Floor Statements

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

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

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

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

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

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

Madam Speaker, on his first day in office, President Biden issued an executive order revoking the permit for the Keystone XL

pipeline. Instantly, 70 people in Fallon County, Montana, were out of their jobs.

This project would provide 12,000 American jobs and had already created 200 jobs in Montana alone. This picture beside me was taken in Fallon County, one of the areas the Keystone XL pipeline would have gone through. This empty lot would have been a housing complex for 1,200 workers, who would have contributed significantly to the local economy in Baker, Montana, a small town of 1,800 residents.

The cancellation of the pipeline deals Fallon County a loss of $7 million per year in tax revenue that would have been used to invest in schools, roads, and other public projects. As Fallon County Commissioner Steve Baldwin said: ``The cancellation for the XL pipeline will further exacerbate our already weakened economy. President Biden has an opportunity to signal that access to good-paying jobs is truly a priority for his administration.''

So my question is: Where are the jobs?

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in opposition to the open border policies of the Biden administration, which have created the worst border crisis in recent memory.

After the surge in 2019, the Trump administration built the wall system to secure our border, ended ``catch and release,'' and, most importantly, actually enforced our Nations' laws, making it harder and less desirable to come to our country illegally. And it worked. Illegal border crossings fell to record lows.

Unfortunately, on his first day in office, in an act of spiteful partisanship, President Biden undid all of that with the stroke of a pen. The results are clear and disturbing. February border apprehensions were tripled what they were last year under President Trump, with a number of accompanied children in custody already shattering a record.

This truly is a humanitarian crisis of our time. On the treacherous trip to our country, illegal aliens are subject to abuse, rape, gang violence, and harsh weather and terrain. Once they arrive, often they are forced into sex slavery or indentured servitude to pay off their debts to coyotes or the cartel. Open borders and amnesty are not compassionate. They are heartless. The level of human suffering taking place on the border due to President Biden's policies is truly tragic. The result of these policies was completely predictable.

When I visited the border just over a month ago, agents told me troubling stories of illegal aliens, specifically citing President Biden's immigration policies as the reason they decided to come to America. And this week, House Democrats passed amnesty measures that will only make the situation worse.

Mr. Speaker, I urge President Biden and House Democrats to reconsider, set aside partisanship, and work with us to secure our border, enforce our laws, and address the humanitarian crisis at the border before it is too late.

Madam Speaker, I was unavoidably detained. Had I been present, I would have voted ``nay'' on rollcall No. 86.

Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.

Madam Speaker, I would like to add to that. What is lost on this body many, many times over is the inhumane treatment that these many, many travelers are experiencing not only before they get to the United States but then after.

This is not the land of milk and honey for everyone, folks. There are people who are pressed into indentured servitude once they actually arrive here.

Madam Speaker, I had the privilege of going down to the Arizona- Mexico border about a month ago with the gentleman from Texas and was able to see firsthand and meet with Customs agents, Border Patrol, local law enforcement, and the farmers and ranchers. What falls on deaf ears is the terrible, terrible treatment.

Our friends from across the aisle think that they are being compassionate by opening up the border and declaring amnesty for everyone. What they don't understand is that those folks are so poorly treated by the cartels as they travel north.

You can break it into three sections.

As they travel north, these women are raped. These children are violently assaulted. They are forced and coerced

into carrying drugs across the line. And then they are forced to pay $5,000 to $7,000 to try to pay for that passage.

Once they get to the border, they are then forced to carry drugs across the border.

Once they get north and are actually in our country, what happens is, many times over, they are forced to pay 25, 30 percent of their weekly income back to a cartel, which then continues to fuel other illicit crimes.

Madam Speaker, I would absolutely agree with that. And my good friend from Texas, I think with your fabulous legal mind, you can tell me. As we have these 180 cities across the Nation and 11 States that have declared themselves sanctuary places that these folks can go to, could we say that they are complicit in these crimes when they are incentivizing these people to travel north and get trapped in these situations?

Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman.

Then the last point that I would make--as my good friend from Virginia, who was here earlier, made--and that is, it impacts every community across our Nation.

We all are border cities now. The State of Montana is very proud to host to seven sovereign nations, the reservations. What happens is they become target areas for wide distribution of methamphetamine and other illicit drugs and sex trafficking. Then, those problems begin to spill out into the other communities around there, so the entire State ends up becoming a big, big problem.

It has. The gentleman from Texas, I think, would agree that we are in a sad state when the humans across this Nation have devolved into where they now have become collateral.

The family, friends, and relatives of the people who have crossed the border illegally, their family and their friends have devolved into a place that they are collateral to make sure that the payments are made for the people who have actually crossed the border to the north.

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.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in opposition to the extreme gun control measures being pushed by the Democratic majority. Make no mistake, they are extreme and an assault on our freedoms.

The Second Amendment guarantees the right of every American to keep and bear arms. I am proud to be from the State with the highest rate of gun ownership in the Nation. In Montana, law-abiding gun owners use firearms every day and exercise their God-given liberties.

Mr. Speaker, the bills in the House this week serve only to punish responsible gun owners and take away the Second Amendment rights of Montanans.

H.R. 8 would not just require background checks for the sale of firearms but for changes of ownership and even the most temporary transfers of possession. Someone who simply hands a firearm to another person could be subject to a year in prison and a $100,000 fine.

This would include the rancher who lends his gun to a neighbor whose cattle are being harassed by coyotes or to the hunter who lends a rifle to a buddy who is going on a hunting trip. This is deeply troubling, as these scenarios are very common in Montana.

H.R. 1446 is just as bad. While it claims to close a gun-buying loophole, it would give the FBI discretion to delay firearm purchases or transfers indefinitely and could even put the burden on law-abiding citizens to prove that they are eligible to purchase a firearm.

The Framers of our Constitution did not intend for us to have to beg the government to be able to exercise our freedoms. In fact, they included the Second Amendment to make sure that we didn't have to. ``Shall not be infringed'' is extremely clear. Unfortunately, that is exactly the path that Democrats seem intent on pursuing.

I thank my colleagues who stand with me today, and I urge all of my colleagues who cherish our constitutional liberties to join me in opposing these bills and any other bill that would infringe on our Second Amendment rights.

Mr. Speaker, on this international day of women, I remind everyone that the first Member of this body who was a woman was Jeannette Rankin.

She was elected from the State of Montana in 1916 and again in 1940. She served us well; she served us admirably.

Mr. Speaker, I wanted to remind everyone that my colleagues on the other side of the aisle do not have a monopoly on having women represent them.

Madam Speaker, I object.

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