Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to stand with truth and justice, to stand with every survivor of sexual assault, and to demand the release of the Epstein files now. I say to the one man on planet Earth who has the power to do so, Mr. President, it is time to release the files.

Today, we vote on a resolution to release these files, but we have already subpoenaed them, and the President has refused to comply, engaged in a monthslong coverup right before our very eyes, threatening and pressuring Members of Congress, and even calling his own allies traitors, and this legislation a hostile act.

Well, Mr. President, the irony is not lost on us that such desperate attempts to evade accountability are at the heart of the matter itself, as the Epstein case is, at its core--its dirty, rotten core--about rich and powerful men who abuse the system to avoid accountability and who engaged in unspeakable crimes and believed that they could do anything to any woman or any little girl and get away with it because they knew their friends in powerful places would protect them or they could simply buy their way out of the justice system.

Well, we are here today to stand up with the survivors and say: Time is up. We demand accountability.

Now, it is also not lost on me that I am standing in this Chamber, in this seat of power from which wars have been launched and the fates of millions have hung, a Chamber where in the nearly 250 years of this great Nation, only 3 percent of the people who have ever stood here on this floor have been women. That is why we must stand up, why we must demand accountability, why we are not saying ``pretty please.'' We are engaged in a criminal investigation of criminal behavior in a justice system that has failed women and girls who were raped and who were abused and of the powerful people who never were held to account.

We are not, Mr. President, as you have asked us, just going to move on. We will continue to pursue justice to the end.

Let me tell you about this investigation, about the evidence that has come in just in the last week from documents produced by the Epstein estate, including over 1,600 mentions of you, Mr. President. There are emails, court documents, and statements about a lawsuit by a woman accusing Donald Trump of rape at Jeffrey Epstein's house, whether it happened or not. There is a sexual assault suit against Epstein in which Donald Trump appears to have been subpoenaed, served, and deposed. There are sworn statements and court documents from a 16-year- old who was recruited at Mar-a-Lago and then raped and groomed, not only by Jeffrey Epstein, but his rich and powerful friends.

There were statements from Epstein himself, who said Trump knew about the girls. In fact, Trump, by his own admission, knew that Epstein and Maxwell were recruiting young girls from Mar-a-Lago. There were also statements that Trump was at Epstein's house, including with girls, in which Epstein bragged about having pictures and passing a woman to Trump, and noted that Trump spent hours with one of the victims and was the ``dog that hasn't barked.''

These files also include financial transactions between Epstein and Trump. There are discussions of financial affairs, potential money laundering, including in real estate deals. There was also an admission by Jeffrey Epstein himself that he was facing a mandatory minimum of 10 years in Federal prison, yet the DOJ failed to prosecute him. There are statements by Epstein that he believes that Donald Trump was involved in the case.

I say to the American people: There is a mountain of evidence in front of your very eyes. Believe your eyes. It is right there in front of us.

Mr. President, let me say this to you: You can run, but you cannot hide because the survivors know what happened.

To every woman and little girl who has wept or felt shame or believed that you were alone or that the system had failed you, to every parent who has feared the absolute worst, and to every survivor who believed the system was rigged against them, know that you are not alone. We see you. We are fighting for you, and we will not stop.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to say: Welcome back to the House of Representatives.

This is our first full week back after the shutdown and the 54 days of lockout that we experienced here in this Chamber, after a completely wasteful, avoidable, and painful shutdown that not only harmed families, workers, and our communities but cost our country billions of dollars. It did not result, ultimately, in the fight to end the attacks on our healthcare.

Mr. Speaker, rather than coming back this week after our shutdown, the longest shutdown in history, to address the real issues that were at the heart of this debate--lowering healthcare costs, addressing the healthcare cliff, addressing the cost of food, and addressing the cost of housing--what are we doing here this week? We are attacking our public lands and opening them up for oil and gas drilling.

This week, our colleagues across the aisle, fresh from their multiweek vacation, have come with a whole slew of special asks by special interests from the oil and gas industry.

We have H.J. Res. 130, the Congressional Review Act, to reverse a resource management plan that was developed with Tribal consultation and public benefit to open the door to coal development in an area where communities have been abundantly clear that they do not want these attacks on these public lands because of the threats it poses to climate change, public health, and to their future.

Why are they ignoring what these communities have already said? Yet, here we are voting on legislation this week that would repeal community-based strategies to protect our public lands.

All three of the CRA measures that are scheduled to be voted on this week are literally put forward to open some of our Nation's most sacred and treasured places. This includes opening protected areas in the Arctic that are not only important to protect for ecological reasons and wildlife but for cultural reasons.

These are areas that our colleagues know that Tribal communities have fought for generations to protect. These are areas that our colleagues know are sensitive. These are areas that we know during the first Trump administration, when they tried to sell them off to the lowest bidder, the oil and gas industry didn't even want to drill there.

Yet, here they are trying to reverse the protections that have been put in place to protect not only these important lands in the Arctic, but these sacred lands.

Mr. Speaker, these bills not only impact these lands but are part of a larger pattern that we see in this administration of revoking previous protections that have been put in place to respect not only the ecological importance of lands but also sacred places.

In fact, during the shutdown, Tribes in my district received notice that the administration was considering repealing the protections for Chaco Canyon.

Mr. Speaker, you should understand what Chaco Canyon is. It is a global World Heritage Site. It is a sacred site. It is a place generations of Pueblo and Dine Navajo people have come to pray.

It is a place where on a cold morning standing on top of the mesa overlooking Pueblo Bonito, you can see the ancient cities, kivas, and sacred sites not just below but that stretch out across a landscape as far as the eye can see.

It is a place where you can walk in the footsteps of people who built these structures and you understand why it is sacred. It is the ancestral homeland of the Pueblo people. It is a place today where religious leaders and community leaders continue to come for their religious practices. It is a place that we have fought to protect for generations.

Yet in the middle of the longest government shutdown, as Tribes could not even get basic programs and services to operate, could not figure out if their grants and their programs were able to continue to operate, could not get access to lands that were important to them, this administration had the gall to send a letter to our Tribes saying that they were going to revoke protections.

Mr. Speaker, I am here to say we will fight back, and we will defeat this effort.

Mr. Speaker, it is like the changing of the seasons. There is a consistent pattern across our economy year after year. Democrats rescue and build an economy that empowers workers, that invests in American-made jobs, that invests in our infrastructure and our people just as we did in passing the largest bills in generations over the last several Congresses: the bipartisan infrastructure bill, the CHIPS and Science Act, and the Inflation Reduction Act, which not only invested millions of dollars in communities all across the United States but created countless jobs and opportunities for our people.

Just like that, a President like the current President comes in, just as he has done twice, and drives up the deficit, borrows against our children's futures, and takes American taxpayer dollars to give billionaires permanent tax credits. Unemployment rises, families fall behind, and the damage is done. Then we are called upon to pick up the pieces once again, put people back to work, and restore stability to our economy.

If you are wondering what season we are in now, all you have to do is take a look at the headlines: ``Grocery inflation highest since 2022 as Trump tariffs pile on.'' Or this one: ``Poorer Americans hit hardest as tariffs fuel price rises.''

Mr. Speaker, it is a cold winter for families across America under Trump's America, under his failing economic plan, and tariffs that are not even legal and which this House of Representatives, under the GOP, voted yesterday on a rule with language to abrogate their constitutional authority to rein him in. I watched them flip the votes on the floor as they gave away our constitutional authority to hurt American workers.

Long-term unemployment is reaching heights we haven't even seen since the beginning of the pandemic. Grocery prices are more expensive than they have ever been. Inflation is forcing Americans to live on credit cards. Housing is so expensive that young people can't even move into their own homes. People can't access the most basic healthcare in this country right now. That is Trump's economy.

As we take stock of where this economy stands today, I think it is pretty damn clear why Donald Trump went bankrupt six times. He is literally bankrupting this country and the hardworking people that are its backbone. The livelihoods of our communities are on the line, not poker chips in one of his Atlantic City casinos.

These are farmers, ranchers, working people, families whose lives hang in the balance.

In New Mexico, our farmers are being crushed under the weight of these tariffs, losing export markets, watching the USDA programs, that once purchased homegrown, healthy foods to put into our schools and food banks, dry up.

Here is another headline: ``Farmageddon. Many U.S. farmers are warning that they are at a breaking point,'' a breaking point, just like our families, farmers who depend on reliable markets.

When the President imposes tariffs on our allies, depending on which way the wind is blowing on any given day, he forces hardworking people in this country into financial ruin.

The result is only the largest corporations and the rich get richer, driving the prices up, driving small farmers out, consolidating our food system, and pushing the American Dream, just basic dignity, further out of reach for our people.

For me, this is personal, Mr. Speaker, because I grew up in a working family where people in my family worked multiple jobs and still struggled to get by, where we didn't have access to healthcare, where we didn't always have access to reliable housing.

Mr. Speaker, this is personal. In New Mexico, there are thousands of families who are struggling just to make it to the end of the month.

I will say that, despite the darkness, New Mexico is leading the way and showing what it looks like to lead with integrity and invest in an economy that will make it possible for families to thrive.

In fact, in just a couple of weeks, on October 1, our State legislature will convene in the wake of Republicans' disastrous big, ugly bill, which will gut healthcare and food assistance programs, to actually shore up the programs that will save and support thousands of lives in our State. They will invest in food and healthcare programs and fix the public broadcasting funding that my colleagues on the other side of the aisle blew a hole through when the majority passed the rescissions package.

Perhaps the most consequential legislation and policies that New Mexico has announced in the last several weeks are that we are now officially the first State in the Nation ever in the history of this country to guarantee universal free childcare. That is going to put over $12,500 back into the pockets of every working family in New Mexico.

That is real money. That is money for putting a roof over your head. That is money for putting food on the table. That is money to go back to school. That is what it looks like when you invest in working families.

In addition to that, New Mexico is the only State in the Nation that guarantees free college. Whether you want to go to trade school or get a higher education degree in graduate school, in New Mexico, you are going to do it without debt because we understand that the future of our country, economy, and communities depends on investing in people, not taking away the vital programs that support them.

Every day, I am working on behalf of our communities to invest in early childhood education, entrepreneurial

programs, bringing millions of dollars home for infrastructure, youth programs, healthcare, behavioral health, and clinics back in New Mexico because we know that that is how you deliver for real working people.

Mr. Speaker, the seasons may change, but we know this cycle is going to go on. Families in New Mexico and across the Nation are going to continue to pay the price for your billion-dollar tax breaks.

Americans literally cannot afford this economy. They can't afford this administration or the GOP's leadership here in this House.

That is why we are here to speak up, speak out, fight back, and stop the damaging programs that are eviscerating our economy and harming our communities. We know the season will change, and we know we will come back and invest in hardworking American families. Until then, we call upon our States, Tribal, and local leaders to do what they can. They should know that we are here in the fight for real Americans.

Mr. Speaker, violence is never the answer, but neither is silence.

We must reject political violence in all of its forms and push back against all who would seek to stoke further violence, division, and fear amongst us. In fact, the very foundation of our democracy is built on the idea that the voices of our people are our most powerful tool, exercised at the ballot box, the debate podium, and in our communities. That is how we come together as a nation to form a more perfect Union.

Indeed, the very concept of democracy was forged in that crucible, that a government by the people and for the people is exercised through the fellowship of debate.

Let us join in that fellowship to see our fellow Americans as brothers and sisters, as neighbors and friends, even when we disagree. Yet, let this not become a moment to silence debate or silence dissent or silence the truth or those of conscience who work to hold our leaders accountable and right the wrongs of an unjust world. That is how history will remember us: those who stood, those who spoke, and those who fought to protect our democracy and bend the arc of history toward justice.

Mr. Speaker, I am here tonight to stand union strong with our workers across America and in solidarity with my sister from New Jersey, Representative McIver.

We stand union strong, labor strong, America strong, and worker strong.

Mr. Speaker, I think it is notable, as we stand on this floor tonight, that there is not a single Republican here to stand with our workers.

Let's be honest: When my colleagues across the aisle say that they stand for American manufacturing and American jobs, they don't mean that they stand with American workers. They are there to stand with the corporations and the people who line their pockets off of the sweat of the hardworking men and women who actually do the work in this country.

Unfortunately, as I look around this floor this evening, I don't see a single one of them standing in solidarity.

Under this administration, we have seen an unprecedented attack on our unions and worker protections. Protections that keep our workers safe from

injury, illness, and death on the job, all to shield employers from accountability and to increase their profits.

Instead of standing with workers, they weakened rules on overtime, rolled back safety standards, and gutted protections for wage theft. If you want any indication where the current President stands on the Department of Labor and American workers, all you have to do is walk down the street and you will see a three-story picture, not of the American worker on the front of the Department of Labor, but of Donald Trump's face, who spent American taxpayer, hard-earned dollars to put his face on the Department of Labor, which is the United States agency that is supposed to demand protections for our workers.

Now, for me this isn't just political. It is personal because I grew up in a labor family. My mother was a factory seamstress. In fact, she sewed 79,000 pockets on jeans and tried to organize a garment workers union at her factory and was fired for trying to demand fair wages for factory seamstresses like herself and thousands of women and people across the country who work every day for this country.

She was fired for daring to demand better conditions and higher pay, but it is her grit and her determination and her belief in the dignity of workers that I carry with me into this Chamber every day because even upon her firing for trying to organize as a factory worker, my mother became one of the first women operating engineers to work on heavy equipment in the State of New Mexico. That is the spirit I see all across our State.

Just last week, we stood in solidarity with striking workers and our Teamsters local at the Creamland Dairy fighting for fair wages and safe conditions. That solidarity has resulted in a fair wage and a new labor contract for those workers.

At the University of New Mexico, we stood with graduate students who were holding work-ins as they demand a fair contract. We stood with SEIU and our residents in our medical schools who are demanding fair pay. We are standing with our teachers who are demanding fair pay. And we stood with the Wells Fargo workers in Albuquerque who made history in becoming the first unionized branch ever in the history of this country. It was that solidarity, when we stood with 80,000 flight attendants stuck in endless negotiations, which helped us to get fair wages and a new contract for our flight attendants.

That is what it means to stand for workers. It is not just speeches and pictures on buildings, but it is action in standing with our unions and standing for fair pay because, Mr. Speaker, the theme here is simple: Workers just want a fair shot and they want dignity.

Unfortunately, under this administration, the rug is being pulled out from under their feet. It is shameful, dangerous, and it flies in the face of everything that this country was built on because let us not forget that unions built this country.

It is unions that gave us the weekend. It is unions that gave us the 5-day workweek. It is unions that gave us overtime pay. It is unions that gave us safe workplaces. It is unions that gave us fair wages. Every worker in America benefits from the courage of organized labor and every man and woman who has stood for their fellow workers.

Mr. Speaker, I will end with this. I know where I stand. I stand with my mother and the countless generations that come before us of workers across the United States and in my home State who stood with the American worker. We will always stand for unions, we will always stand for labor, and we will always stand for the American worker.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today with a grateful but sad heart to honor the life of U.S. Senator Fred Harris, a tireless champion for justice, democracy, and the people of New Mexico and Oklahoma.

Senator Harris fought for Native American and civil rights, returned sacred lands to our Tribes, and helped advance the Great Society programs that have lifted millions out of poverty.

His impact goes far beyond his time in the Senate. He created the Fred Harris fellowship that has brought hundreds of UNM students to Washington, D.C., to give them firsthand experience in public service. He was a mentor, an educator, a dear friend, and a hero to so many in our State and across the Nation.

While we grieve his passing, his legacy will live on in the countless people whose lives he has touched and who continue to fight for justice he dedicated his life to and the legacy this United States leaves behind.

Mr. Chair, I rise in opposition to the amendment.

Mr. Chair, I rise in opposition today to this amendment and in defense of our Nation's servicemembers.

Our ranking member and the chairman have negotiated a bipartisan NDAA, which invests in military pay raises, quality of life, and many important aspects for military readiness. We should be focused on that in the National Defense Authorization Act, not another amendment bullying trans people.

If you ever needed proof that trans folks live rent free in the minds of my GOP colleagues, then look no further than this amendment because there are literally no known and out transgender people serving in our academies right now because of the transgender military ban.

So what is this amendment all about?

The GOP obsession with bullying trans people is weird. It is invasive. It is abusive. It is discriminatory, and it is dangerous to our military readiness.

I want to remind my colleagues that words have power. You are standing in one of the most powerful institutions not only in the United States but in the world, and my colleagues are using this platform to bully a population that is vulnerable here in the United States.

I have to say: If my colleagues across the aisle are so genuinely concerned about the well-being of women who are serving in the military and sexual violence, how about actually addressing that and the 45 percent of women who have reported that they have been sexually harassed just last year alone? Dare I say: If my Republican colleagues are concerned about sexual violence and deviance, how about they release the Epstein files? How about that?

This amendment reflects a sustained, targeted, villainization of the trans community and the LGBTQ+ community that continues day after day on this floor.

The trans community represents only about 1 percent of the population, as we understand it, but you wouldn't actually think that listening to this Chamber because they are spending time that we should be talking about military readiness and our national security to bully trans people at our service academies.

This has nothing to do with service to this great Nation or our national security. I say to my colleagues: Let's get back to work on behalf of the American people and defeat this disgusting and hateful amendment.

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

Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as she may consume to the gentlewoman from Oregon (Ms. Bonamici).

Mr. Speaker, I remind us that we are here to talk about the National Defense Authorization Act and to stand with our servicemembers who proudly signed up to serve this great Nation. We will continue to stand with our servicemembers.

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

Mr. Chair, I demand a recorded vote.

Mr. Chair, I am proud to represent a district with among the highest proportion of Active-Duty servicemembers and veterans in the United States, men and women who put their lives on the line every day and embody New Mexico's tradition of service and sacrifice, because service is a part of who we are.

As written, there is so much important bipartisan work in this bill. It puts our soldiers and their families first. It delivers a 3.8 percent pay raise across the board, increases food allowances, strengthens education for military kids, expands access to dental care under TRICARE, and invests in modernizing our military to keep America safe.

It includes report language, which I am so grateful, on a bipartisan basis that the committee worked with us to help clean up unexploded ordinance in Tribal lands in New Mexico. This is the best of what America has to offer; true bipartisan work.

Mr. Speaker, so that is why I say to my colleagues across the aisle: Please don't blow up this bill. Our troops need this bill. Don't add poison pill riders that undermine our national security, that weaken our military, and make our Nation less safe just to appease a small fraction of their base.

We know that there are culture amendments that are teed up for later today that undermine support for Ukraine, that undermine environmental protections, and, yes, that undermine the readiness of our force by continuing to attack both women and LGBTQ+ servicemembers. That is the worst of our country.

I ask my colleagues across the aisle to do what is right for our military, for our country, and for our national security, and to preserve the base bill.

Mr. Speaker, I have to say that I am always amazed, disturbed, and sometimes can't believe what I hear on this floor.

We are sitting here today as a government shutdown is looming. Survivors of the crimes committed by Jeffrey Epstein and his associates are here on this campus sharing their harrowing and heartbreaking stories. A court has just ordered that Trump's illegal tariffs have been put in place and are harming Americans and violating the law, and the President is deploying our brave men and women who serve in the National Guard to occupy American cities.

What is the GOP's agenda for this week, crammed into this one resolution that we are here to debate? There is one fake appropriations bill that they know will never pass, three resolutions to undermine protections for the environment, one resolution snuck in during the dark of night to reconvene the January 6 commission to try to rewrite history, and one resolution designed to provide Donald Trump and the White House cover in one of the largest Epstein coverups that we have seen.

This isn't about protecting people. We have a bipartisan discharge petition right there at the Clerk's desk. If my colleagues would like to see the files released, the two of you who are in this Chamber right now could literally walk down there and sign that petition right now. But you don't want the files released. You want it controlled by the Oversight and Government Reform Committee because, if you did, you would sign that petition right there that would release those unredacted files.

Mr. Speaker, let's also be clear. Donald Trump issued a statement today that said to all of you, you Republicans here in this Chamber, that if you sign that discharge petition, he will count it as a hostile act. That is right. The United States President is threatening members of his own party in this Chamber from signing a petition that would release the full, unredacted Epstein files.

Mr. Speaker, my question is: What are they hiding? Who are they protecting, and why are our colleagues failing to have a backbone not only to stand up for the survivors but to stand up for the American people?

Madam Speaker, it is with great pride and a bit of sadness that I rise today to say goodbye for now and thank you to my dear friend, and one of Congress' greatest champions for our public lands, Mr. David Brooks, who officially retires this week.

Over the last 38 years, David has served as an exceptional leader in the United States Senate and House, serving over the last 36\1/2\ years as counsel to the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. He is the longest tenured ENR counsel in history, working for eight different Senate chairs and ranking members and one House Member.

During this time, David has worked on bills protecting nearly 25 million acres of public lands, 25 million acres of wilderness, national parks, monuments, wild and scenic rivers, heritage areas, national recreation areas, and trails.

He helped to write, negotiate, and pass one of the largest conservation bills in modern history with the passage of the Great American Outdoors Act. He helped to create permanent and mandatory funding for The Land and Water Conservation Fund, which has protected public lands across the country.

During his service, he helped craft 10 of the largest and most significant public land and water packages in decades, including helping to pass hundreds of individual bills and creating nearly 50 new national park units and 17 million acres of new national wilderness.

As counsel to two New Mexico Senators, he also helped to protect the Valles Caldera, Organ Mountains, and Columbine-Hondo Wilderness and many other efforts to protect the lands and waters of our State.

As you can see, Madam Speaker, the impact of David's work speaks for itself. To any American who has stood in wonderment and awe of our Nation's public lands and most special places, behind the ever- contested efforts to protect these lands, year in and year out, has stood the humble and steadfast work of David Brooks.

For those of us who know David as I do, Madam Speaker, as a mentor, as a friend, and as a teacher, you know more than anything he would hate this speech. In fact, I am amazed that he is even here today in this Chamber to be recognized for his service. That is because the David we know and love has spent his entire career at his desk writing and negotiating bills, meeting constituents, working with Members, mentoring staff, and, yes, spinning the occasional tale or two.

For anyone who has visited that hub, or tornado, of activity, you know what I am talking about. David's office has always been a meeting place for debate, big ideas, tough conversations, and getting things done.

For those of us who have had the pleasure of working directly with David, we know him as a kind and wise teacher, mentor, and guide. This too will be his legacy of his time here in Congress, and for that we are forever grateful.

He will also be known as a true Tucsonan, who never lost his connection and roots to his hometown of Tucson, Arizona.

A hometown hero in his own right, David began his political career in high school volunteering for another Tucson icon, the great Congressman Raul Grijalva, cutting his teeth as a high school volunteer for one of Mr. Grijalva's school board campaigns in which Congressman Grijalva became the city's first Chicano school board members in history.

After graduating from the University of Arizona, David came to Washington in 1987 to work for the great Congressman Morris K. Udall where he worked in the House Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs, now known as the House Natural Resources Committee.

Like Mo Udall and Raul Grijalva, whom he worked for, two of our greatest public lands champions, David leaves the Hill with exceptional service and an unmatched record in protecting our Nation's public lands.

If it is not already clear, Tucson has a lot to be proud of, which is why we are so grateful that some of Mr. Grijalva's former staff, staff from the House Natural Resources and Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee and conservation organizations working across the country, have joined us here today. We certainly know that John and Carol, his parents back home, and his wife, Celeste, and son, Ben, who are here with us today, are deeply proud as well.

Above all else, we are going to miss David Brooks and his constant presence on the Hill. For so many of us David has been a rock, a friend, and a person whose loyalty, kindness, and decency stands out in a place where it is hard to come by.

David Brooks is a one of a kind, an American classic, and a Tucson hero. We congratulate him on his new retirement.

Mr. Speaker, we are here today to say hands off our Social Security because Social Security is not a luxury. It is not a handout. It is a sacred trust, a promise that we make to Americans that the hard-earned money that they pay into the system will be there when they need it--our seniors, our children who have lost a parent, people in our communities who live with disabilities.

It is the lifeline that sustains our communities, our seniors. It is a promise that they can live their lives with dignity.

I am here today with my dear colleague, Congressman John Larson, to not only say hands off our Social Security but also to introduce a bill with that name.

This bill will protect Social Security from an administration that is trying to systematically dismantle it. It will protect benefits. It will stop the privatization of benefits. It will stop staffing cuts and closures, protect privacy and data, and protect the proud men and women who go to work every day to serve our seniors at the Social Security Administration.

Mr. Speaker, these are the American people's benefits, and we are fighting to ensure that not only are they here today and tomorrow but for future generations to come.

That is why I am so proud to be in this fight with my dear colleague, the man, the legend, the Congressman who has fought for Social Security for so many years, Ranking Member John Larson of Connecticut.

Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Connecticut (Mr. Larson), the ranking member.

Mr. Speaker, I am so proud and honored to be in the fight with the ranking member and, more importantly, to be in the fight for America and for our veterans, seniors, and children.

Let's do this, America. Let's protect Social Security.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor Gary Allen, who just retired as the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers Western Territory General Vice President and was the President of Local Lodge No. 794 in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Mr. Allen was first initiated into IAM Local Lodge No. 794 in 1979 upon his employment at the General Electric Aircraft Engine Plant.

Following his father Ray's example. Mr. Allen involved himself in the IAM very early in his career at General Electric by being elected Area Steward in 1981. Only one year later, he was elected First Shift Steward, and by 1983, he was elected Chief Steward, overseeing the activities of all shop stewards on all shifts at General Electric. Mr. Allen also served as Local Lodge Auditor, Labor Relations Negotiating Committee member, Organizing Committee member, and as a delegate to then District Lodge 183.

In 1985, at the age of 24, Mr. Allen became President and Directing Business Representative of Local Lodge 794, representing members at a variety of shops including General Electric, Greyhound, Fruehauf Trailers, and Arkansas Best Freight. He held this position until 1989, when he was appointed Special Representative for the Western Territory.

In 1991, Mr. Allen became a Grand Lodge Representative, and in 1996, he was appointed as the Territorial Organizing Leader for the Western Territory, where he coordinated the organizing activities throughout the Western Territory. Mr. Allen was then moved to IAM Headquarters in 1997 as a Coordinator for Collective Bargaining and later that year was appointed Aerospace Coordinator in the newly-formed IAM Aerospace Department where he coordinated collective bargaining throughout North America with aerospace companies such as General Electric, RollsRoyce, Pratt & Whitney, Hamilton Sundstrand, and Raytheon among others.

In 2003, Mr. Allen was appointed to serve as the Western Territory's Administrative Assistant, where he served in that capacity until 2009, when he was elected General Vice President of the Western Territory.

Since 2012, Mr. Allen has represented the IAM as a trustee on the IAM National Pension Fund, the 6th largest multiemployer pension fund in the United States with approximately $8.4 billion in assets, providing over 80,000 retirees and beneficiaries with retirement security.

Since 1991, Mr. Allen has also served his community as an Executive Board member for the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement (LCLAA), becoming a Vice President of the Board in 2010.

One thing is clear: Mr. Allen has dedicated his life to ensuring his fellow union members are treated with the dignity and respect they deserve both on and off the jobsite. His decades of knowledge and leadership will be missed not just at IAM, but across the union world as a whole. I wish him the best in his retirement.

Mr. Chair, I rise in the strongest opposition to this defense spending bill because, once again, in the dark of night, the GOP is passing bills, stripping the American people of their safety, security, and support.

Last night at 3 a.m., the Senate shoved through a dangerous rescissions package that guts foreign aid and public broadcasting.

Just this morning, the OMB Director suggested that he was just getting started and didn't care whether or not the appropriations process proceeded as our Founding Fathers and the Constitution imagined it. He said it should be more partisan and that he would continue to send rescissions packages like the one that they passed on the Senate floor last night.

Let us be clear. The White House and an unelected bureaucrat are trying to steal the power of the purse and to steal the power of the people.

To my colleagues across the aisle, it is happening under their watch. They are allowing it, enabling it, and giving away our constitutional authority to a corrupt and chaotic administration, while trying to pass fake bills like the one they have on this floor right now.

It will weaken our military readiness, abandon our allies, and strip servicemembers of tools, training, and pay. It will undermine our national security and abandon our troops and, yes, make the world less safe.

Mr. Chair, I ask my colleagues across the aisle what they are doing. How can they abandon the American people, the Constitution, our troops, and our national security? It is time to stand up and grow a backbone and vote ``no.''

Mr. Speaker, you guys are so weak that you won't even vote to release the files. It is 11:20 p.m. in the middle of the night, and once again, you are trying to jam your dark agenda through Congress in the dark of night.

It makes me wonder: Have you even read this bill? I mean, really, because this bill rescinds $9 billion for international aid, public health, and public media. It will make America less safe. It will undermine our national security. It will threaten lives across the world and kill children.

On top of that, it undermines our Constitution, the power of the people, the power of the purse, and the separation of powers in our Constitution, as Russell Vought, OMB, and the architects of Project 2025 are trying to use this rescission bill to undermine the power of Congress.

That is why we will vote ``no,'' a ``hell no'' to the blatant power grab that it represents in the face of the chaotic and corrupt administration and Congress that is stealing from our people.

Mr. Speaker, I rise with a heavy heart and tears in my eyes to honor the three lives lost this week in the catastrophic floods in Ruidoso, New Mexico, including two young children visiting Ruidoso from El Paso. Their father, an airman from Fort Bliss, remains in critical condition. The third, Benjamin Feagin, dreamed of retiring in the forests above Ruidoso.

We grieve in solidarity with Ruidoso and with the communities in central Texas that have been hit by these devastating floods. Today, we hold them in our hearts, in our minds, and in our prayers and stand ready to support our communities as they rebuild and recover.

Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from New Mexico (Mr. Vasquez).

Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Escobar).

Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from New Mexico (Ms. Leger Fernandez).