Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize Mr. Phil Friedman for his distinguished career and philanthropic contributions to our country. As we celebrate the 250th anniversary of American independence, Mr. Friedman received the United States Golden Jubilee Visionary Award at Project Legacy's America 250 Gala at the Library of Congress on July 14, 2026. He was recognized for 50 years of entrepreneurship and business leadership in the United States.

A man of humble origins, Mr. Friedman arrived in the United States in 1976--our Nation's bicentennial year--after 12 tiresome years laboring in the electronics industry of the former Soviet Union. He and his wife left behind the discrimination and antisemitism of the embattled Soviet state to settle in New York City. Phil was driven, ambitious, and determined to chart a new destiny for his family, qualities he no doubt learned from his parents who survived the horrors of the Holocaust and the Gulag.

Upon arriving in America, Phil found his talents well-suited to this land of limitless opportunity and success soon took root. By 1984, Phil had launched Computer Generated Solutions with a team of just five employees. Under his dedicated leadership, the company grew into an IT empire, employing over 8,000 professionals and serving customers in 50 countries across North America, South America, Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and Africa. Today, he continues to steward this organization as Founder and Executive Chairman.

Throughout his career, Mr. Friedman has matched his entrepreneurial success with a steadfast commitment to giving back to the Nation that has been his home for half a century. His contributions to the U.S. economy have twice been recognized by the United States Congress, as well as by the New York City Council. He is active in civic and philanthropic life as a member of the Economic Club of New York, the Washington Post Intelligence Council, and the Wall Street Journal CEO Council, and he serves on the Executive Committee of the Tom Lantos Institute in Budapest. He also serves as Vice Chairman and Trustee of Yeshiva University, which awarded him an Honorary Doctorate in 2011.

As our Nation marks 250 years of independence, Mr. Friedman's receipt of the United States Golden Jubilee Visionary Award is a fitting tribute to a life that embodies the American ideals of opportunity and free enterprise. His story is a testament to America's promise, and on behalf of the United States Congress, I am proud to congratulate Mr. Phil Friedman for his distinguished career and his enduring commitment to our Nation.

Mr. Speaker, today, I recognize Louisiana, my home state, as one of the first states in the country to officially partner with the Administration for Children and Families in their worthy initiative, ``A Home for Every Child.''

According to Louisiana's Department of Children and Family Services' (LA DCFS) Secretary Rebecca Harris, Louisiana has a ratio of only 48 homes to every 100 foster children--an unsustainable gap that requires every effort to balance. We hear too many stories of good people who want to foster but are slowed or stopped in their certification process due to bureaucratic hurdles. Under the leadership of Governor Jeff Landry and Secretary Harris, Louisiana joined with the Administration for Children and Families (ACP) to cut red tape, increase the amount of foster care homes in our state, and ensure every foster child has a safe place to live. I am proud to say that LA DCFS has committed to certify 1,100 new foster homes and reactivate 200 foster homes by the end of this year to help fill the gap. Louisiana is committed to protecting vulnerable children and ensuring they have access to safe, stable, and supportive home environments.

Louisiana's action builds upon the initiatives and leadership of President Donald J. Trump and First Lady Melania Trump, whose ``Fostering the Future'' Executive Order catalyzed a renewed national focus on foster care and permanent placement of children into loving homes. The Executive Order laid the groundwork for the ``A Home for Every Child'' program and has encouraged many states to take these necessary, meaningful, and measurable steps to improve outcomes for children and families.

Too many children across the Nation continue to wait for placement in permanent homes. When family unification is not possible either temporarily or permanently, expanding the pool of qualified foster families and strengthening support systems is essential to ensuring that every child is under the love and care of a stable home. As ACF Assistant Secretary Alex Adams has stated as a vital mission, we too look forward to a day when families ready to foster are waiting for a child rather than a child waiting for a home.

Louisiana's leadership joining ``A Home for Every Child'' sets a strong example for other states. Continued collaboration among federal, state, community and faith-based partners will be critical to advancing our shared goal of ensuring every child has a place to call home.

Mr. Speaker, I thank Congressman Blake Moore, a great champion and great vice chairman of the House Republican Conference, for yielding. I am so delighted with what he has done with the office. I thank him for hosting this Special Order hour. It is very appropriate and a historic moment that we are in.

Mr. Speaker, I rise this evening to join all of my colleagues in celebrating the fourth anniversary of the lifesaving Dobbs decision.

As we know, and I know it has been discussed tonight, that decision reversed five decades of inhuman social engineering, the murder of tens of millions of unborn children. Ultimately, it returned the question of regulating abortion to the people's elected representatives, where it should have remained the whole time.

I was born 1 year before Roe v. Wade, almost exactly to the day. I was born in January 1972. Roe was decided in January 1973, as we know. In my 54 years of life, I will say the Dobbs decision represents the most consequential and lifesaving decision of my lifetime.

I used to go into the courts, for almost 20 years, as a constitutional law litigator to defend the sanctity of human life, but Dobbs was the big one.

Mr. Speaker, think about how many innocent, unborn children have been lost to the hands of Big Abortion. Estimates suggest it is somewhere above 65 million lives. I have always believed that is a low estimate because we know many States do not accurately report abortion numbers. It is probably much higher than that. That is just the number since Roe was decided in 1973.

It is just an unconscionable thing. It is an unspeakable evil. Thankfully, by the grace of God, the Supreme Court finally righted that egregious wrong.

The conditions that led to that decision did not materialize overnight. It took a long, long time. From the moment Roe was decided in 1973, pro-life advocates went to work to pray, organize, build faithful and effective coalitions, and educate the public on the scourge of abortion. They did not do that with hate. They were motivated by love. That is what this has always been about.

We know that mere words of support are not enough. As advocates for life, we must continue to advocate for and support the heroic mission of things like the pregnancy resource centers around the country. They do vital work that is so important. Those centers don't just provide lifesaving and practical care. They empower women to choose life.

We know the statistics. When a woman sees her unborn child on an ultrasound, she has about an 86-percent chance of going through with the pregnancy, to understand that is a child there. No matter how small, it is a person.

Of course, this anniversary and this year are particularly important. Next

Friday, we celebrate the signing of the Declaration of Independence, our 250th anniversary as a nation.

The Declaration is our Nation's birth certificate. That is how we describe it all the time, because it is. In that certificate, we boldly proclaim the self-evident truths that all people are created equally by God, and all people are endowed by Him, God, our creator, with their inalienable rights. Of course, that begins, as articulated in the Declaration, with the right to life, logically.

We still have work to do to continue building a culture of life. We still have work to ensure that we are living up to the ideals espoused in the Declaration. Tonight, we should let these anniversaries serve as calls to action, to continue building a culture of life and to advance policies that protect the sanctity and the dignity of every human life.

I again thank my good friend, a great champion for the rights of the unborn, Vice Chairman Blake Moore, for organizing this Special Order.

I just want to take a brief point of personal privilege today to bid farewell to the most integral member of my staff and somebody who has been at my side for more than a decade here, my chief of staff, Hayden Haynes.

All of us--we all do this--we deeply value our teams, and when you lose a leader, it is a big thing. Scripture says we give honor where honor is due, so I want to do that for just a moment here.

I first met this guy, Hayden, in 2016. I was a member of the Louisiana Legislature, just got started. We crossed paths at a local political event. He was bright and ambitious and eager to talk more. You have all experienced that. You have got staff members like that, young people, kids that you meet along the way. I was impressed with him.

He called me the next day to reach out to set up lunch, and I thought, okay, he is a young guy. I will invest the time. I had no idea what the purpose was for the lunch. I didn't know it was going to be a strategy session for the future of my career, but that is what happened.

So this young fellow just came in--maybe you guys can relate to this. Maybe you had a meeting like this. A young, bright, ambitious guy comes in. He has a yellow pad. He sits down to lunch at a pizza joint, and it says at the top of the pad: ``Path to Congress''

in big, bold letters across the top. He spent the next hour mapping out what he saw to be a road to D.C. that ran through our little town of Shreveport, Louisiana.

I thought it was amusing, but we didn't have an open congressional seat. I appreciated him for his time, and we left there with nothing but an agreement to keep in touch.

As fate would have it, a couple of months later, the Fourth Congressional District seat did open up. My predecessor called and encouraged me to run, and others did as well. My wife, Kelly, and I prayed about it, and we felt like we should do it.

The first thought I had was this young man who sat down with a yellow pad, so I called him up. He came on board, and he became my first campaign manager. Together, we worked nights and weekends. We had a dingy, little office above a local radio station. We had no funds, no name ID, no connections. I mean, it really was amazing.

The one thing we had was Kelly and I had complete faith in what we felt like God had called us to do. We had total faith in this young kid because he was so ambitious and bright, and he had that yellow pad.

Well, fast-forward, we won the race. It was in Louisiana. We have jungle primaries like they have in California and a couple of other States. It was an eight-way race. We won it, and it was the first of many victories that we would have together. We were on our way to Washington.

In Louisiana, we have a late election cycle because it is a jungle primary, and the runoff is in December. So if you are elected as a freshman from Louisiana, you come in as the last member of your freshman class. I got the lowliest office draw. I got the worst office in Congress, as noted by The Washington Post. We really started at the bottom.

But we navigated life as freshmen. Hayden got to work. He built out our office. He put a lot of time and attention into personnel because personnel, as we all know, is policy.

The first thing he did--and this is a good trait I think for all of our leaders to have--is all of the staffers, he required everybody to go and visit the district that we represent, to get to know the people, to remember who sent them there and why. It was such an important way to kind of set the pace for how our office would be run.

He also navigated my elections. I became chair of the Republican Study Committee in my second term and then became vice chair of the House Republican Conference the third and fourth term.

But while he was doing all of that here, he was also running the campaigns back home every 2 years. We all know what a burden that is. It is a rare person who can do policy and politics, and he was also one of the youngest chiefs on the Hill. But we did all of that, and we got through it.

Then the biggest challenge of our lives came next, and everybody, you know, remembers what happened about 2\1/2\ years ago now. I was nominated by my colleagues for this job in an unexpected race for Speaker, and Hayden was, in that operation, the chief. He was my whip. He was my right hand, all in one, all-hands-on-deck.

My staff refers to that as building a plane as we are flying it. It was like launching a 747 with no wings or an engine. You know, we had to put it all together. There was no playbook for it. It is important to remember that nothing like that had ever happened in this institution, and it took a lot of fortitude to do it, and this guy was responsible for it.

The average tenure before somebody is Speaker of the House is 16 years. We had only been here 6.8 years, and we had no playbook designed at all. So he set up an entire organization--the political, the legislative, the staffing infrastructure, all of that--in a matter of just a couple of weeks, and it was amazing.

There was no shortage of intrigue surrounding this time in our lives, but what is not recognized enough--and this is true for all of us--is the dedication and the sacrifice of our teams, especially those at the top of your organization, and how much of their lives they give to this, stewarding and helping us to steward this sacred institution.

I would be remiss if I didn't mention Hayden's lovely wife. She is here tonight. Jennifer is up in the balcony up here, and their little one--yes--Brody. There they are.

Look, it is impossible--I will just say this on behalf of all of the families of all of the staff who serve us. We owe an eternal debt of gratitude to these folks. It is impossible to overstate their sacrifice--late nights, long hours, high stakes, and they give their all, and they don't get paid enough for that. We all know it. We couldn't run the operation without them, but we are grateful to their families, to Brody and Jen, for their selflessness and patience and sharing their dad and husband with us these many years.

So I will close with this. I am going to say that this young man-- this country boy from Minden, Louisiana; political whiz kid who envisioned my path before I did; loyal friend, who has been a constant throughout every season of our journey--there are only a handful of people in Washington--you all know--that you can really, really, truly trust completely, and Hayden has been one of those people for me.

I pray that you have somebody just like that. I know you all do. I hope you treasure them. Even before the Speakership, before the Cannon office that was split in the middle by a women's restroom, before the apartment office campaign above the radio store, it was Hayden who built this ship from the ground up, and I will always be grateful for that.

We are going to miss him. We are going to have a lot of tough fights. He has been with us for all those fights along the way, and he has earned some downtime. I am really grateful that he, Jen, and Brody are going to get that. I wish him the best.

I thank the Members for indulging me.

God bless you in your next chapter, my friend. God bless.

Mr. Speaker, I thank my dear brother, Congressman Josh Brecheen, for leading this Special Order. It is an important occasion and one that a number of my colleagues will be here to help mark tonight. It is appropriate for us to do that.

I want to reiterate what my friend here has explained. It is this weekend, on May 17th, that our country is going to mark the National Jubilee of Prayer, Praise, and Thanksgiving. As he noted, that date marks exactly two and a half centuries since our Founders met in the Second Continental Congress and declared a day of, yes, humiliation, fasting, and prayer to ask for God's guidance in the cause of freedom.

I think it is an appropriate way to say it. We ought to begin with repentance, and they recognized it back then.

This Sunday, Americans across the country are going to gather once again to do that very same thing, and what an important time it is for us to do so.

Here, on The National Mall, we are going to have tens of thousands of Americans join in prayer to rededicate our lives and our Nation back to God.

For Americans of faith, this is an opportunity to help our Nation recommit to the foundations upon which this country was built, as every previous generation in our history has done before.

Since the very beginning, prayer is how this grand experiment in self-governance has endured and prospered for 250 years.

Indeed, when 56 patriots gathered in Philadelphia to pledge their lives and their fortunes and their sacred honor for the birth of this new Nation, they began in prayer.

To this day, we open every single legislative session in this House and in the Senate, the other Chamber, in prayer. That is an acknowledgment, in some small way, of the famous admonition that is inscribed prominently right there above the head of the Speaker. It says there above the rostrum: ``In God We Trust.''

If you look, by the way, in the visitor's guide to the House Chamber--I think it is somewhere about on page 14--it says that Congress voted in 1962 to put that motto there, to add it to the marble, it says in the guide, as a rebuke to the Soviets because of their philosophy. That was during the Cold War. The Soviet's philosophy is Marxism, communism, and socialism. They all begin with one common premise: that there is no God.

Our predecessors in this body wanted every single one of us to look right there and understand and acknowledge, every single day that we are here to work, that our Nation is built on the opposite idea. We are built on the self-evident truth that it is God who gives us our rights and not the government.

At this pivotal moment in our Nation's history, we have to remember all of that. We have to acknowledge that the miracle of our founding and the countless miracles that have followed have been the work of Almighty God, and it is indeed in Him whom we trust.

So as we approach the 250th anniversary, it is right that we gather formally, just as our Founders did, to beseech the firm protection of divine providence once again.

I hope Americans from all across this country will take part in this historic day of Scripture and worship and fellowship as we recommit to our faith and our foundations as one nation under God.

Mr. Speaker and colleagues, our hearts are broken tonight, as they have been since Sunday morning. Everyone has seen the stories in the news out of my hometown of Shreveport, Louisiana, a city that is represented in part by Congressman Cleo Fields, who is here with me now.

We stand here with one voice as members of the Louisiana delegation to express our deep sorrow for the lives that were taken too soon. There were eight young, innocent children, all between the ages of 3 and 11, lost in a tragedy that can only be described as senseless, unspeakable evil.

Jayla Elkins was 3 years old; Shayla Elkins, 5; Kayla Pugh, 6; Layla Pugh, 7; Markaydon Pugh, 10; Sariahh Snow, 11; Khedarrion Snow, 6; and Braylon Snow, 5.

As the details of their killing unfold, it is difficult for us to put our emotions into words. This tragedy confounds the minds and hearts of every parent in America, and we have been thinking a lot about this. We encourage mothers and fathers to go home tonight and hold your loved ones extra close. I think all of us are doing that.

Life is a sacred gift from God. As this horrific event reminds us, it can be too short.

The entire community of Shreveport needs our prayers right now: the first responders and law enforcement who descended swiftly on the scene, the classrooms with empty seats and missing friends at school today, and, most of all, the families whose lives have been forever changed by this tragedy.

Hold all of them close in your hearts and your prayers, if you will, and we trust that God is close to the brokenhearted, as promised to us in Scripture.

If we could all please join in a moment of silence in honor of the eight young and precious lives who were lost far too soon.

Mr. Speaker, I ask that the House now observe a moment of silence.

Mr. Speaker, I begin today with some sad news. On February 19, the House and Senate community lost a beloved and dedicated member of the United States Capitol Police Force.

Special Agent Eden Holguin tragically passed away at only 41 years of age. He was a proud veteran and a former Texas State Trooper. For 3 years, he served admirably here as a Capitol Police officer and as a special agent. He was highly respected.

Law enforcement is a noble calling, as we all know. It is one that is too often thankless and always demanding. These men and women stand guard on the lines of justice and freedom. They protect all of us who work here, as well as the countless individuals and visitors who come to the United States Capitol every day from across our Nation and across the world.

In the face of adversity and danger, every day demands courage, diligence, and professionalism. He brought that every day.

We don't take the duty lightly. It is because of Agent Holguin, and so many brave Americans like him, that Congress can carry out its constitutional duties here, that we represent the voices of our constituents, and that we can effectuate the will of the American people safely and freely.

Today, family, friends, and loved ones of Agent Holguin will gather to memorialize this hero in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. I wanted to come here on the House floor and acknowledge him, as well. We thank them for standing by his side as Agent Holguin followed the demanding but noble path of law enforcement. We want to let them know that our prayers are with them as they honor this brave patriot and celebrate his life, all too short though it was, of selfless sacrifice.

Mr. Speaker, since 1983, the U.S. Congress (House and Senate) and the German Bundestag and Bundesrat have conducted an annual exchange program for staff members from both countries. The program gives professional staff the opportunity to observe and learn about each other's political institutions and engage in discussion regarding mutual interest.

A staff delegation from the U.S. Congress will be selected to visit Germany from Friday, October 2 through Sunday, October 11, 2026. During this exchange, the delegation will attend meetings with Bundestag/ Bundesrat party staff members, and representatives of numerous political, business, academic and media agencies.

A comparable delegation of German staff members will visit the United States from Saturday, November 14 through Sunday, November 22, 2026. They will attend similar meetings in Washington organized by the members of the U.S. delegation.

The Congress-Bundestag/Bundesrat Exchange is highly regarded in Germany and the United States and is one of several exchange programs sponsored by public and private institutions in the United States and Germany to foster better understanding of the politics and policies of both countries. This exchange is funded by the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.

The U.S. delegation shall consist of experienced and accomplished Hill staff who can contribute to the success of the exchange on both sides of the Atlantic. The Bundestag reciprocates by sending senior staff professionals to the United States.

Applicants should have a demonstrable interest in events in Europe. Applicants need not be working in the field of foreign affairs, although such a background can be helpful. The composite U.S. delegation should exhibit a range of expertise in issues of mutual concern to the United States and Germany such as, but not limited to, trade, security, the environment, economic development, health care, and other social policy issues. This year's delegation should be familiar with transatlantic relations within the context of recent world events.

Please note that there is a significant time commitment aspect for those selected for the program. In addition, U.S. participants are expected to plan and implement the meetings and programs for the Bundestag/Bundesrat staff members when they visit the United States.

Members of the House and Senate who would like a member of their staff to apply for participation in this year's program should direct them to submit a resume and cover letter in which they state their qualifications, the contributions they can make to a successful program and some assurances of their ability to participate during the time stated.

Applications should be sent to the Office of Interparliamentary Affairs, HC-4, the Capitol, by 5 p.m. on Friday, February 27, 2026. Please submit your application and any questions to interparliamentary.affairs@mail. house.gov.

Mr. Speaker, On January 5th, our dear friend and colleague, Doug LaMalfa, passed away unexpectedly at the age of 65. A lifelong resident of Northern California, Doug was a fierce fighter for the people he represented and for his state's vast and beautiful natural resources.

Representing one of California's largest districts, Doug never hesitated to drive hundreds of miles to meet a handful of constituents. He drew no distinctions between those living in the more remote corners of his district and those in the big city. Doug believed everyone deserved to have their representation and voice heard in Congress. It's that spirit of duty and selfless service that made him so admired among his friends and colleagues, and which made him one of the most respected people in this institution.

Doug became a close friend of mine during my tenure as Vice Chairman of the House Republican Conference, where my weekly responsibility was to recruit other Members to help me amplify the House Republican message on the House Floor. Even in late night sessions and on days when others had left town early, Doug was always faithful to show up, eager to speak to the greatness of this country and about our tireless work to improve the lives of the people he represented. For that commitment, his kindness, his optimism and faith, and his sense of humor, I and all of my many Republican colleagues will miss Doug dearly. He was in every sense a giant among us.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairman for doing such an extraordinary job on all of this.

Mr. Speaker, for 43 long days, the Democrats held this House and the entire country hostage. Finally, with the lights back on, this body is returning to our regular legislative session. We have a lot of work to do.

My colleagues on this side of the Chamber are ready and eager to get back to our urgent legislative work we promised the American people we would do.

Just to name a few of those priorities, we have to continue lowering the cost of healthcare. We have to bring down prices for American families. We have to finish the regular appropriations process.

I wish I could say that our first order of business would be to get to those urgent priorities. However, of course, we are spending time on the floor about something else. This is something we could have resolved last week when we brought a unanimous consent to pass this discharge with the full support of the body.

Mr. Speaker, our friends over here, who are arguing today, stalled that. They objected to it. They wanted to have this exercise instead. That is why we say that this is a ``show'' vote. That is what this is. They are making a show of it, and it really is a shame.

Mr. Speaker, we have some heroic women in the Chamber today. I met with many of them a while back. They are here in the gallery. They have come forward. They have shown their faces. They have used their names to share the unspeakable tragedies that many of them were subjected to, some of them when they were very young. It is a heroic service to the country.

They are seeking justice, and justice has been delayed for too long. The Department of Justice many years ago should have brought these charges. It took too long to do it.

Now we are in this process of making sure all the American people get the information, but we have to do it in the right way.

After 4 years of Democratic control under President Biden, they were not truthful with us about a lot of things. The Democrats insisted the border was secure. We knew it wasn't. They insisted that inflation was transitory. We knew it wouldn't be. They misled the American people about the obvious mental and physical decline of the previous Commander in Chief. Now those same Democrats are demanding transparency. Suddenly transparency is their new word.

Out of nowhere, they have taken a curious concern in the Epstein investigation, all in the name of transparency.

However, the question has been asked here many times during the debate on the floor and everybody is questioning why it is that the Democrats have done this right now. We have to look at the obvious facts.

The Democrats had all the Epstein files in their possession for 4 long years under the Biden Presidency. The Biden Department of Justice had these files, and no one on this side, who is breathless today about the urgency of this release, ever said a word about it. It was the Democrats who could have urged President Biden's Department of Justice to go beyond prosecuting just Epstein and Gislaine Maxwell, but they didn't do it. It is a fair question to ask today: Why now? Why the sudden urgent interest in Jeffrey Epstein?

We know why. It is because the Democrats were never interested in transparency or executing justice or protecting the victims of this unspeakable tragedy before. The simple truth is obvious for everybody to see. This is a political exercise for Democrats. It pains me to say it. I wish that was not the truth, but it is, and it is undeniable. This is as deceitful and dishonest as their pointless stunt was to shut the government down.

Democrats are using the Epstein tragedy, the unspeakable evils that this guy committed with his trafficking ring and all of the abuses that they made these young women go through, they are using that as a political weapon to try to distract from their failures as a party and to try their best to try to tie President Trump somehow into this wretched scandal.

The President had nothing to do with it. He has been very clear. He has nothing to hide. That is why he endorsed the vote today. I suspect this vote will be probably unanimous.

Here is the important point that everybody needs to understand: We have been advocates of maximum transparency, but we have also insisted that the victims be carefully protected. The Oversight Committee has been doing extraordinary work. We have got some of the most vigorous advocates on the Republican and Democrat side on the Oversight Committee. They have been working in earnest to deliver transparency for the American people and to do it in a responsible manner.

What do we mean by that?

The bipartisan effort over there is already producing all the results that the discharge petition seeks and much, much more. Chairman Comer and all of these advocates over there have been releasing thousands of documents, for example, from the Epstein estate. By the way, in my view, that has been the greatest treasure trove of information because it has yielded for us Epstein's own personal flight logs, his financial records, his daily calendars, and so much more.

Importantly, none of that was addressed or is addressed in the legislation that is being voted on today. The estate files wouldn't even have been encompassed in that. It goes to show that the Oversight Committee is doing it in the right way.

From the very beginning, we have been insistent that this matter be handled carefully and with the utmost caution and care for the people who have been harmed. They should not be made to suffer any longer.

We are talking about real people's lives at stake here and young victims who don't want to be dragged into this political game who could get hurt further. However, the Democrats are rushing to release the thousands of unsubstantiated documents that may be included in this that may be in the public domain with the passage of this bill.

There are serious deficiencies in the legislation that I have noted at length,

and Republicans have to work to address those deficiencies in the Senate if and when this legislation is advanced.

I stood before the American public today at our press conference, and I explained in detail the dangers of the discharge petition. We have posted it at my website, speaker.gov, a summary that the legal counsel, a small army of lawyers, have put together. I used to be a Federal Court litigator. Many of my colleagues who have spoken today were. We understand the dangers of how this was haphazardly drawn up.

Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record a document titled ``How the Flaws of H.R. 4405 Could Revictimize Epstein's Victims, Create New Victims, and Damage the Judicial System''.

November 18, 2025.

How the Flaws of H.R. 4405 Could Revictimize Epstein's Victims, Create

New Victims, and Damage the Judicial System

BACKGROUND. On November 12, 2025, a motion to discharge in

relation to H. Res. 581 was filed and assigned to the

Discharge Calendar. Accordingly, the House is poised to

consider H.R. 4405, compelling the Department of Justice

(DOJ) to release its files related to Jeffrey Epstein and

Ghislaine Maxwell. While Republicans fully support

transparency and the release of the names of those who

conspired with and aided Epstein and Maxwell, the bill the

House will consider is flawed.

ANALYSIS. The flaws in H.R. 4405 include the following.

1. Fails to Fully Protect Victim Privacy. While H.R. 4405

permits the Attorney General to withhold ``personally

identifiable information of [Epstein's] victims'' and

``personal and medical files and similar files,'' this

authority is limited to disclosures that ``constitute a

clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.''

Protections for Epstein's victims should go further. Congress

should give the Attorney General broader authority to redact

all victim information. This would prevent the release of

information that could be used to unmask victims who have

chosen to remain anonymous. Anything less risks revictimizing

those who were trafficked and exploited. The courts have

recognized this concern. On August 20, 2025, Judge Richard

Berman (SDNY) issued an order denying DOJ's request to

release Epstein grand jury materials, noting ``names and

identifying information [of victims] appear in the subject

materials.'' Judge Berman quoted a letter related to victims'

concerns, which stated: ``[T]ransparency cannot come at the

expense of the very people whom the justice system is sworn

to protect . . .'' and he quoted a letter from a victim, Jane

Doe 2, which stated: ``I beg the court to make sure it is the

upmost [sic] priority that in any sort of release ALL and

EVERY detail that could possibly reveal our identities be

redacted.''

2. Could Create New Victims. H.R. 4405 requires DOJ to

release information, even in cases where DOJ or the FBI has

determined it was false. Congress should avoid mandating this

kind of release. Doing so could ruin the reputations of

innocent persons, such as those who may have known Epstein

but knew nothing of his crimes, or whose names Epstein

exploited and used in order to get close to his intended

victims. Releasing information containing the names of

innocent people would subject the innocents to a guilt by

association, creating a new group of victims who have no

means to clear their names. To avoid this, the Attorney

General should be given additional authority to redact

information the FBI has previously deemed was false or not

credible.

3. Potentially Jeopardizes Grand Jury Secrecy. Rule 6(e) of

the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure prohibits the release

of grand jury materials. An unauthorized release can be

prosecuted as a criminal offense, including obstruction of

justice. This secrecy exists to protect the individual. Grand

juries are not adversarial. There is no opportunity for the

subject of a grand jury inquiry to cross-examine, disprove

testimony, or challenge the evidence. If Congress compels

release of grand jury materials, it raises a risk that the

grand jury process will become politicized in the future.

Imagine how a malicious prosecutor could abuse and weaponize

the grand jury process by inducing testimony about a

political adversary, testimony the prosecutor knows is false

and which could not be contested, with the hopes a future

Congress would later compel disclosure. H.R. 4405 is

ambiguous as to whether it requires DOJ to release grand jury

materials from the Maxwell and Epstein cases. As such, as

written, the current text of H.R. 4405 creates a conflict of

laws. Congress can clear up any ambiguity by requiring the

Attorney General to redact grand jury materials.

4. Fails to Prohibit Release of Child Sexual Abuse

Materials. H.R. 4405 allows the Attorney General to redact

portions of records that ``depicts or contains child sexual

abuse materials (CSAM) as defined under 18 U.S.C. 2256 . . .

.'' It necessarily follows that the redaction authority is

limited by whatever CSAM definition is found in 18 U.S.C.

2256. Unfortunately, Sec. 2256 does not contain any CSAM

definition, which means that H.R. 4405 bestows no real legal

authority on the Attorney General to redact those materials.

The bill should be amended to clearly prohibit release of any

It is dated today.

It summarizes just five or six of the major concerns.

Among them, it fails to fully protect victim privacy. It could create new categories of victims. It potentially jeopardizes grand jury secrecy.

It fails to prohibit release of child sexual abuse materials that are not appropriately defined in the legislation. It jeopardizes future Federal investigations. Moreover, we have national security concerns regarding classified information.

We will put this in the Record because we need the legislative Record to reflect what is the legislative intent behind this vote. I used to litigate cases. We used to litigate Federal statutes and whether or not they could survive, and legislative intent is important.

We need to state clearly for the record, and as Speaker of the House, I am saying to you this legislation that will pass today is flawed, and it must be amended.

The question is: Why didn't we amend it here before we passed it?

It is because the authors won't allow it.

It is because under the rules of the House under a discharge petition, they have to agree to consent for the legislation to be amended, and they are not doing that. Now we rely on our partners in the other Chamber to get that done, and they need to do that.

The victims deserve our utmost respect. In fact, they should be saluted for their courage. The young women who have not come forward, and some of them are middle-aged women who have not come forward, also deserve our respect, and they deserve to be protected.

Republicans support transparency. We want maximum transparency, especially when it comes to disclosing the names of anybody who had anything to do with these evils, anybody who conspired with or aided in any way Jeffrey Epstein must be brought to justice.

We want the bill to be amended so it doesn't at the same time violate victim privacy, create new victims, disclose the names of any whistleblower or informant, cause the release of grand jury materials or child sexual abuse materials, or undermine our national security. If and when the Senate takes this up, we will work with our colleagues over there to make sure that these things are corrected.

I will just close with this simple thought.

We have been at this a while, and it has dragged on for a while, but it is time for this to come to light.

I expect that this will be a unanimous vote, and it will reflect what I think every Member in this Chamber--

and I will say this--now, at least in recent days, every Member of the Chamber, on the Democrat side, didn't say anything for 4 years, but they are for maximum transparency now, and so is this side. But we want to do it in a respectful and careful manner so that we don't subject innocent people to further harm. That has been the whole thing.

I told all my Members today I will be voting ``yes'' on this, and I suspect almost everyone will. We will send it to the Senate, and I hope it is corrected.

Parliamentary Inquiry

Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend, Chairman Cole, who has done an extraordinary job in this process.

Mr. Speaker, we all know why we are here. House Democrats voted to shut down the government. It was 54 days ago when we had that vote. It was September 19. Since that time, Senate Democrats have voted 14 times to close the government. Republicans voted a collective 15 times to open the government for the people, and the Democrats voted that many times to close it.

Then they admitted, many of them--and we can name them here, but I am not going to take the time--they admitted they were using the American people as leverage in this political game. They knew that it would cause pain, and they did it anyway. The whole exercise was pointless. It was wrong. It was cruel.

In mere moments, I want everyone to watch the board. They will do it again. I will guess most of our Democrat colleagues will vote again to close the government, again to take food out of the mouths of families who need it, again to deny pay to Federal employees, and again to stall flights and cancel airlines and do all the rest that they have done. We are not going to let them succeed in that gambit. That is right.

While the Democrats keep voting to shut the government down, Republicans are going to vote to open it back up. We are going to get the American Government running again and working for the people, as they deserve.

I am going to close with this. As Speaker, I have the ability to talk as long as I want, but I am not going to do that tonight. We are not going to waste any more time of the people.

I am just going to say this. I think that everybody needs to remember this one simple thing: From the very beginning of this whole ordeal, on the Republican side, we operated in good faith. We offered a clean, nonpartisan CR. We were honest and transparent with the American people from the very beginning. Every single day of the shutdown, we went out and looked right into the camera with a press conference and told the American people the simple truth. We have done for the people what has been right and just and truthful. In the end, that is what God honors always. Don't forget it.

We need to get this government open as soon as possible. The American people demand and deserve it.

Mr. Speaker, let's get this done.

Mr. Speaker, I thank my dear friend from Arizona. It has been a tough time in Arizona, and my colleague, Andy Biggs, has done a great job in leading people who are shaken. I will say that people all over this country are shaken.

Mr. Speaker, this has been a tough week in the country. I think I have spoken at three or four vigils already. I will be attending our late friend Charlie Kirk's funeral on Sunday, as many of us will, to pay what will be our last respects. The honor of his memory will go on.

The last week has been difficult because people are shaken by this in a way that we have not seen the country moved in quite some time. I have described it as if a shadow has been cast across the country by the untimely death of our dear friend and the way it was done, in such a hateful, heinous manner, online for people to view. It has been disturbing.

My heart has gone out in particular to all the students around this country who are so closely associated with Charlie Kirk's organization, Turning Point. There are 3,500-plus chapters of Turning Point at universities, college campuses, and high school campuses across America. So many of those students felt personally connected to Charlie because his voice resonated with them and helped inform their worldview and the way they see politics and society. When he was lost in such an abrupt and tragic manner, they felt it to their core.

I have been so burdened and disturbed for them. I have been praying for all of those kids, an untold number of young people around the country who are so disturbed and, frankly, need trauma counseling themselves from what they have just seen and witnessed.

In the midst of all of this, the thing that encourages me is that I believe in the same promises of Scripture that Charlie did, and I have been reminded a lot of the passage of Scripture that says: ``The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness cannot overcome it.'' Some translations of the Bible say, ``the darkness cannot comprehend it,'' and I think that is true.

What I have said to all of these students and what I have shared in these vigils is the same refrain. To summarize, the best way to honor the legacy of this singular voice in our culture, not just in the conservative movement, but in the recent history of America in the last several decades, the best way to honor the work, the legacy, and the ministry of Charlie Kirk is to do what he did, and that is to advance the principles that he advanced and to adopt his approach.

What I mean by that is the principles that Charlie advanced were the good things. Scripture talks about how we focus on the noble and praiseworthy, the good, and Charlie did that. He focused on things like faith, family, freedom, virtue, honor, and patriotism.

Charlie believed in America. He believed in the promise of America, in the creed of America, that we are all made in the image of God, the self-evident truths that God is the one who gives us our rights and not the government, and that those principles are worth fighting for.

Charlie used to quote Ronald Reagan, as I do all the time. Reagan reminded us that freedom is not inherited in the bloodstream. It has to be fought for, protected, taught, and passed along to the generations that come behind us so that they will know the same liberty, opportunity, and security that too many of us have taken for granted too often.

Charlie believed that, so he advanced those principles every single day in every venue that he was able, but he did it in a manner that we should emulate. I tell the young people that they should adopt the practices and the manner, adopt the approach, of Charlie Kirk. What I mean by that is that he was never motivated by hatred for someone on the other side of that debate.

Charlie, to the contrary, was motivated by love because he believed in what Scripture says. There are these three things that remain: faith, hope, and love. Love is the greatest thing of all. Love overcomes. Love conquers. That is what motivated our friend.

Even though he could defeat anybody in a debate, so often--and I saw this myself--when he would vanquish someone in a policy argument, he was the first person after that to reach out a hand of friendship or offer an arm around the shoulder of someone who he had just defeated in a contest. Why? Because it wasn't about winning the policy. It wasn't about, at the end of the day, really the policy arguments. It was about the people. Charlie loved vigorous debate, but he loved people more. That is the legacy of our friend.

A lot of things have been said about him. When someone is on the air, when they are a ubiquitous voice in all forms of media all the time, 24 hours a day, you can go cherry-pick one line or phrase or something that they said in a long context or a long discussion, and you can pick anything out and make someone portray them to be something that they were not.

The people who were doing that did not know Charlie Kirk. All of us who did will attest, every single person who spent any time with Charlie Kirk will tell you, that he was a good and godly man, not a perfect man. None of us are. There was only one ever perfect man, and he was God and man.

Charlie Kirk was a good man who loved his fellow man and gave his life literally in the pursuit of advancing truth.

The very least that we can do is honor him, especially at a time in the

country when people are anxious and frightened. In moments like this, when political instability and fear are pervasive, it is incumbent upon leaders to step forward, stand in the breach, and do what is right.

By voting for this resolution today, we are making a strong statement on behalf of the Congress. We are telling our constituents, for one thing, that political violence, but also the glorification and celebration of that violence, are profoundly wrong, and it goes against everything we stand for as Americans.

Charlie stood for exactly the opposite. He stood for what was good in America, what is virtuous and worthy of protection and preservation.

We honor his memory by doing this simple act of passing this resolution. I can't imagine that anyone would vote against it, or vote present, or pretend as though this is not exactly the right thing to do.

I certainly hope that we can pass this resolution unanimously today, just as it should be passed.

Mr. Speaker, I thank, again, my dear friend and colleague, Congressman Andy Biggs of Arizona. Our hearts go out to the people of Arizona, as they do to all, everyone who is mourning his death.

I will tell you this: The truth that Charlie advanced will go forward more loudly and more profoundly than it ever has before, and that is the encouragement we have.

Mr. Speaker, I honor this day the life and service of my dear friend, Geoffrey Mark Allen.

Born in Shreveport, Louisiana, Mark was a devoted husband, father, veteran, firefighter, business owner and man of steadfast faith whose dedicated service to others permeated every aspect of his life. Whether in his nearly three decades in the Louisiana National Guard, twenty- five years as a Shreveport firefighter, or as the founder of his company, Industrial Safety Solutions, he carried the values of integrity and faith everywhere he went and in everything he did.

During his military service, Mark was deployed to Iraq, where he successfully led his company in transporting equipment through combat zones while ensuring everyone returned home. His firefighting career was also marked by those same traits of heroism and courage, earning him commendations and recognition as Training Officer of the Year.

Beyond his professional accomplishments, Mark's deepest devotion was to God and his family. He and his wife Karen shared thirty-one incredible years of marriage, filled with traveling, laughter, and most importantly, raising their children, Drew and Maddie, in a home centered around Christ. Mark's favorite line of Scripture, Ephesians 2:8, was not only inscribed on his company's logo, but also written on the tablet of his heart.

It is my honor to dedicate a U.S. flag in honor of Mark and his legacy of service, faith, and love that will continue to inspire all who had the privilege of knowing him. His absence will be deeply felt by myself and many others from our community.

Mr. Speaker, since 1983, the U.S. Congress (House and Senate) and the German Bundestag and Bundesrat have conducted an annual exchange program for staff members from both countries. The program gives professional staff the opportunity to observe and learn about each other's political institutions and engage in discussion regarding mutual interest.

A staff delegation from the U.S. Congress will be selected to visit Germany from Friday, November 7 to Sunday, November 16, 2025. During this exchange, the delegation will attend meetings with Bundestag/ Bundesrat party staff members, and representatives of numerous political, business, academic and media agencies.

A comparable delegation of German staff members will visit the United States from Saturday, December 6 to Saturday, December 13, 2025. They will attend similar meetings in Washington organized by the members of the U.S. delegation.

The Congress-Bundestag/Bundesrat Exchange is highly regarded in Germany and the United States and is one of several exchange programs sponsored by public and private institutions in the United States and Germany to foster better understanding of the politics and policies of both countries. This exchange is funded by the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.

The U.S. delegation shall consist of experienced and accomplished Hill staff who can contribute to the success of the exchange on both sides of the Atlantic. The Bundestag reciprocates by sending senior staff professionals to the United States.

Applicants should have a demonstrable interest in events in Europe. Applicants need not be working in the field of foreign affairs, although such a background can be helpful. The composite U.S. delegation should exhibit a range of expertise in issues of mutual concern to the United States and Germany such as, but not limited to, trade, security, the environment, economic development, health care, and other social policy issues. This year's delegation should be familiar with transatlantic relations within the context of recent world events.

Please note that there is a significant time commitment aspect for those selected for the program. In addition, U.S. participants are expected to plan and implement the meetings and programs for the Bundestag/Bundesrat staff members when they visit the United States.

Members of the House and Senate who would like a member of their staff to apply for participation in this year's program should direct them to submit a resume and cover letter in which they state their qualifications, the contributions they can make to a successful program and some assurances of their ability to participate during the time stated.

Applications should be sent to the Office of Interparliamentary Affairs, HC-4, the Capitol, by 5 p.m. on Friday, August 8, 2025. Please submit your application and any questions to [email protected].

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Missouri for yielding.

Ronald Reagan said one time that no speech should be longer than 20 minutes, and unlike the Democrat leader, I am going to honor my colleagues' time and be a little more brief than that.

I just want to say something that many of us learned when we were children. We were taught: It takes a lot longer to build a lie than to tell the simple truth.

My friends and colleagues, on both sides of the aisle, have waited long enough. Some of us have literally been up for days now, but this day is a hugely important one in the history of our Nation. We have a big job to finish, and that is why we are here on the week of July Fourth, just days before--just a day before now America's birthday.

It was on that fateful day, as the Democrat leader acknowledged, that our Founders pledged their lives and their sacred honor to this grand experiment in self-governance that we are now here to steward. It is an experiment that falls to us to guard and to protect it. We take that very seriously on this side of the aisle.

In just a few moments, we will remind the world why the American experiment still endures today and why its best days are still ahead of us.

Mr. Speaker, with the One Big Beautiful Bill Act we are going to make this country stronger, safer, and more prosperous than ever before, and every American is going to benefit from that.

Today, we are laying a key cornerstone of America's new golden age. Now, listen, we have a few words of gratitude first. Scripture has been cited a lot this morning, I think mostly out of context, but what I will say, one thing we know about Scripture is that we are supposed to give honor where honor is due, and that is what we do on this side of the aisle.

I thank every single Member of the House Republican Conference for pouring their time and their heart and their expertise and experience into this process. I thank all of our amazing staff members, all of them. Their dedication, their endless hours, and their hard work made this all possible.

I thank the White House Office of Legislative Affairs, who have basically lived with us now for the last few weeks. Their patience and persistence and their professionalism is greatly appreciated. Our country's incredible Cabinet Secretaries have been involved, as well. They have assisted us in countless ways throughout this process.

Our Vice President, JD Vance, helped us navigate so many dire straits along the last several weeks through the House and the Senate, and of course, our bold, visionary, fearless President, Donald J. Trump.

President Trump is the creator and the champion of the America First agenda. We will deliver upon that today. We have come a long way. We began this process really about 15 months ago. We had a sense, and we believed that we would have unified government. We would have this moment where the Republican Party would be given control of the White House and the Senate and the House, and we determined to ourselves that we would not waste that historic opportunity.

We have had spirited debates. We have had months of deliberations, and now we are finally ready to fulfill our promise to the American people. That is what we are doing today. Before I respond to the allegations from across the Chamber, I just want to take us back to a day that most of us will remember so very fondly for the rest of our lives and that is November 5 of 2024.

That was election day, a fateful one for America. The reason that was so important, the reason it was such a turn in history is because the American people spoke with unmistakable clarity. We sensed it as we were all out campaigning. We saw that there would be a demographic shift in America, and that is exactly what the election yielded.

We, in our party, had a record number of Black and African-American voters come to the Republican Party. We had a record number of Hispanic and Latino voters come to the Republican Party, a record number of Jewish voters and union workers and suburban women and urban voters. They came out in record numbers to join the Republican Party and the America First agenda with President Trump.

That election was decisive. It was a bellwether. It was a time for choosing, and I will tell you what, the American people chose overwhelmingly. They chose the Republican Party. The reason they did that--they didn't come hesitantly. They came with hopeful anticipation. Do you know why?

They came because this is not your father's Democratic Party. They went so far full speed to the far left and their radical, woke, progressive agenda, that the nonsense that they tried to push on the people was rejected by the people.

These new voters that came to us had enough of the Biden-Harris madness and all the things they were trying to hoist upon the American people that they just don't believe in their hearts, and they were hopeful. They came to us with hope. They wanted us to restore common sense and accountability, and we promised them that we would do just that.

Those new demographics came to the Republican Party because of open borders wreaking havoc on their communities. They came because of weakness at home that fueled instability abroad, and because trillions in reckless spending put the price of gas and groceries further out of the reach for hardworking Americans.

It wasn't right. President Trump and our Republican majority in Congress are fixing all of that right now. President Trump said this week that we are the hottest country in the world again.

My friends, that is an objective truth. Hey, listen, how about all the wins for the President and this party? Here is just a sample from the last 2 weeks. The headline today will be: One Big Beautiful Bill Act passes the Congress.

You have to hold your applause. There are too many wins. Are you getting tired of winning yet?

The fourth jobs report in a row exceeds expectations.

A sample of the headlines: Lowest monthly border encounters in U.S. history. We closed the border.

In the last couple of days, there was a new trade deal with Vietnam, and all the countries around the world are lining up for that.

UPenn agrees to ban biological men from women's sports, and they ought to give a personal apology to every female athlete impacted by that nonsense.

Gas prices are at a 4-year low, my friends.

The Air Force and Space Force both hit their 2025 recruiting goals 3 months early.

Israel is agreeing to a 60-day cease-fire with Hamas. A successful strike on Iranian nuclear sites handles that problem. That is exactly right. Strength is back. America is back. It has resulted now in a cease-fire deal between Iran and Israel.

The NATO countries are increasing their defense spending, not just 2 percent but 5 percent of GDP.

The President got in charge and got a Rwanda-Congo peace deal.

The Supreme Court ended nationwide injunctions. How about that? That conservative majority on the Supreme Court also allows third-country deportations.

We have had a record-high stock market, and we are signing a China trade deal.

That is just the last 2 weeks, the last 2 weeks.

There are so many simple truths to share and so little time to do it because I want everybody to have a break here.

I just want to say this. It is really nice to hear Democratic colleagues suddenly take an interest in working Americans again. Did you pick up on that theme today?

Let's be clear: Working Americans stopped trusting Democrats a long time ago. That is a fact. They are looking to this side of the Chamber. They are looking to the Republican Party and our principles to deliver the relief and the reform that they have long demanded and most certainly deserve.

This One Big Beautiful Bill Act fulfills all the promises of the America First agenda. It is the people's bill. It is made for and shaped by the most diverse coalition of American voters in American history.

Today, we are making the dream of a government that puts the American people first a reality.

I would need this entire notebook to tell you all the great things in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. It is aptly named, but I will just tell you a couple of the highlights: record tax cuts for hardworking Americans, and historic savings, at the same time, to end reckless spending. We have energy dominance coming back to power our future. We have a secure border to protect American families. We have a strong military to restore peace through strength. We have a government that is now accountable and responsive to the people once again.

That is what we are delivering. For everyday Americans, this means real, positive change that they can feel, and they will feel much more when this bill is done. Families back home will have real relief, an average of $10,000 in their pockets, thanks to the largest working- and middle-class tax cut in the history of this great Nation. That is what we are doing today.

You have hardworking Americans like our waiters, our bellhops, and our hairstylists. They are going to keep 100 percent of their tips and overtime pay. That is money they earned. It does not belong to the government. It belongs to them, and they deserve to keep it.

Small businesses that want to build and expand new factories, do you know what they can do now? They can write off 100 percent of their investment. That will get us a lot more building.

Young families who want to buy a home will be able to, thanks to historic savings that will put our country on a stronger financial footing.

Pregnant women, children, seniors, single mothers, the disabled, and the low-income Americans among us receiving Medicaid and SNAP will have the peace of mind of knowing that we made these safety nets stronger with our reforms.

See, when Republicans are in charge, we bring common sense. We are going to make sure that Americans who do need and deserve those critical programs won't have to compete against people who can work but choose not to do so. That is not right.

This bill is going to put fairness back in the system. We are returning to common sense. We are returning to what is good and decent that people know in their hearts, and that is why they support it.

More Americans will be working, volunteering, and serving their communities because modest, commonsense work requirements will restore dignity and purpose to those on taxpayer-funded benefits.

The bill will also mean that safer streets are available in every ZIP Code around the country because our border will remain fully and totally secure.

The Republican Party stands for law and order, and this is the side that stands with law enforcement, the brave men and women who are on the front line. The idea that those who put their own lives on the line to protect us would be assaulted for doing their jobs is unconscionable.

I know you agree. I know. Amen.

Law enforcement will have the help of a border wall now that is 100 percent complete. Our immigration enforcement officers will get a boost from more manpower, resources, and detention space so that detained illegal aliens are not released back onto the streets like they were for the last 4 years.

Our homeland can rest soundly again under the protection of President Trump's Golden Dome. That is what we are investing in.

Look, any of these individual achievements would be historic victories for a Republican Congress or any Congress, and today, we are delivering on all of them in one big, beautiful bill.

That is what Americans can count on when we pass this legislation, and that is exactly what Democrats will vote to oppose today. That is a fact. We did not write this bill for the Democratic Party, the elites, or the media. This bill is for hardworking Americans, and they deserve it.

I am going to just say this as plainly as I can. This is the simple truth. If you are for a secure border, safer communities, and a strong military, this bill is for you. If you are for commonsense fiscal responsibility and reducing the deficit, this bill is for you.

If you are for fair and lower taxes, bigger paychecks, affordable gas and groceries, and restoring dignity to hard work, this is the bill for you.

It makes no difference whether our colleagues across the Chamber speak for 25 minutes or 25 hours, they can't change the truth. Today was about performance for some of them, but today for us is about results--a result that improves the lives of Americans regardless of their race, religion, color, or creed. It does not matter.

I tell you what Ronald Reagan used to remind us, you can always trust the American people. We do trust the American people. They can discern the difference. What they saw on display here today is that Democrats deliver performances and Republicans deliver results.

Today, my friends, we are ready now. We are going to deliver what we were sent here to do, and every American will benefit from it.

In 1793, just steps from where we stand today, President George Washington laid the first cornerstone of the United States Capitol. Over 50 years later, on July Fourth, Members of this body gathered once again to lay a second cornerstone.

Once more on July Fourth, at the height of the Cold War, Congress laid a third cornerstone. This week, with this vote today, with our Nation's birthday being tomorrow, we lay a fourth. With this bill, we can vote as stewards of that great legacy that we have inherited in this extraordinary Nation that we are blessed to live in.

We can lay another sturdy foundation for the future of this country, a future where working Americans can feel relief, where government can finally start living within its means again, and where the United States is safer, stronger, and more prosperous than ever before. That is right.

Now, I am going to say this as they mock America and mock everything and mock the bill, we will see how the people feel about that.

Listen, seriously, as friends and colleagues, really, across the aisle, what we celebrate tomorrow is the Nation's birthday. Let's put the politics aside for a minute and let's reflect on our blessings. No kidding, really. Tomorrow is the 249th birthday of our Nation. That is right.

I mean this sincerely: I thank my colleagues for standing, we all should be united in that. We are. We are. We have squabbles and we have partisan debates and all of this, but at the end of the day, we are all Americans, man. We have got to believe that. We have got to know it. We have got to recognize that we live in the greatest Nation in the history of the world. It is not even close.

My friends and colleagues, we are so blessed. We should not take it for granted. We live in the most free, the most successful, the most powerful, the most benevolent Nation that has ever been on the face of the Earth, and there is a reason for that.

The reason that we are the greatest Nation is because we were built on the ultimate foundation, and the bold declaration that my friend, Hakeem Jeffries, articulated earlier is true,

we unite under that: the bold declaration that we do hold these truths to be self-evident.

What is a self-evident truth? It is something that is obvious. ``We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.'' It does not say born equal, it says created equal. It is our creator, yes, that gives us our rights.

See, the powerful thing about that is we are the first Nation in the history of the world that acknowledged that our rights do not derive from government. They come from God himself.

You see those words up there, that motto, it says: ``In God We Trust'' right above the Speaker's rostrum. A previous Congress put that there in the early 1960s at the height of the Cold War.

There is a little visitors guide that people get when you do tours late at night, you have probably seen your constituents, visitors, and friends get the guide. If you turn, I think it is, about to page 21, it explains why that is there. It says: Congress voted to put that there as a rebuke to the Soviets' worldview at the height of the Cold War. Why? It is because Communism, Socialism find their roots in Marxism, and Marxism begins with the belief that there is no God. Marxism is wrong.

This Congress made a stand those many years ago, and we should do it again. We are different. We are distinct. We are exceptional because we acknowledge that right there, our motto.

It doesn't say in government we trust. It says: ``In God We Trust,'' and we better remember that. He has blessed us with this grand experiment in self-governance now for almost two-and-a-half centuries, and by God's grace, we are working hard and we are delivering on our promise to Make America Great Again.

This is, without a doubt, the most important vote of this Congress, and I think this one may be the most important vote that any of us take in our entire lifetimes and everybody better remember it, however you vote today.

My friends, the President of the United States is waiting with his pen. The American people are waiting for this relief. We have heard enough talk. It is time for action. Let's finish the job for him. Vote ``yes'' on the bill.