Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, the Rules Committee report (H. Rept. 118-108) to accompany House Resolution 495 should have included in its waivers of all points of order against consideration of H.R. 277 and H.R. 288 a disclosure of the following violation:

Clause 2(h) of rule XI, requiring a majority of the committee to be present to report a measure or recommendation.

Further, the Rules Committee report (H. Rept. 118-102) to accompany House Resolution 463 should have included in its waivers of all points of order against consideration of H.R. 277 and H.R. 288 a disclosure of the following violation:

Clause 2(h) of rule XI, requiring a majority of the committee to be present to report a measure or recommendation.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that it be in order at any time on April 27, 2023, to consider H. Con. Res. 30 in the House if called up by the chair of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, or his designee; that the concurrent resolution be considered as read; that the previous question be considered as ordered on the concurrent resolution to adoption without intervening motion, except for 80 minutes of debate with 20 minutes controlled by Representative McCaul of Texas, 20 minutes controlled by Representative Meeks of New York, and 40 minutes controlled by Representative Gaetz of Florida, or their respective designees.

Mr. Speaker, by direction of the Committee on Rules, I call up House Resolution 327 and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mr. Speaker, for purposes of debate only, I yield the customary 30 minutes to my good friend, the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. McGovern), the distinguished ranking member of the Rules Committee, pending which I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, during consideration of this resolution, all time is yielded for the purposes of debate only.

General Leave

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and insert extraneous material on House Resolution 327.

Mr. Speaker, last night, the Rules Committee met and met and met and reported out a rule providing for the consideration of H.R. 2811, the Limit, Save, Grow Act of 2023, and H.J. Res. 39, a joint resolution of disapproval that ends President Biden's rule protecting Chinese solar manufacturers that are illegally violating U.S. trade law.

The rule provides for consideration of H.R. 2811 under a closed rule. It provides 2 hours of general debate and one motion to recommit. The rule also provides for consideration of H.J. Res. 39 under a closed rule with 1 hour of general debate and one motion to recommit.

Mr. Speaker, earlier this year, the United States Government hit our statutory debt limit of $31.3 trillion. That is an astonishing number. It is over 120 percent of our annual gross domestic product.

This level of spending is simply unsustainable, and the American people know it. Three out of every four Americans support taking action on the national debt. They know that if we do nothing and keep moving forward as we have been doing, the result will be leaving a huge burden for our children and grandchildren; a pile of debt, a weak economy, and a broken currency.

You would think, given all that, the staggering reality, that President Biden and congressional Democrats would acknowledge the need to do something to address this problem. You would think they would be open to doing what we have done many, many times in the past: to couple needed fiscal reforms with an agreement to lift the debt ceiling. You would even think that President Biden, who himself personally negotiated several debt ceiling increases over the years, would be willing to sit down with us and talk.

Instead, we have heard none of this. No, we will not negotiate with you. No, we will not talk about the Federal budget. No, we won't look at commonsense reforms. No. No. No.

Instead, President Biden and congressional Democrats insist it is their way or the highway. There will be no reforms, no changes to Federal spending, not even clawing back the unspent pandemic relief funds that are no longer necessary.

With the passage of the Limit, Save, Grow Act, the House will stand with the American people who desperately want us to fix our national debt problem. That fix starts here in today's bill.

Mr. Speaker, our second item for today, H.J. Res. 39, is a joint resolution of disapproval of a Biden administration rule that would suspend import duties on solar panels made with components from the People's Republic of China.

Mr. Speaker, Communist China does not play by the same rules as the rest of the world. Chinese leadership will do whatever it takes to advance the Chinese Communist Party's interest to the detriment of the American economy.

China has been unfairly subsidizing the production of solar cells and modules and dumping them on the U.S. market at below cost. It should come as no surprise that China is also attempting to get around the existing import duties by routing their subsidized solar components through four countries: Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam.

Instead of holding them accountable for their actions, President Biden suspended the penalties for 2 years, presumably to appease climate activists who have no interest in America's job creators and manufacturers. If the House does not act, China's bad behavior will go unchallenged, and American solar manufacturers will continue to get a raw deal.

Mr. Speaker, we must stand up to Communist China. We must call out their inappropriate behavior on the global stage. When it is called for, we must protect American manufacturers against unfair competition. H.J. Res. 39 will accomplish all of these goals and will do so in a bipartisan manner.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting this rule and the underlying legislation.

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

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I have great respect for my friend, Mr. McGovern, but, of course, most of the things he mentioned simply aren't in the bill.

What really happened last night is that we have been trying to get you guys to negotiate for weeks and for months. We are going to raise the debt ceiling, something we said we were going to do and do in the legislation, and here is our opening offer.

Where is yours? We don't have one. We don't have one from the President. We have a Democratic Senate that can't produce one. So, we are going to put the ball over and see what you guys are actually going to do with it.

I remind my friends on the other side of the aisle that the work requirements we are including in this legislation are, in fact, less strict than the ones that then-Senator Biden supported in the 1990s. We should be helping people attain self-sufficiency as opposed to having them simply depend on the Federal Government.

That doesn't seem like a radical idea. That seems like common sense to me, and I think most Americans anyplace in the country would support it.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Texas (Mr. Roy), who is my very good friend and a member of the Rules Committee.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Langworthy), who is a distinguished member of the Rules Committee.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume for a couple of points.

Mr. Speaker, my friend is concerned about the Social Security Act. We have a bill on that, a bill very similar to what President Biden himself voted for when he was in the United States Senate, both the creation of a commission and its final results. I invite my friend to look at it. Perhaps he would join it, and it would be inherently bipartisan.

My friend made the point that inflation is a global phenomenon. I agree. It absolutely is.

Mr. Speaker, if you screw up the greatest economy in the world, then it has global consequences. That is exactly what my friends did.

Don't take my word for it. They were warned by Larry Summers, the Secretary of the Treasury for Bill Clinton, a distinguished economist. They were warned by Steve Rattner, who managed the auto industry under President Obama. They were warned by Jason Furman, who was the Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers to President Biden.

If my friends pass something as large as the American Rescue Plan, then we are going to have inflation within a year. We did.

If my friends would listen to their own economists, then we could have avoided this, and we might not have had to take the drastic action we are today.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Van Orden).

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself quickly such time as I may consume just to correct my friend. I did not blame all inflation on President Biden. He had a lot of help. He had a Democratic House and a Democratic Senate that worked with him to get there, so he certainly didn't do it on his own.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. McClintock), my very good friend, and a distinguished member of the Budget Committee.

Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Madam Speaker, in response to my friend's statement, we are certainly not trying to extort anything from anyone. Quite frankly, it is my Democratic friends who are trying to extract something from us that they can't get for themselves. If you believe a clean debt ceiling is the way to go, pass one in a Democratic Senate. You can't do it. The reality is there has to be a negotiation here. What we have said is: Hey, we are in good faith extending the debt ceiling; we are doing it in this bill. We have a lot of Members who have never voted to do that, who are actually doing it.

Here is our opening position in the negotiation. What is yours? We haven't heard that. It is just simply, well, give us what we want and pass the President's budget. If they genuinely want to talk, we are giving them the opportunity to actually do that.

I remind my friend, we look forward to discussion, but the first step is to raise the debt ceiling. That is what we are going to do here, then we will see what the Democrats do in the United States Senate in response. Then we can all go to conference and talk this thing out and hopefully come to a bipartisan solution.

The hysterics and theatrics might make good print. That is not the reality of the process here. We are operating within the spirit of the process. We hope our friends do the same.

Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Madam Speaker, I think if you happen to be listening to the debate, you might get confused. It is as if we are going to impose our will on somebody.

The reality is the Democrats control the United States Senate. The Democratic President of the United States has a veto that he can sustain in either Chamber.

What we are saying is let's sit down and talk things through, and here is our opening position. That is all that is going on here.

We are not in a position here to do what my friends did last time, and that is both what they regret losing and fear might someday come to pass.

The last time my friends didn't have to negotiate 2 years ago, what did they do? An explosion of spending that generated the worst inflation in modern American history; the worst inflation in over 40 years.

Looking around this Chamber, I think I am probably the only one here old enough to remember it.

The reality is they took a crisis that was ending and used it to justify $1.9 trillion worth of spending that many of their own economists warned them would lead to inflation. They jammed it through without a single vote.

The next year, they called something an Inflation Reduction Act that we all know was a climate bill. They crammed through another $500 billion worth of spending.

That doesn't even include plussing up the regular discretionary accounts of the United States. My friends own the inflation that has impoverished every single American.

Every American family is worse off, not better off, given the economic stewardship of this administration and, frankly, the Democratic Congress.

We look forward to the debate. We look forward to something my friends aren't used to doing, that is actually negotiating, and that is what we are talking about.

We are going to extend the debt limit, just as we said we would. Here is our negotiation. Here are our ideas where we can save money. Do you have any ideas where we can save money?

Let's talk about that because you can't get what you want. You can't pass through a Democratic Senate a clean debt bill.

If you can't do it there, you are certainly not going to do it here, so let's begin the discussion sooner rather than later.

Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

My friend and I have had a very long day and have spent a lot of time together.

Madam Speaker, I have no further speakers, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.

I begin by thanking my friend for engaging, as he always does, in a spirited debate. We don't agree on a lot of things, but I admire my friend's passion and appreciate his partnership on the Rules Committee, both when I was in the minority and now that I am fortunate enough to be in the majority.

We do look at the world a little bit differently. My friend worries about a $2 trillion tax cut which, by the way, was stretched out over 10 years, much of which paid itself back in economic growth, but forgets about a single bill that spent $1.9 trillion last year that they managed to do.

Look at the results. When the President walked in pre-COVID, the economy had the lowest unemployment rate in 50 years, growing.

Even after going through that, the Biden administration walks into a V-shaped recovery and a 1.4 percent inflation rate.

In less than 2 years, they managed to flatten that out and give us the highest inflation rate in over 40 years.

How did that happen? That happened by unrestrained Democratic spending, out-of-control budget proposals by the President, a Democratic Senate, and a Democratic House that wouldn't say ``no.''

Well, those days are behind us. I understand the agony of my friends, that they actually have to sit down now and talk with the Republicans and come to agreement.

Now, we have come forward with a proposal that we think makes a lot of sense. My friend is worried about us driving up the debt.

Why are we passing an extension of the debt ceiling? That is exactly what this legislation does. We are saying we just want to talk. Here is our opening proposal.

We don't expect you will take everything or agree with everything. We know you control the United States Senate. We know the President of the United States has a veto, but you are going to talk with us, and you are not going to get a clean debt ceiling.

We are not going to give you what you can't get yourself in a Democratic United States Senate. We are going to have a real discussion about what we need to do as a country.

Now, my friend says we have different values. In some ways, we do. We have a common commitment to the institution. We have a common belief in democracy. I think we believe in civil discourse, even when we disagree.

We have many things beyond that that we agree on, but we do differ in some ways. We believe we ought to live within our means, and that is a good thing to try and do.

We think the American people ought to be able to keep more of their own money to spend on their own family and their own investments.

We are willing to put some ideas forward how to do it. We think out- of-control spending is going to make life worse.

The cruelest tax of all is inflation. My friends are worried about the poorest of the poor. I know that is sincere.

I also know the inflation that this Democratic House and Senate of 2 years ago and the administration inflicted on the American public is a curse to the poorest of the poor.

Let's sit down, find some common ground. We have done it before. We act as if it is extraordinary to actually debate around debt ceiling spending restraints.

That is the way it is normally done, particularly in divided government. That is what the American people have given us. I suspect they want us to work together.

We have done our part of the bargain. We will finish that out today. We will extend the debt ceiling, as we promised we would do.

We will put forward a series of suggestions and proposals. We think they are good. Our friends won't agree with them all, but at the end of the day, they are going to have to come to the table.

If they can't pass a clean debt ceiling--or if you can pass a clean debt ceiling in the Senate, go ahead and do it and come to the table with that, but I don't think you will be able to.

We are going to sit down and find some ways to begin to restrain this out-of-control spending, and we are going to do it because there is a Republican majority in the House that demands that we do it; that we begin to live responsibly; that we not inflict inflation on the American people; that we prioritize our spending in some reasonable and rational way.

Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time. I urge the passage of the rule and the underlying legislation, and I move the previous question on the resolution.

Mr. Speaker, I was unavoidably detained during the vote on H.R. 1353. Had I been present, I would have voted ``yea'' on rollcall No. 197.

Mr. Speaker, today, I celebrate the grand opening of a very impressive building in my hometown of Moore, Oklahoma. First United Bank, which is based in Durant, Oklahoma, has a long history of community service and working with community members to achieve their financial goals while lifting up those around them.

First United Bank has reinforced its commitment to the Moore community with a building that will not only house all its financial partners and services under one roof but will also serve as a community center for Moore and the greater Oklahoma City Metro. In keeping with First United's other locations, there will be free community spaces; lobby items that celebrate and educate on the Bank's four pillars: financial wellbeing, personal growth, health & wellness, and faith; food truck hook-ups; training rooms; and a large space that community members can use to host events free of cost. This is a multi-million- dollar investment in the Moore community.

As a lead up to the actual grand opening, First United Bank hosted several events and activities for the residents of Moore and the surrounding community to participate in. These events included a blood drive, a free shred day, a pastor appreciation luncheon with a renowned author and theologian, and a book fair where each student at a local elementary school received two free books courtesy of the bank. I am grateful for the work of First United Bank and its commitment to help others ``Spend Life Wisely,'' and I celebrate the opening of this incredible building.

Mr. Speaker, had I been present, I would have voted ``yea'' on rollcall No. 146.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today out of gratitude to my wonderful Director of Strategic Communications, Sarah Corley. Sarah, an Oklahoma girl, born and raised in Oklahoma City, is an alumna of Oklahoma Baptist University where she graduated with a double major in Finance and Marketing.

Sarah has worked in my Congressional office in Washington, D.C. on two separate occasions. She served diligently as my Press Secretary from 2013 to 2016. Then she went off to spread her wings at the Phillips Collection as Media Relations manager and as Press Secretary at the House Budget Committee under my dear friend and former colleague, Chairman Dianne Black. In 2018, my staff and I were lucky to welcome Sarah back for a second time to again lead my press office and lead the Republican communications efforts for me at the House Rules Committee beginning in 2019.

Sarah's sharp insights, incredible talent, and natural curiosity make her a triple threat in a world in need of more people with quality traits. Sarah has a passion for art, fashion, traveling the world and service to others. In fact, she has been an active member of the Washington, D.C. Chapter of the Junior League during her time here. She also recently completed a certificate in Professional

Image Consulting with the Fashion Institute of Technology.

Sarah's contributions to my office and my success in serving the Fourth District of Oklahoma and the Rules Committee have been invaluable as an experienced communicator with a wealth of knowledge and insight. I will forever cherish and have gratitude for her guidance, creativeness and counsel.

Mr. Speaker, after 11 years in Washington, D.C., Sarah is moving on and moving back to Oklahoma for now. I know she has family and friends in Oklahoma to welcome her home and she will excel in amazing ways in everything she sets her mind on. I hope she always remembers she has friends in Washington, D.C. as well. I am excited to see what she will accomplish next.

Mr. Speaker, as the designee of the majority leader, pursuant to House Resolution 5, I call up H. Res. 11, and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on H. Res. 11.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H. Res. 11, a resolution Establishing the Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party. This select committee will be charged with addressing the urgent threat to the United States and our allies posed by the Chinese Communist Party.

Mr. Speaker, the ongoing threat posed by Communist China and the fact that the CCP cannot be trusted as a global party has been apparent to the American people for some time.

In 2019, at the behest of then-Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy, House Republicans created the China Task Force to review Communist China's actions and to make policy recommendations to protect U.S. interests against the Chinese Communist Party. Republicans sought to make this task force bipartisan and extended an open invitation to Democrats to join us. Unfortunately, House Democrats chose not to participate at that time. I hope they do at this time.

The China Task Force ultimately produced a report with more than 400 policy recommendations, many of them bipartisan. Today, we are taking the next logical step with the creation of a select committee empowered to investigate and respond to the counterintelligence and economic espionage threat that threatens our very way of life. Make no mistake, Mr. Speaker, the Chinese Communist Party has demonstrated time and time again that it is more interested in being America's foe than America's friend.

The events of the past 3 years have brought into stark focus how Communist China's actions affect the United States and the rest of the world. Since the COVID-19 pandemic began inside China's borders, the world has experienced constant disruptions and chaos. Indeed, Communist China's approach to the COVID-19 pandemic is emblematic of its approach to many other things: attempting to cover up the pandemic's existence, resisting all efforts to investigate its origins, committing horrific human rights abuses, and refusing to work productively with the global community to combat the pandemic.

It has also become apparent that far too many economically critical supply chains are tied to China, which threatens our economic and national security. We are dangerously dependent on China for basic building blocks of our economy. The result is shortages of critical products, like semiconductors and rare earth minerals, both of which are largely produced in China today, along with the shortages of pharmaceuticals and personal protective equipment, which threatens our ability to battle future pandemics. Our national and economic security requires us to secure our vulnerable supply chains and, indeed, to bring them back home to America.

Communist China has also undertaken aggressive actions designed to expand their influence both in the United States and abroad. Communist China is a prolific thief of American intellectual property, violating countless patents, and failing to respect international and domestic intellectual property laws.

They have undertaken a systematic effort to infiltrate American colleges and universities through their support of the so-called Confucius Institutes and other organizations designed to spread Chinese propaganda.

Chinese spy networks operate both on American soil and in cyberspace. And popular Chinese-owned apps like TikTok spread more propaganda and take massive amounts of Americans' personal data back to the Chinese Government.

In addition, the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative has spread the tentacles of the so-called People's Liberation Army throughout the world, particularly the developing world, and has ensnared dozens of developing countries in debt-trap diplomacy.

Communist China continues to aggressively push into the South China Sea and militarize small islands, threatening freedom of navigation in this strategically important region. They relentlessly and aggressively provoke Taiwan, an island that demonstrates to the world what a free, democratic, and capitalist China could look like.

Mr. Speaker, the bottom line is Communist China is a serious, generational threat that we must address before it is too late. China exhibits expanding economic and military power coupled with the uncompromising rejection of our values and those of our allies.

That is why the Select Committee on Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party is so critical. It will be charged with reviewing our economic dependence on China and restoring safe and secure supply chains, on reviewing China's actions toward the United States and our allies, on restoring American domestic institutions to protect them against Chinese infiltration and propaganda, and so much more.

Mr. Speaker, I urge all Members on both sides of the aisle to join me in support of this resolution so we can stand united against Communist China.

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

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from California (Mr. McCarthy), the distinguished Speaker of the House of Representatives.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Gallagher), who is the chairman-designate of the proposed select committee.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from Kentucky (Mr. Barr), my very good friend.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Montana (Mr. Zinke), my very good friend.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Joyce), my very good friend.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Illinois (Mr. LaHood), my good friend.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. Hill), my very good friend.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the distinguished gentlewoman from Indiana (Mrs. Spartz), my very good friend.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Waltz), my very good friend and distinguished veteran in service to the United States and now in the Congress of the United States.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Mills), my very good friend who also has rendered distinguished service to our country in uniform.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Smith), my very good friend and a distinguished Member.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.

I begin by thanking my friend for the debate and for his tremendous work in holding China accountable in the human rights area.

I am certainly confident the Speaker will do as he said, and we will have a committee both sides can be proud of.

Mr. Speaker, I urge all of my colleagues to support this resolution creating a Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party.

It is beyond dispute that Communist China poses an urgent generational threat to the United States' interests and values. America has become far too economically dependent on China in recent decades, and as a result, our supply chains have become dangerously fragile. We must urgently take steps to secure our supply chains and bring them home.

The Chinese Communist Party continues to push the envelope, both in the United States and abroad. They steal American intellectual property. They build spy networks and propaganda machines on American soil. They threaten our allies in Asia and the South China Sea. They have spread their influence throughout the developing world, seeking to ensnare vulnerable developing countries in debt-trap diplomacy.

Mr. Speaker, the time has come for the House of Representatives to take a comprehensive look at Communist China. We must build on the excellent work done by the China Task Force in 2019 and 2020. We must investigate China's actions and respond appropriately to ensure America confronts this very grave threat.

Mr. Speaker, I urge all Members to vote ``yes'' on this resolution, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, as the designee of the majority leader, pursuant to House Resolution 5, I call up the resolution (H. Res. 12) establishing a Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government as a select investigative subcommittee of the Committee on the Judiciary, and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on H. Res. 12.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H. Res. 12, a resolution establishing the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government.

This select subcommittee is modeled on the famous Church Committee, which investigated the American intelligence community in the 1970s and uncovered and exposed a wide variety of abuses, including many directed against American citizens.

Similar to the situation that confronted America in the 1970s, in recent years we have witnessed abuses of the civil liberties of American citizens committed by the executive branch.

The select subcommittee will operate as a select investigative subcommittee of the Judiciary Committee and will be tasked with studying and reporting on the executive branch's authority to collect information on or otherwise investigate citizens of the United States.

It will investigate how executive branch agencies work with and exchange information with the private sector and other government agencies to facilitate action against American citizens; how executive branch agencies collect, compile, analyze, use, or disseminate information about citizens of the United States; the laws, programs, and activities of the executive branch as they relate to the collection of information on citizens of the United States; and any other issues related to the violation of the civil liberties of American citizens.

Mr. Speaker, it is undeniable that, in recent years, the executive branch of the Federal Government has abused its authority and violated the civil liberties of American citizens, often for political purposes. There are many examples to point to, ranging from a father being labeled a ``domestic terrorist'' for confronting a school board over the sexual assault of his daughter, to the Federal Government's role in suppressing information on Twitter, to the Department of Homeland Security's plans to create a Disinformation Governance Board, and to the revelations regarding the FBI's abuse of its Foreign Intelligence and Surveillance Act authority.

All these examples and many more demonstrate how prevalent such abusive actions have become.

Mr. Speaker, the American people deserve to have confidence in their government. They deserve to know that the broad powers granted through the Federal Government to the FBI, to the Department of Homeland Security, and to the intelligence agencies are not being abused. They deserve to know that the executive branch is not positioning itself as the final arbiter of what constitutes truth. They deserve to know that they will not be labeled a domestic terrorist for advocating for their children in front of a school board.

Mr. Speaker, it was Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis who stated that ``sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants.'' At the end of the day, that is the purpose of the select subcommittee. It will bring abuses by the Federal Government into the light for the American people and ensure that Congress, as their elected representatives, can take appropriate action to remedy them.

I have confidence that this select subcommittee will accomplish that goal.

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

Mr. Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Jordan), who is my very good friend and the distinguished incoming chairman of the Judiciary Committee.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Kentucky (Mr. Comer), my very good friend, the incoming chairman of the Oversight Committee.

Mr. Speaker, I yield an additional 30 seconds to the gentleman from Kentucky.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Turner), my very good friend and the distinguished incoming chairman of the Intelligence Committee.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Montana (Mr. Zinke), my very good friend and a distinguished veteran who served the United States in a variety of capacities, in and out of uniform.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Colorado (Mrs. Boebert), my very good friend.

Mr. Speaker, I yield an additional 30 seconds to the gentlewoman from Colorado.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Bishop).

Mr. Speaker, I yield an additional 30 seconds to the gentleman from North Carolina.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Texas (Mr. Roy), my friend.

Mr. Speaker, I yield an additional 15 seconds to the gentleman from Texas.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the distinguished gentleman from Texas (Mr. Pfluger), my very good friend, who served the country in and out of uniform.

Mr. Speaker, I yield an additional 15 seconds to the gentleman from Texas.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. McClintock), who is my very good friend.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from the great State of Pennsylvania (Mr. Perry).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Kentucky (Mr. Massie).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Clyde).

Mr. Speaker, I would advise my friend that I am prepared to close whenever he is.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.

In closing, Mr. Speaker, I urge all my colleagues to support this resolution creating the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government.

In the 1970s it was apparent from revelations in the popular press that the American intelligence community had committed abuses as part of their activities. In response, Congress created the Church Committee which investigated these abuses and brought them into the light.

Today, it is again apparent that the Federal Government has been weaponized for political purposes. Like the Church Committee--which this subcommittee is modeled on--the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government will investigate the abuse of Americans' civil liberties and bring them into the light. I am confident that this subcommittee will do the American people a great service. They deserve to have confidence in their government, and that confidence starts with ensuring that the vast powers of the executive branch are not abused.

Mr. Speaker, I urge all Members to vote ``yes'' on the resolution, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I thank my good friend, the distinguished majority leader, Mr. Scalise, for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, for the purpose of debate only, I yield the customary 30 minutes to the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. McGovern), my good friend, pending which I yield myself such time as I may consume. During consideration of this resolution, all time is yielded for the purpose of debate only.

General Leave

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks.

Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record the section-by-section analysis of the resolution.

H. Res. 5

Adopting the Rules for the 118th Congress

Section-by-Section Analysis

Section 1. Adoption of the Rules of the One Hundred

Seventeenth Congress.

This section provides that the Rules of the 117th Congress

are the Rules of the 118th Congress, except for the

amendments contained in section 2 of the resolution and

orders contained in the resolution.

Section 2. Changes to the Standing Rules.

Initiatives to Reduce Spending and Improve Accountability.

Subsection (a)(l) replaces current ``pay-as-you-go''

requirements with ``cut-as-you-go'' requirements. The

provision prohibits consideration of a bill, joint

resolution, conference report, or amendment that has the net

effect of increasing mandatory spending within a five-year or

ten-year budget window. This provision continues the current

practice of counting multiple measures considered pursuant to

a special order of business which directs the Clerk to

engross the measures together after passage for purposes of

compliance with the rule and provides a mechanism for

addressing ``emergency'' designations.

Subsection (a)(2) strikes the ``Gephardt rule'' that

provides for the automatic engrossment and transmittal to the

Senate of a joint resolution changing the public debt limit,

upon the adoption by the House of a concurrent resolution on

the budget resolution, thereby avoiding a separate vote in

the House on the public debt limit legislation.

Subsection (a)(3) restores a point of order against net

increase in budget authority for amendments to general

appropriations bills.

Subsection (a)(4) restores a point of order against budget

reconciliation directives that increase net direct spending.

Increased Threshold for Tax Rate Increases. Subsection (b)

restores a requirement for a three-fifths supermajority vote

on tax rate increases.

Two Minute Votes. Subsection (c) provides that the Speaker

can reduce vote times in the House to not less than two

minutes on any question that follows another electronic vote.

The subsection also states that to the maximum extent

practicable, advance notice will be given when reduced voting

times are expected in a voting series.

Modifications to Calendar Wednesday. Subsection (d)

modifies the notice requirement to use Calendar Wednesday to

conform with the 72-hour notice requirement prior to

consideration of legislation.

Committee Authorization and Oversight Plans. Subsection (e)

restores the requirement that each standing committee (except

the Committees on Appropriations, Ethics, and Rules) vote to

adopt an authorization and oversight plan, which must be

submitted to the Committees on Oversight and Accountability

and House Administration no later than March 1 of the first

session of a Congress. The plan must include a list of

unauthorized programs and agencies within the committee's

jurisdiction that have received funding in the prior fiscal

year, or in the case of a permanent authorization, have not

received a comprehensive review by the committee in the prior

three Congresses. The subsection requires committees to

describe each program or agency that is intended to be

authorized in the current Congress or next Congress, and a

description of oversight to support reauthorization in the

current Congress. The subsection also requires the

plan include any recommendations for moving such programs or

agencies from mandatory to discretionary funding. When

developing these plans, committee chairs must coordinate with

other committees of jurisdiction to ensure that programs and

agencies are subject to routine authorization efforts.

The subsection also provides that committee authorization

and oversight plans may make recommendations to consolidate

or terminate duplicative or unnecessary programs and

agencies. Committees may make recommendations for changes to

existing law to address Federal rules, regulations, statutes,

and court decisions related to programs that are inconsistent

with Congress' Article I authorities, as well as provide a

description of other oversight activities that may be

necessary.

The subsection also requires the Committee on Oversight and

Accountability to report to the House no later than April 15

the authorization and oversight plans submitted by committees

together with any recommendations it may make to ensure

effective coordination of the plans.

Cost Estimates for Major Legislation to Include

Macroeconomic Effects. Subsection (f) restores the

requirement that the Congressional Budget Office and Joint

Committee on Taxation, to the extent practicable, incorporate

the macroeconomic effects of major legislation into the

official cost estimates used for enforcing the budget

resolution and other rules of the House. The subsection

requires, to the extent practicable, a qualitative assessment

of the long-term budgetary and macroeconomic effects of major

legislation, which is defined to cover legislation that

causes a gross budgetary effect in any fiscal year covered by

the budget resolution that is equal to or greater than 0.25

percent of the projected GDP for that year. This subsection

also allows the chair of the Committee on the Budget, or in

the case of revenue legislation the House member serving

as the Chair or Vice Chair of the Joint Committee on

Taxation, to designate major legislation for purposes of

this rule.

Ethics Reform. Subsection (g) directs the Committee on

Ethics to adopt rules which provide for a process to receive

complaints directly from the public.

Empaneling Investigative Subcommittee of the Committee on

Ethics. Subsection (h) codifies House Resolution 451, 110th

Congress, directing the Committee on Ethics to empanel an

investigative subcommittee or issue a report within 30 days

of the date a Member, Delegate, or the Resident Commissioner

is indicted, or criminal charges are filed.

Treatment of Evidence in Committee and Subcommittee

Investigations. Subsection (i) eliminates a requirement that

the Committee on Ethics adopt a rule allowing the use during

an ethics investigation of evidence presented in a related

criminal case where the respondent was convicted because this

is already contained in the committee rules of the Committee

on Ethics.

Designating Committee on Oversight and Accountability.

Subsection (j) redesignates the Committee on Oversight and

Reform as the Committee on Oversight and Accountability.

Designating Committee on Education and the Workforce.

Subsection (k) redesignates the Committee on Education and

Labor as the Committee on Education and the Workforce.

Subcommittees of Committee on Agriculture. Subsection (1)

permits the Committee on Agriculture to have six

subcommittees, codifying a separate order in effect since the

114th Congress.

Cybersecurity. Subsection (m) modifies the jurisdiction of

the Committee on Homeland Security to include functions of

the Department of Homeland Security related to cybersecurity.

Committees currently holding jurisdiction over cybersecurity

functions of DHS will retain a shared jurisdictional interest

in such functions.

Scope of Authority to Act in Continuing Litigation Matters.

Subsection (n) eliminates ``including, but not limited to,

the issuance of subpoenas'' in the description of authority

to act as successor-in-interest in continuing litigation

matters, such language being superfluous.

Record Votes on Measures Reported by the Committee on

Rules. Subsection (o) requires reports from the Committee on

Rules to include a depiction of recorded votes.

Access to the Hall of the House. Subsection (p) strikes

language providing Governors of Territories and the Mayor of

the District of Columbia access to the Hall of the House.

Resolution Declaring the Office of Speaker Vacant.

Subsection (q) strikes language from rule IX to allow any

member to offer a privileged resolution declaring the Office

of Speaker vacant.

Section 3. Separate Orders.

Holman Rule. Subsection (a) reinstates the ``Holman Rule''

which allows amendments to appropriations legislation that

would reduce the salary of or fire specific federal

employees, or cut a specific program.

Restoring Legislative Branch Accountability. Subsection (b)

states regulations adopted pursuant to House Resolution 1096,

117th Congress will have no force or effect in the 118th

Congress.

Requirement with Respect to Single Subject Bill. Subsection

(c) provides that, effective February 1, 2023, a bill or

joint resolution may not be introduced unless the sponsor

submits a statement setting forth the single subject of the

bill or joint resolution. This statement must be included

with the statement required by clause 7(c) of rule XII

(Constitutional Authority Statements). A statement for any

bill or joint resolution introduced prior to the effective

date shall, to the extent practicable, be submitted by the

sponsor prior to committee or House consideration.

Question of Consideration for Germanenes. Subsection (d)

establishes a question of consideration on a special rule

that waives germaneness for an amendment. The question of

consideration is debatable for 20 minutes and is not subject

to any intervening motion.

Budget Matter. Subsection (e)(l)(A) provides the authority

for the chair of the Committee on the Budget to file

allocations, aggregates, and other appropriate budgetary

levels for the purpose of enforcing provisions of the

Congressional Budget Act of 1974. Additionally, this

subsection states that the provisions of S. Con. Res. 14,

117th Congress shall have no force or effect.

Subsection (e)(l)(B) provides adjustment authority to the

chair of the Committee on the Budget for a bill, joint

resolution, amendment thereto, or conference report thereon

if the measure does not increase direct spending over five

or ten years. It additionally provides adjustment

authority to the chair of the Committee on the Budget to

take into account the most recent baseline published by

the Congressional Budget Office.

Subsection (e)(1)(C) allows the Majority Leader or his

designee, should the chair of the Committee on the Budget not

yet be elected, to file statements permitted under

subsections (f)(1)(A) and (f)(1)(B).

Subsection (e)(1)(D) allows the chair of the Committee on

the Budget (or the Majority Leader or his designee, should

the chair not yet be elected) to adjust an estimate under

clause 4 of rule XXIX to exempt the budgetary effects of

measures to protect taxpayers with taxable incomes below

$400,000 from an increase in audits above the most recent tax

year from the Internal Revenue Service.

Subsection (e)(2) establishes a point of order against

consideration of a bill or joint resolution reported by a

committee (other than the Committee on Appropriations) or an

amendment thereto, or a conference report thereon, which has

the net effect of increasing direct spending in excess of

$2,500,000,000 for any of the four consecutive 10 fiscal year

periods beginning with the first fiscal year that is 10

fiscal years after the current fiscal year. The levels of net

increases in direct spending shall be determined based on

estimates provided by the chair of the Committee on the

Budget.

Subsection (e)(3) requires the Congressional Budget Office

on any legislation that shows changes in mandatory spending

which cause a gross budgetary effect in any fiscal year

covered by the budget resolution that is equal to or greater

than 0.25 percent of the projected GDP for the current fiscal

year, to the extent practicable, to provide an estimate of

the inflationary impacts of that legislation. This subsection

also allows the chair of the Committee on the Budget to

designate major legislation for purposes of this order.

Subsection (e)(4) requires the Congressional Budget Office

on any legislation impacting either the Medicare Part A trust

fund or OASDI trust fund that causes a gross budgetary effect

in any fiscal year covered by the budget resolution that is

equal to or greater than 0.25 percent of the projected GDP

for the current fiscal year, to the extent practicable, to

display: (1) the impact of legislation on the Medicare Part A

trust fund's unfunded liabilities over a 25-year projection,

solvency projections, and the net present value of those

liabilities; and (2) the impact on the OASDI trust fund's

unfunded liabilities over a 75-year projection, solvency

projections, and the net present value of those liabilities.

This subsection also allows the chair of the Committee on the

Budget to designate major legislation for purposes of this

order.

Spending Reduction Amendments in Appropriations Bills.

Subsection (f) provides for spending reduction account

transfer amendments and requires a spending reduction account

section to be included in all general appropriations bills.

Scoring Conveyances of Federal Land. Subsection (g)

reinstates the separate order from the 115th Congress

providing that any provision in a bill, joint resolution,

amendment, or conference report requiring or authorizing a

conveyance of federal land to a State, local government, or

tribal entity, shall not be considered as providing new

budget authority, decreasing revenues, increasing mandatory

spending, or increasing outlays.

Member Day Hearing Requirement. Subsection (h) modifies the

Member Day hearing requirement to only occur at the full

committee level. Each standing committee (other than the

Committee on Ethics) must hold a Member Day Hearing during

the first session of the 118th Congress to receive testimony

from Members, Delegates, and the Resident Commissioner on

proposed legislation within its jurisdiction. The subsection

permits the Committee on Rules to hold its Member Day Hearing

during the second session to receive testimony on proposed

changes to the standing rules for the next Congress.

Information to Committees of Congress on Request.

Subsection (i) requires that the chair of the Committee on

Oversight and Accountability be included as one of the seven

members of the committee making any request of an Executive

agency pursuant to section 2954 of title 5, United States

Code.

Remote Appearance of Witnesses. Subsection (j) provides

limited authorization to a chair

of a committee to allow witnesses to appear remotely at

committee and subcommittee proceedings. This subsection

applies only to witnesses appearing in a non-governmental

capacity and in accordance with regulations issued by the

chair of the Committee on Rules and printed in the

Congressional Record.

Deposition Authority. Subsection (k) provides the Permanent

Select Committee on Intelligence and each standing committee

of the 118th Congress (except for the Committee on Rules) the

authority to order the taking of a deposition by a member or

counsel of such committee and limits persons who can attend

depositions to members, committee staff, an official

reporter, the witness, and up to two, personal,

nongovernmental attorneys. Depositions taken under this

authority are subject to regulations issued by the chair of

the Committee on Rules and printed in the Congressional

Record.

Broadening Availability and Utility of Legislative

Documents in Machine-Readable Formats. Subsection (l)

instructs the Committee on House Administration, the Clerk,

an other officers and officials to advance

government transparency by continuing efforts to publish

documents of the House in machinereadable formats and

broaden their utility by enabling all House staff to

create comparative prints.

Improving the Committee Electronic Document Repository.

Subsection (m) directs the Clerk, the Committee on House

Administration, and other officers and officials to continue

to improve the existing electronic document repository

operated by the Clerk for use by committees. Such

improvements are intended to increase public availability and

identification of legislative information produced by House

committees, including votes, amendments, and witness

disclosure forms.

Providing for Transparency with Respect to Memorials

Submitted Pursuant to Article V of the Constitution of the

United States. Subsection (n) carries forward provisions that

clarify the procedures of the House regarding the receipt of

Article V memorials from the States by directing the Clerk to

make each memorial, designated by the chair of the Committee

on the Judiciary, electronically available, organized by

State of origin and year of receipt, and indicate whether the

memorial was designated as an application or rescission.

In carrying out this subsection, it is expected that the

chair of the Committee on the Judiciary will be solely

charged with determining whether a memorial purports to be an

application of the legislature of a state calling for a

constitutional convention or rescission of prior

applications. The Clerk's role will be entirely

administrative. The chair of the Committee on the Judiciary

will only designate memorials from state legislatures (and

not petitions from individuals or other parties), as it is

only state legislatures that are contemplated under Article V

of the Constitution.

In submitting each memorial to the Clerk, the chair of the

Committee on the Judiciary will include a transmission letter

that indicates it has been designated under this subsection.

The Clerk will make publicly available the memorial and the

transmission letter from the chair. Ancillary documentation

from the state or other parties is not expected to be

publicized.

War Powers Resolution. Subsection (o) continues a separate

order from the 117th Congress expressly providing that any

motion to discharge a measure introduced pursuant to section

6 or section 7 of the War Powers Resolution is not subject to

a motion to table.

Further Expenses for Resolving Contested Elections.

Subsection (p) authorizes such sums as may be necessary for

the Committee on House Administration to resolve contested

elections. Funds shall be available for expenses incurred

between January 3, 2023, and January 3, 2024. Amounts made

available under this subsection shall be expended in

accordance with regulations prescribed by the Committee on

House Administration.

Ethics Reform. Subsection (q) directs the Speaker to

establish a bipartisan task force to conduct a comprehensive

review of House ethics rules and regulations. The task force

is directed to submit a report to the Speaker, Majority

Leader, Minority Leader, and chair and ranking minority

members of the Committees on Ethics and Rules.

Exercise Facilities for Former Members. Subsection (r)

continues the prohibition on access to any exercise facility

that is made available exclusively to Members, Delegates, the

Resident Commissioner, former Members, former Delegates,

former Resident Commissioners, officers, and former officers

of the House and their spouses to any former Member, former

Delegate, former Resident Commissioner, former officer, or

spouse who is a lobbyist registered under the Lobbying

Disclosure Act of 1995 or any successor statute, or who is an

agent of a foreign principal as defined in clause 5 of rule

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. Scalise), my good friend and the majority leader.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I begin by thanking my good friend from Massachusetts for his leadership of the Rules Committee over the last 4 years. While we certainly haven't always agreed, we have tried to always be agreeable while working with one another. I certainly associate myself with his remarks about the terrific work of the staff on both sides of the aisle for helping us facilitate the operation of the House over that 4-year period. I look forward again to working with my friend in the years ahead.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to offer the rules resolution that will govern the House during the 118th Congress.

Determining the rules we will follow is one of the first and most consequential decisions we must make as a body at the beginning of each Congress. In many ways, the Rules of the House of Representatives serve to demonstrate where our priorities and values lie as an institution.

Make no mistake, the priorities of the new Republican majority are fully on display in this resolution.

First and foremost, Mr. Speaker, we are taking action to reopen the people's House and ensure that we, the people's elected servants, are here in Washington, D.C., doing our jobs.

For far too long, the House allowed Members to do their jobs from home without ever setting foot in Washington. What started out as a pandemic accommodation lasted far longer than necessary, but today, even President Biden admits that the pandemic is over.

It is time for the House of Representatives to return to our normal operating procedures, and it is time for the Members of Congress to actually show up to work. Today's rules package eliminates proxy voting and puts an end to remote committee proceedings.

We restore the requirement for committees to establish plans for how they will conduct much-needed oversight. Republicans have robust plans to ensure that we will hold the Biden administration accountable for its actions, but being a counterbalance to the administration will not stop there. With today's rules package, we will also establish a new select subcommittee, modeled on the Church Committee, to investigate the radical left's weaponization of the Federal Government in recent years.

We will also modify the jurisdiction of the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic to ensure we investigate the origins of the virus and finally look into the financial and societal impacts of shutdowns.

We will establish a Select Committee on Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party to respond to threats posed by the CCP, ensure economic competitiveness for America, and protect human rights.

Other important changes in this resolution are those that are designed to address our out-of-control spending problem, which the former majority made vastly worse last Congress. In fact, when Democrats were in control of this Chamber, they spent so much money through partisan bills that they managed to drive this country into an inflationary crisis. Those aren't my words; those are the words of former Clinton Treasury Secretary Larry Summers.

The American people elected Republicans to get our fiscal house in order, and get our fiscal house in order we will. That starts with making key changes to House rules to ensure we will instill some fiscal sanity in Congress. These changes reflect a return to budgetary rules that were in place for over a decade before Democrats removed them.

We will restore the CutGo rule, which requires us to offset any increase in mandatory spending with a corresponding cut in mandatory spending. No more will the House be able to use budget gimmicks and tricks to pretend increases in mandatory spending are paid for when they actually are not.

We will restore a requirement for a three-fifths majority to approve any tax rate increase. If this rule had been in place, the House would not have passed the massive tax increases the Democrats included in last year's reconciliation bill.

We will eliminate the so-called Gephardt rule, which allows the House to automatically suspend the debt ceiling upon passage of a budget resolution. Just as the American people have to live within their means, so, too, should the Federal Government.

Automatically suspending the debt limit may be the easy and expedient way, but on a matter as important as the national debt limit, what is easy and expedient is hardly appropriate. The American people expect us to make a decision on the national debt limit only after full and fair consideration and debate in the House. That starts with ensuring it will receive a separate, standalone vote on the floor.

Finally, we will remove the rule that allowed Democrats to simply ignore budget estimates for bills dealing with the COVID pandemic or climate change. Although it may sound controversial to my friends on the other side of the aisle, Republicans cannot and will not thrust our heads in the sand and ignore the effects of out-of-control Federal spending.

Mr. Speaker, I could go on and on, but on the whole, I am very proud of today's rule package. It reflects Republican priorities and the priorities of the voters who elected us. It reopens this institution and ensures that all Members will be in Washington to do their work, as our constituents expect. It ensures that we will hold the Biden administration and the Chinese Communist Party accountable. It ensures that we will get our fiscal house in order.

Mr. Speaker, I urge all Members to support the rules package, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Burgess), my very good friend, a member of both the Rules Committee and the Energy and Commerce Committee.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the distinguished gentlewoman from Minnesota (Mrs. Fischbach), my colleague on the Rules Committee.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Griffith), my very good friend who had so much to do with some of the extraordinary changes in this rules package.

Mr. Speaker, I yield an additional 30 seconds to the gentleman from Virginia.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from South Dakota (Mr. Johnson), my good friend.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Duncan).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the distinguished gentlewoman from Florida (Mrs. Cammack).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Texas (Mr. Roy).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Clyde).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Norman).

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that the Speaker be authorized to postpone the vote on ordering the previous question on House Resolution 5 to a designated time later today.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that the Chair may reduce to 5 minutes the minimum time for electronic voting on any question relating to House Resolution 5 that follows a 15-minute vote.

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

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

Mr. Speaker, I continue to reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the distinguished gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. Hill), my good friend.

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

Mr. Speaker, I continue to reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I continue to reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I am prepared to close whenever my friend is.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.

In closing, I urge all my colleagues to support this resolution establishing the rules of the 118th Congress. The changes we are proposing today will ensure that the institution is set on a path of success for the new Congress.

They will ensure that Members return to Washington and do their work here.

They will set up an institution to hold the Biden administration accountable.

They will put in place budgetary rules designed to prevent the kind of reckless spending spree Democrats recently engaged in.

I urge all Members to vote ``yes'' on the previous question and ``yes'' on the rule.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time, and I move the previous question on the resolution.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that the House stand in recess until approximately 6:30 p.m.

Mr. Speaker, I offer a privileged resolution and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mr. Speaker, I offer a privileged concurrent resolution and ask for its immediate consideration.

Madam Clerk, I move that the House do now adjourn until noon tomorrow.

Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Massachusetts, my very good friend, Chairman McGovern, for yielding me the customary time, and I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Madam Speaker, I want to begin by associating myself with the chairman's very appropriate remarks about the unfolding disaster in Florida and the southeast. It is something that moves all Americans. Florida, and frankly all of the region, is in our prayers and in our thoughts as they deal with an unprecedented natural disaster.

Madam Speaker, today's rule covers two items. The first I will discuss is H.R. 8987, the Fairness for 9/11 Families Act. This bill would shift just under $3 billion from the CARES Act small business loan fund to the United States

Victims of State Sponsored Terrorism Fund to compensate victims of the 9/11 terror attacks.

Last night at the Rules Committee we heard testimony on this bill, which unfortunately, is the only hearing this bill will receive this Congress. My Republican colleagues on the Judiciary Committee testified at length about the efforts they have gone to in order to work with the majority on this matter. But instead of working together in a bipartisan manner, the majority instead chose to move ahead on this bill with no hearing or markup held in the committee of jurisdiction.

This represents a complete failure of regular order. Madam Speaker, it results in a lack of process that is unfair to everyone. It is especially unfair to the victims of 9/11 who deserve both a bipartisan process and a bipartisan bill that everyone can support. It did not have to be this way, and it is unfortunate that the majority decided to treat this issue with less than the gravity it deserved.

Despite these procedural failures, however, I intend to support this legislation, but we could have and should have done much better.

Our second bill is the Senate amendment to H.R. 6833, a continuing resolution funding the government through December 16 of 2022.

Madam Speaker, it is unfortunate that Congress has waited until the last minute to take up the serious work of funding the government and keeping it open. It is equally unfortunate that our only option for doing so is the flawed, inadequate bill that does not meet the needs of the American people.

Despite this bill's flaws, there is much to like in it and much that I do support. I voted in favor of the omnibus spending bill back in March, and this bill would maintain those spending levels through the middle of December. I support additional funding for Ukraine as they seek to defend themselves against Vladimir Putin's unjust and illegal invasion, and I support additional funds for disaster relief.

But just as important as what is included in this bill is what is not included in this bill and should have been.

It is undeniable that we are facing a humanitarian crisis on our southern border, caused in large part by the Biden administration's unwillingness to confront what is staring them in the face. The administration asked for $1.8 billion to assist migrants, which they have received in this legislation, but they did not ask for a single penny to secure the border.

The Biden administration has sought to add workers elsewhere in the government, like 87,000 new employees at the IRS, but they did not ask for money to add any new Border Patrol agents to help address this Biden-made crisis on the southern border. This could and should have been addressed in this bill, but it is not.

Similarly, the bill does nothing to address the high price of energy or provide new sources of energy. We should be doing everything we can to provide secure, reliable, and inexpensive energy to the American people. Instead, the President is spending his time chastising energy companies. We should have addressed this issue in this bill, too, but we did not.

Nor does this bill address other crises affecting the American people, including inflation and the economic recession, both caused by the reckless and profligate spending policies of the Biden administration and this majority. I could go on and on, but the point remains: so much should have been in this bill but is not.

I hope that if my friends in the majority take anything from today's discussion, it is this: it is high time for them to get serious about appropriations and about holding bipartisan discussions with Republicans on full-year spending bills.

Consider where we are: the House Appropriations Committee, I am proud to say, passed all 12 bills out of committee this summer, yet, as of today, only six have passed the floor. It is the majority's responsibility to bring those bills to the floor.

In the Senate, which Democrats also control, the record is even worse. Not a single bill has been passed out of the Senate Appropriations Committee. In addition, no serious negotiations have taken place between Republicans and Democrats and between the House and the Senate. These negotiations have been postponed all summer and into the fall while the House takes up one political messaging bill after another.

Madam Speaker, we need to focus on the serious business of funding government. In order to accomplish that goal and achieve a bipartisan agreement, four conditions will have to be met.

First, defense spending will have to go up to meet the level authorized in the fiscal year 2023 NDAA. The level included in the House defense appropriations bill is wholly inadequate to meet America's defense needs and must go up to reach a final deal.

Second, non-defense discretionary spending will have to come down. The House non-defense appropriations bills were all marked up at a bloated level of spending which cannot be justified. These numbers must be reduced for an agreement to be had.

Third, longstanding bipartisan pro-life policies that have historically been carried in appropriations bills must be restored. The majority stripped these out in the Appropriations Committee this year, but they must go back in. I cannot emphasize this point strongly enough, Madam Speaker. No Republicans--and I mean no Republicans--will vote for these bills unless these bipartisan pro-life riders are restored.

Fourth, the 12 House Appropriations Committee bills include countless poison pills that have to come out. These are liberal policy riders on all matters of topics, ranging from climate change to abortion to labor law. They have to come out to reach a bipartisan deal. The appropriations bills cannot pass this House and pass the Senate unless there is a bipartisan deal.

Madam Speaker, we can reach a bipartisan, bicameral, full-year spending deal if my friends in the majority get serious about negotiating. At the end of the day, Republicans must be included in these negotiations. If the majority continues to dither, we are headed for a year-long continuing resolution. That is a bad outcome for the institution, a bad outcome for the government, and a bad outcome for the American people.

When the majority begins to seriously negotiate on a bipartisan appropriations package, I will certainly be there to help. But neither I, nor many of my colleagues, will participate in kicking the can down the road so my Democratic friends can ignore their responsibility to govern until after the upcoming election.

I urge opposition to the rule, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Reschenthaler), my good friend and my fellow member of both the Appropriations Committee and the Rules Committee.

Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the distinguished gentlewoman from New York (Ms. Malliotakis), my good friend.

Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

If we defeat the previous question, I will offer an amendment to the rule to bring up H.R. 7967, the Prosecutors Need to Prosecute Act, for immediate consideration. The bill will ensure that the perpetrators of violent crimes are held accountable for their actions and that victims of violent crimes receive the justice that they deserve.

Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to insert the text of my amendment in the Record, along with extraneous material, immediately prior to the vote on the previous question.

Madam Speaker, America's largest cities are in the midst of a wave of violent crime, making some of them nearly unlivable. This spike in violent crime has many causes, but one factor is undeniably making the problem worse: That is the fuzzy-headed ideology followed by woke prosecutors who are refusing to do their jobs and prosecute violent offenders.

As part of the Commitment to America, Republicans have made it clear

that we will fund the police; that we will take clear steps to stop the scourge of fentanyl coming over the southern border into our Nation; and that we will crack down on prosecutors and district attorneys who refuse to prosecute violent criminals.

H.R. 7967 fulfills that commitment. It would require the same prosecutors to report annually on the cases they receive and their decisions to prosecute or not prosecute. As Justice Louis Brandeis said, ``sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants.''

This reporting would allow the citizens of our great cities to see, once and for all, just what this wave of progressive woke prosecutors is actually up to, and just how many violent crime cases they are refusing to prosecute out of ideology.

To further explain the amendment, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from New York (Ms. Malliotakis), my good friend, the author of the bill.

Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume to quickly respond to my friend.

Crime is also a problem all across the country, and we will work with you on the 9/11 survivors bill, which I point out, again, was originally my colleague from New York's bill as opposed to a Democratic proposal. But I will give you credit for picking up a good idea that my friend originated.

Madam Speaker, I yield 30 seconds to the gentlewoman from New York (Ms. Malliotakis), my friend, to respond.

Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Madam Speaker, it has become all too common in recent years to learn about the perpetrators of violent crime who should have been locked up for earlier incidents. All too often, we hear that a woke prosecutor decided not to pursue charges against a criminal for an earlier violent act, only for that same criminal to then offend again and again. As part of our Commitment to America, House Republicans will take action to end this practice.

Madam Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Tiffany) to speak more about this

issue and the solution contained in H.R. 7967.

Madam Speaker, I yield an additional 30 seconds to the gentleman from Wisconsin.

Madam Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time for closing.

Madam Speaker, it is deeply unfortunate that we have once again waited until the last minute to fund the government. With no time left for negotiations, the majority is putting forward a bill to fund the government that was not subject to bipartisan negotiations in the House. It is no surprise, then, that this bill fails to accomplish so many things that are necessary to address the crises currently confronting the Nation.

I am an appropriator, and I would advise my friend that the Appropriations Committee--and I give great credit to my friend, the chairwoman of that committee, Ms. DeLauro from Connecticut, and the ranking member, Ms. Granger from Texas--actually got all 12 bills done by the end of July and out of committee.

Six of those have come across the floor. That is a good thing. Six others

have not. That includes, by the way, the bills to defend the United States of America, the largest spending bill. It includes the bill to defend our southern border.

The reality is, they haven't come to the floor because my friends don't have the votes to pass them. Many of their own Members want to reduce the size of defense as opposed to increase it in a dangerous world. Many of their friends simply don't want to do anything to secure the southern border.

Now, the reality is, in the end, I think we will get both those things done, and there will have to be a bipartisan negotiation to do it. There has been absolutely no negotiation since July in the House.

I also point to the United States Senate, which is not the responsibility of my friends, but their party controls it. That body has not moved a single bill out of the Senate Appropriations Committee. Not one.

Now we are asked, because we are in an emergency, to kick the can down the road. My friends have had months to deal with this issue and to engage in serious bipartisanship. They have chosen not to do that. They would rather do messaging bill after messaging bill after messaging bill. That is what we have been dealing with.

Frankly, the Rules Committee, unusually, has become a committee of original jurisdiction in bill after bill after bill because those bills have not gone through the committee. They are raced through the Rules Committee to come to the floor to make a political point on the eve of an election. That is a bad way to govern.

Now, I am hopeful once we get to the other side of the election, my friends will sit down, and we will arrive at a bipartisan agreement on funding the government, which is the primary responsibility of Congress, in my view. But so far those negotiations have not taken place. We don't have agreed-upon top lines.

My friends can't pass important bills, so they are left to linger. And then they come to us at the very last minute and say, gosh, you have to help us here in this emergency.

We are going to pass the bills. The government is not going to shut down. Nobody here has the illusion that it will. But we should not be in this situation. Both sides have done this, I will grant my friend that. But this is a particularly egregious process of no negotiations on things like defense and securing the southern border.

We live in a dangerous world. We don't need a CR in defense; we need a bill. Actually, the Democratic-controlled House Armed Services Committee produced a bill. It is just $30 billion more than the President asked for because that is what that committee felt we needed. It passed on a bipartisan basis.

Why can't we move the appropriations level up to do what a Democratic-controlled House Armed Services Committee asked us to do?

Our friends have not wanted to deal with that issue.

We know we have a crisis on the southern border. You can turn on the television and see it every night. You can look at the fentanyl pouring into the country. You can see the tragedy of human trafficking.

Is there anything in this bill that asked us to do anything different, anything new?

Has any legislation come to the floor to do that?

No. We are just asked, please allow us to continue the current state of affairs to exist on the southern border. That is a travesty.

When you say, well, we are bringing irrelevant issues, the reality is you won't bring the relevant issues to the floor. You won't bring the relevant appropriations bills to the floor.

But make no mistake, Republicans have put forward a Commitment to America to address the concerns of our citizens:

We will fund the police and uphold law and order.

We will add needed security infrastructure at the southern border.

We will achieve longer and healthier lives for our citizens.

We will ensure that America has an all-of-the-above energy policy that provides consistent, low-cost energy to keep our economy strong. That is something my friends don't want to deal with.

We will end the majority and the Biden administration's reckless spending policies that have led to record inflation and stifling economic recession.

This administration inherited a V-shaped recovery, and a 1.4 percent inflation rate. Now we are in a recession with a 40-year-high, 8.3 percent inflation rate. That is a record of disaster. We ought to be talking about those issues, not maintaining the status quo.

Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to vote ``no'' on the previous question and ``no'' on the rule, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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