in others.

I invite my colleagues in the House and Senate to contact our office. We would love to have them as Members of the Congressional El Salvador Caucus as we strengthen the U.S.-El Salvador relationship and as we work to amplify some of the good decisions that are being made by President Bukele and his government. We hope that these good ideas have legs and can travel and can be copied and implemented for a more stable world.