Floor Statements

Madam Speaker, I rise today to address the troubling impact that inflation is having on the American people.

Raising a family during good economic times is hard enough, but times of high inflation make it even more difficult. With prices rising at paces not seen since 1991, families are being forced to make tough decisions and stretch their paychecks even further.

During his Presidential campaign, Joe Biden promised not to raise taxes on anyone making less than $400,000 per year. However, his spending habit is fueling inflation, which is a tax on every American. In fact, it is worse than an ordinary tax because it is regressive, hitting the working class the hardest.

President Biden and Democrats would have the American people believe that debt doesn't matter, and that the government can spend an endless amount of money on whatever they like. However, that could not be further from the truth.

To stop the cost of things from accelerating even higher, we must end our spending addiction and get the national debt under control.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to discuss the importance of water and my concerns with the Biden administration's unnecessary overreach.

We use water to sustain ourselves; for industrial manufacturing; for swimming and recreation with our family and friends; to bathe; and to produce the most affordable, abundant, and safe food supply in the world.

Agriculture is the largest industry in Kansas' Big First District and across the State, so water conditions determine good or bad crop years, the amount of time livestock producers spend hauling water or moving cattle to land with a better pond, and ultimately, the kinds of foods that show up on the grocery store shelves across the country.

In western and south-central Kansas, the Ogallala aquifer is the main source of water and represents the supply of one-third of the State of Kansas. The Ogallala covers about 175,000 square miles across eight States from South Dakota to Texas, making it the largest aquifer in the country and one of the largest in the world.

At the beginning of the 20th century, States began pumping water from the Ogallala to irrigate the land for agricultural production use. In arid climates like western Kansas, irrigation transformed the Dust Bowl ridden region into the incredibly productive land that we see today. On average, Kansas has about three million irrigated acres with nearly 2.6 million acres irrigated with water from the Ogallala and the rest of the High Plains aquifer. The Ogallala's groundwater is essential to our food supply, as it supports nearly one-fifth of all of the wheat, corn, cotton, and cattle produced in the United States.

In 2018, when I was Lieutenant Governor of Kansas, we worked with the Ogallala Water Coordinated Agriculture Project to hold the first ever Ogallala Aquifer Summit in Garden City and gathered stakeholders from the eight States covering the aquifer to discuss the need to conserve water and sustain the Ogallala region's agriculture productivity over the long-term, adapting new technologies and voluntarily reducing water waste.

Since then, producers like Lynn Goossen have made changes to their operations to reduce the amount of water they pump and protect Ogallala. Goossen Farms has shifted from irrigated corn to a wheat rotation, adapted conservation practices when applying fertilizer, and changed from flood to sprinkler irrigation. Understanding the depletion of the Ogallala caused Mr. Goossen to take on leadership within his Groundwater Management District and work with other producers to voluntarily use their water wisely.

Efforts at the State level in Kansas through Groundwater Management Districts have also supported the sustainable use of the Ogallala aquifer where districts work with communities to set their own water conservation goals and control measures; develop plans to reduce water withdrawals in a designated area; and continue using water in a manner that is economically viable. The research from the Northwest Kansas Technical College Water Technology Farm has helped producers like Tim Franklin in Sherman County. The Franklin family farm was early to enroll in a Water Conservation Area, and uses the technology developed and tested at Northwest Tech to help meet their water reduction goals.

These voluntary, locally led efforts to safeguard our water were supported during the Trump administration when they published a reasonable and clear definition of ``waters of the United

States'' in the Navigable Waters Protection Rule. This rule provided certainty for farmers and ranchers, and designated authority back to States to regulate their own waters after years of Federal overreach.

Unfortunately, President Biden has once again determined that the Federal Government knows best and announced his intent to review the rule, likely signaling a return to the Obama administration's WOTUS rule, which sought to Federally regulate every small stream, ditch or puddle of water. This announcement is especially frustrating as many western States currently face an extreme drought, leading to a severe water shortage for not only our agriculture producers, but also drinking water and hydroelectric energy generators. Further regulation adds insult to injury.

Producers and water users at the local level know their community best, which is why I joined several of my House colleagues on legislation that would codify the Navigable Waters Protection Rule and on a letter to President Biden stating our strong opposition to any return to the expanded Federal jurisdiction over waters around the country. I have also led legislation that would push back on executive overreach in our agriculture, energy, and natural resource sectors.

Our farmers and ranchers are the original conservationists and continually update practices to reduce water use and inputs so that they can continue to produce safe, affordable food while maintaining their water supply for generations to come. We must provide certainty regarding their local water rights and continue to stand in opposition to any overreaching regulations that threaten the livelihoods of Kansas farmers and ranchers.

Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for holding this important Special Order to highlight a basic right that we all share and love and that makes us who we are as Americans.

Madam Speaker, I rise tonight to discuss President Biden's misuse of the executive order and its harmful impact on law-abiding citizens.

In 1789, George Washington penned the first executive order, directing the heads of his departments to submit reports on their operations.

In 1957, my fellow Kansan, Dwight D. Eisenhower used the executive order to send Federal troops to integrate public schools in Little Rock, Arkansas.

Nearly every United States President has issued executive orders like these to instruct the government how to work within the parameters set by the Congress and the Constitution. Until now.

In his first 10 days as President, Joe Biden issued 25 executive orders, more than the last seven Presidents combined in their first 10 days. And the list continues to grow. Today, we are up to nearly 60 executive orders and more executive actions and memoranda than I care to count.

The power to issue executive orders is derived from Article II, Section 3 of the Constitution, which states that the President ``shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed.''

When orders are based in facts and stakeholder engagement, like those we saw with Washington and Eisenhower, they work well to steward the execution of said laws. When the power to issue an executive order is abused, though, used to strong-hand the minority or circumvent Congress, the orders become a dangerous tool to undermine the American people and our democracy. This is what is happening right now.

President Biden recently penned six anti-Second Amendment executive actions in one day, banning handmade guns altogether; defining a pistol as a short-barreled rifle, allowing for more intense regulation; and mandating a report on gun gifting and trading.

In a recent interview on gun control, a spokesperson for President Biden stated: ``The President will not wait for Congress to act before the administration takes our own steps, fully within the administration's authority and the Second Amendment.''

We can no longer sit idle and watch dozens of executive orders from a single administration attempt to dictate the direction of our country with no input from this Congress. Congress was created to legislate.

Governing by executive order is not legislating. That is why I introduced H.R. 716, the More Accountability is Necessary Now Act, requiring the executive branch to notify the American public and this Congress with its intent to issue any new executive order or revoking any executive order that pertains to our Second Amendment rights.

I also introduced H.R. 1758, the Home Defense and Competitive Shooting Act, pushing back on President Biden's intent to redefine pistols as short-barreled rifles and eliminating the prohibition on transporting short-barreled rifles in interstate commerce.

I invite my colleagues to cosponsor both of these pieces of legislation as we stand up against any efforts, including shameful executive overreach, to diminish or weaken the rights of law-abiding Americans to own, carry, and use firearms.

The Second Amendment is a load-bearing wall in our Constitution. If you weaken a load-bearing wall, it is bad for the entire structure.

We must and we will push back against the relentless attacks on our Second Amendment rights.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize Kansas farmers for their long hours during this year's wheat harvest and for their work to produce food for people all over the world.

With more than 15,000 wheat farms across the State and 5 million acres of wheat in the Big First District alone, Kansas leads the Nation in wheat production, is the largest exporter of hard red winter wheat, and is aptly named the breadbasket of the world.

The United States exports that wheat to more than 100 countries around the world, and some of that wheat from Kansas ends up abroad under the U.S. food assistance programs, like Food for Peace. In fact, it was the Kansas Farm Bureau who began sending surplus grain to those in need around the world, continuing U.S. leadership in addressing world hunger.

As I reflect on my own time on our family farm in Quinter, Kansas, I am reminded that harvest season is about more than just harvesting the crop. For Kansas farm families and communities, harvest is about coming together.

Harvest is when we share tractors and other equipment with our neighbor when theirs gets stuck. Harvest is when a grandmother takes food to the field so the rest of her family doesn't have to leave the field for a lunch break. It is when a father takes his child out on the combine to show him how the work is done. And it is when we reflect on our advancements in agriculture, thanks to land-grant universities, like the wheat breeding research at Kansas State University, yielding high-quality and plentiful harvests around the world.

Wheat harvest is a time for Kansas to be proud of the great strides they take to feed, fuel, and clothe the world. At the end of the season, we look back and know that each agricultural success is inexplicably tied to our Kansas values of faith, family, community, and grit. While we are at work here in Washington, they are back at home making the world go round, and for that we owe farmers our sincerest thank you.

The Right to Life is Self-Evident

Mr. Speaker, I also rise today in support of one of the most basic functions of any government, the right to life.

Our Founding Fathers wrote 245 years ago, ``We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.''

To them, the right to life was so overly obvious that they called it self-evident.

But, today, in America, some policymakers insist on denying the right to life to millions of Americans. Instead, they diminish that right through murderous abortion policies, policies that fail to recognize life until a child lets out his or her first cry in the delivery room, policies that justify abortion based on the belief that any unborn child may have Down syndrome, and policies that funnel taxpayer dollars to funding abortions and abortion services.

Today's technology and science has shown us proof of life inside the womb. We see 3D ultrasounds of a baby sucking her thumb and moving around. We know unborn babies can experience pain as early as 12 weeks. At 20 weeks, we can reveal if a baby is a boy or a girl.

Yet some of our country's leaders still proceed to support policies that devalue and eliminate the innocent child's life. For decades, these elected officials have spent more time protecting the right of potentially endangered species, like the lesser prairie-chicken or sea turtle eggs, than they do protecting unborn babies, human babies.

But not to me. I strongly believe life begins at conception. I believe every life matters. I support adoptions, foster care, and crisis pregnancy centers that work tirelessly to care for mothers and their babies. I have cosponsored pro-life legislation, including H.R. 18, the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act, permanently prohibiting Federal funding for abortions and abortion services. I even introduced my own, H.R. 714, which would require the executive branch to notify Congress and the American public before issuing any new executive order pertaining to pro-life provisions and the right to life guaranteed by the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

Devaluing the life of unborn children has desensitized our Nation, and I pray we soon wake up and realize the horrors it has done. It is time to stop using taxpayer dollars to fund abortion services and focus on lifesaving resources that value the life of both the mother and the child. The right to life is self-evident, and I will fight to protect it at all costs.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for hosting this Special Order.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to introduce you to the newest resident of western and central Kansas. She greets every store's patrons at the business front door and every farmer at the farm gate. She is in the newspaper, on the radio, and all over social media. She goes by Help Wanted, and you have probably met her, too, as she has made herself quite popular under President Biden's policies.

It has been more than a year since the pandemic shut down the country. America is finally getting back to normal. Businesses across the country are ready to reopen and welcome back customers. Unfortunately, President Biden's bonus, the monthly unemployment checks being distributed on top of the already existing unemployment checks, is paying a premium for potential workers to remain at home rather than finding work.

The data doesn't lie. There are nearly 8 million job openings in America right now, a new record. Businesses in the Big First of Kansas--agriculture, hospitality, food service, manufacturing, construction, and healthcare--cannot find workers, leading to reduced hours or closures to accommodate the staffing shortages.

Help is wanted at the North Central Kansas Hospital, short 50 employees and regularly turning away patients as the hospital is unable to properly staff and serve them.

Help is wanted in McDonald's in that same north central Kansas town, closing early each night.

Christina, the owner of hair salons in Garden City, Hays, and Dodge City, Kansas, wants help as she temporarily shuts down one location, only opens another for a few days a week, and shortens hours at all three.

Help is wanted at the ethanol by-products plants in south central Kansas, unable to find workers even after offering a salary of a $35,000 plus health and retirement benefits.

And PureField Ingredients, a food ingredient manufacturer in Russell, Kansas, wants help as they are staffed at only 30 percent of their normal levels.

Mr. Speaker, hear me say this: If you can get to work, you should. Do it for our local businesses and our State's economy. Do it for your family. Most of all, do it for yourself.

I recently joined fellow Kansas Republicans in urging the Kansas governor to opt out of the enhanced unemployment benefits. Additionally, I cosponsored the Help Wanted Act, which addresses the severe labor shortages caused by the Federal unemployment policy and the Get Americans Back to Work Act, which would shorten the extension of the pandemic unemployment checks.

It is time to take off the masks, get our kids back to school, get our businesses open, get people back to work, and get the country back on track.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to discuss winners and losers under President Biden's policies.

When I was a kid playing eight-man football for the Quinter Bulldogs in rural Kansas, there wasn't much room for debate on the winners and losers of the game. You either won or you didn't. You either scored more touchdowns, more 2-point conversions, and got more tackles than the other team, or you didn't. Plain and simple.

The same is true with America today. President Biden's progressive policies make for very clear winners and very clear losers. Consider these three examples:

Winner number one: Communist China. Loser: America.

On January 31, 2020, America received warning that the coronavirus had possibly been engineered in the Wuhan Institute of Virology in Wuhan, China. In late 2020, America began investigating the link between the spread of the coronavirus and the Wuhan lab. In one of his first acts as President, Joe Biden prematurely ended the investigation into the Wuhan lab.

Now, with new, insurmountable evidence that the coronavirus could have been engineered in the Wuhan lab, President Biden and Speaker Nancy Pelosi refuse to investigate the origins of COVID-19 even with overwhelming support for an investigation. On top of that, President Biden refuses to stop American taxpayer-funded research at that very Wuhan lab.

It has been more than a year since the pandemic shut down the country. Today, nationwide, coronavirus cases have dramatically decreased. America is finally getting back to normal. Businesses across the country are ready to reopen and welcome back customers. Unfortunately, President Biden's bonus, the new monthly unemployment checks being distributed on top of the already existing unemployment checks, is paying a premium for workers to remain at home rather than finding work. The data doesn't lie. There are nearly 8 million job openings in America right now, a new record. I have heard from countless small business owners in the Big First who cite the Biden bonus as the reason they cannot find workers and completely reopen.

While Communist China covers up COVID-19, President Biden is denying science, keeping people unemployed, and hurting America's prosperity. Under President Biden's policies, America loses.

Winner two: The Mexican cartels. Loser: America.

President Biden created a full-scale crisis at our southern border. He promised outright citizenship to more than 11 million illegal immigrants, placed a moratorium on deportations, and halted border wall construction.

These lax policies lure drug cartels, who in turn make hundreds of millions of dollars exploiting children. The cartels will even throw migrant children in the Rio Grande as a distraction, to avoid being apprehended. The daily average of unaccompanied minors crossing the southern border has skyrocketed since President Biden took office.

These policies also create chaos for Americans living near the border. American farmers and ranchers on the border are forced to check their livestock in the daylight, as it is too dangerous for them to leave their homes at night. American families are keeping their kids indoors at all hours of the day. American law enforcement officers and Border Patrol are overworked and shorthanded.

Meanwhile, President Biden and Vice President Harris have yet to visit the border and refuse to secure our country and enforce immigration laws. Under President Biden's policies, America loses.

Winner three: Socialism. Loser: America.

Just a few weeks ago, later than any other President in a transition year, President Biden released his $6 trillion

budget. The budget is the most egregious, most shortsighted, and costliest budget America has ever seen.

President Biden's budget is a progressive wish list in disguise. He wants us funding the Green New Deal, spending $174 billion on subsidies to the electric car market and $40 billion to retrain employees who lost their jobs after he blocked the Keystone Pipeline, all in an attempt to replace the oil and gas industry. He wants $63.5 billion for international spending, but none for America's longtime ally, Israel, clearly bowing to Democrats on their record of anti-Semitic language and slurs. And he refuses to protect our dollars from being spent on abortions, removing a pro-life protection that 77 percent of Americans support and a protection even Biden supported for years before his Presidential campaign.

While socialists are pleased with Biden's latest spending spree, the economic disaster to follow will cripple American families' purchasing power and leave future generations with the crushing burden of the national debt. Under President Biden's policies, America loses.

Sadly, the greatest loser in all of this is our freedom, the freedom to open our businesses and make a living when we choose, the freedom to own land without the fear of a land grab, the freedom for law-abiding Americans to own and use firearms, the freedom to live out our faith without being persecuted by the government, the freedom to speak freely on college campuses, and the freedom to win.

Our Founding Fathers ensured that these freedoms do not flow from a king, another country, or government, and they never will. Under freedom, America always wins.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in fierce opposition to President Biden's proposed budget.

When he released his budget just a few weeks ago, nearly 3 months later than any President in a transition year, by the way, President Biden reminded Americans of advice his father gave him years ago. ``Don't tell me what you value,'' Biden's father told him. ``Show me your budget, and I'll tell you what you value.''

If that is true, then Biden's $6 trillion budget reveals to us exactly what President Biden values: destroying America's oil and gas industry, prioritizing the rights of illegal immigrants over law- abiding Americans, funneling foreign aid away from our longtime ally Israel, turning a blind eye to protecting the unborn.

Under the Biden budget, President Biden suggests we spend our hard- earned dollars fixing problems he created.

He wants us spending $174 billion on electric cars, carports, car charging stations, and other subsidies to the electric vehicle market in a full-on attempt to replace the oil and gas industry; $40 billion to retain employees who lost their jobs after he blocked the Keystone pipeline and destroyed thousands of energy jobs; and a total of $36 billion to combat climate change, bringing back the waters of the U.S. rule and mandating 30 percent of our privately owned land be locked in conservation practices. President Biden's budget is the progressive's Green New Deal in disguise, and America doesn't want anything to do with it.

President Biden wants $2 billion to provide care for unaccompanied migrant children at our southern border after he put millions of innocent children in harm's way and encouraged immigrants to cross illegally. He wants no extension of funding to complete the already nearly finished wall system or money to enforce our immigration laws at the border and instead instated an executive order stopping construction on the very wall that keeps our country safe.

President Biden wants $63.5 billion for international affairs spending, a 12 percent increase from 2022 that lacks specific defense funding for Israel, America's only democratic ally in the Middle East. His omission is clear and comes at a time when the terrorist organization Hamas launched hundreds of rockets at Israel in the last month alone and when Democrats are on the record for their anti-Semitic language and slurs.

And President Biden refuses to protect our dollars from being spent on abortions or abortion services. Instead, for the first time in four decades, no such protection exists, a protection that 77 percent of Americans support and a protection even Biden supported for years before his Presidential campaign.

On top of all this, President Biden claims his budget is partly in response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, but like the American Rescue Plan, it, too, fails to investigate the origins of COVID-19. Even more, the Biden administration won't commit that none of the budget requests would include funding for the research at the Wuhan lab.

The economic disaster to follow from his reckless spending will cripple American families' purchasing power and leave future generations with the crushing burden of the national debt. It is time we hold President Biden accountable for a budget that would cause our Federal debt to reach 117 percent of gross domestic product by 2031, the highest level since World War II, and continue the record rates of inflation we are already seeing under President Biden.

I ran for Congress with the intention of creating a better world for my children, our children, one where they don't have to pay President Biden's debts and suffer the consequences of irresponsible and egregious spending. America deserves better.

Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Washington very much for his leadership with the Western Caucus and for hosting this Special Order tonight.

Madam Speaker, I rise today, with my colleagues from the Western Caucus, to highlight progress made in the lesser prairie chicken population recovery through voluntary conservation efforts in Kansas.

The lesser prairie chicken is a North American species native to the grasslands and southern Great Plains across New Mexico, Colorado, Oklahoma, Texas, and Kansas. These birds use the open areas of the plains to perform their courtship dance and build their nests on the ground, away from any roads or structures.

My district, the Big First of Kansas, is home to the most extensive range and largest population of the lesser prairie-chicken.

Since the 1990s, there have been concerns regarding the lesser prairie-chicken population size and habitat, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has considered listing the bird under the Endangered Species Act on multiple occasions.

The Fish and Wildlife Service cited habitat fragmentation as one of the reasons for its population decline, as much of the area is used for cropland, grazing, and oil and gas development. However, we have seen perhaps the most significant population changes tied to the prolonged periods of drought across the chicken's range.

At its lowest, the lesser prairie-chicken population fell to approximately 15,400 birds during the worst phase of the 2013 drought.

As the population declined, stakeholders across the five states began conversations and plans to address this issue and partnered with local landowners and industry. The Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism teamed up with farmers and ranchers, the Lesser Prairie-Chicken Interstate Working Group, and other midwestern States throughout the bird's range to initiate conservation plans.

In their work to help the lesser prairie-chicken, Kansans have conserved more than 40,000 acres of habitat through the Conservation Reserve Program at the U.S. Department of Agriculture and private investments. Many of the voluntary conservation efforts have been directly funded by farmers and ranchers, the energy sector, and other landowners. As stakeholders make conservation changes, it is vital that the practices are mutually beneficial to both the lesser prairie- chicken and agriculture and energy producers.

These voluntary efforts have yielded excellent results, with the lesser prairie-chicken population up to more than 34,400 birds in 2020. In Kansas, the population has been stable to increasing since 2013, while the entire population has been increasing since 2016. The population growth has occurred thanks to voluntary efforts, but also because of increased rainfall, which has also benefited many of the agricultural producers in the area.

And so it is especially alarming and disappointing to see the Fish and Wildlife Service release a plan to list the lesser prairie-chicken under the Endangered Species Act as threatened in the northern population and endangered in the southern population.

The potential ESA listing flies in the face of years spent and millions invested in voluntary conservation and goes against the clear data that the population has increased under those efforts. As usual, President Biden believes Federal overreach is the answer to a local and State issue, and his administration lacks trust in private landowners to take care of their own land.

I strongly and vehemently oppose the listing of the lesser prairie- chicken, and I will continue to push back on the

Biden administration's egregious overreach.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to urge Americans who can get back to work, get back to work.

It has been more than a year since the pandemic shut down the country. Today, nationwide coronavirus cases have dramatically decreased, and cases in Kansas alone are only 7 percent of what they were in January. We are getting back to normal. Businesses are ready to reopen and welcome back customers.

Unfortunately, President Biden's bonus, the new monthly unemployment checks being distributed on top of the checks unemployed persons already receive, is paying a premium for potential workers to remain at home rather than finding work. I have heard from

countless small business owners in the Big First who cite the Biden bonus as the reason why they cannot find workers and completely reopen.

The data doesn't lie. There are nearly 8 million open jobs in America right now, a new record. The Biden bonus, at a time when employers are searching for workers, is unwanted Federal Government interference in the marketplace.

I recently joined fellow Kansas Republicans in urging the Kansas Governor to opt out of enhanced unemployment benefits. I cosponsored the Help Wanted Act, which addresses the severe labor shortages caused by the Federal unemployment policy.

It is time to take off the masks, get our kids back to school, get our businesses open, and get people back to work so we can get America back on track.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to highlight veterans bills before the House floor.

I appreciate the opportunity to first highlight legislation that Representative Pappas and I introduced, aimed at helping veteran homelessness.

H.R. 2878 and the Affordable Housing for Homeless Veterans Act of 2021 would increase the number of affordable housing options to help reduce the recent uptick in veteran homelessness due to the ongoing pandemic.

Our job on the House Veterans' Affairs Committee is to ensure that we are taking care of and doing right by our veterans. This legislation works to do just that. Curbing veterans' homelessness and ensuring our Nation's heroes are not without shelter for themselves and their families is a top priority for me. There are over 37,000 veterans experiencing homelessness in America. This is not acceptable for our veterans, and we must be part of the solution.

I was pleased to see the Department of VA and the Department of Housing and Urban Development align efforts to join forces to find ways to end veteran homelessness. One of the priorities mentioned by VA and HUD is increasing the supply and access to affordable housing.

My legislation reauthorizes and amends the program that allows the Secretary of VA to sell, lease, rent or donate a home which was acquired by VA because a veteran defaulted on their VA-guaranteed home loan to a public housing authority, grant and per diem provider, or a Supportive Services for Veterans Families service provider.

The public housing authority or providers could then use these homes to shelter other veterans and their families who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless.

By reauthorizing this program and removing some burdensome regulations from the old program, the number of affordable housing options in higher cost areas will increase and provide relief to veterans who have limited affordable housing options.

I was pleased this legislation received bipartisan support from my colleagues on the committee, as well as many members not on the committee. This broad support shows a willingness by this House of Representatives to implement these impactful changes for our veterans across the country.

I also had the opportunity to speak with VA Secretary McDonough when he visited VA facilities in Kansas. I spoke to him about the Affordable Housing for Homeless Veterans Act, and he was encouraged about the work we were doing in the committee to help veterans. I look forward to my continued partnership with Secretary McDonough and the VA.

I also want to quickly highlight another piece of legislation I introduced along with Representative Lamb, the VA Equal Employment Counseling Modernization Act.

This legislation removes burdensome regulations by simply removing the cap on the number of full-time employees at the Department of Veterans Affairs who provide equal opportunity employment counseling. It is a small, incremental change, but changes like this help the VA get our veterans into jobs quickly and ensure we are giving them the best care and guidance possible.

I thank Chairman Takano and Ranking Member Bost for allowing me to speak on behalf of the Affordable Housing for Veterans Act. I look forward to passing these pieces of legislation and continuing to work with everyone to help veterans.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for hosting this tonight.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to commemorate National Police Week.

I recognize the dedication of law enforcement officers on the thin blue line, and condemn calls to disband, dismantle, defund, or abolish the police.

No one dislikes bad police officers more than good police officers. Too often, we are quick to share the negative examples of law enforcement while failing to recognize excellent examples in our communities.

Today, I will share a story about an officer in my district and one of the finest law enforcement officers in Kansas: Michael Utz.

Chief Utz began his career with the Garden City Police Department in 1984. Over the next 36 years, he tirelessly served as a detective, sergeant, lieutenant, captain, and ultimately chief of police.

As police chief, Chief Utz led the department through the implementation of a citywide strategic plan, including the development of the Law Enforcement Explorer Program for students interested in pursuing law enforcement as a career; the Police Chaplain Program for hurting families; the PEER Support Program for police officers experiencing traumatic events; the Finney County Opioid Task Force; and the Ethnic Empowerment Network.

Also during his tenure, Chief Utz encouraged authentic relationships, and he especially worked to build two-way relationships with racial and ethnic minorities. These relationships proved to be vital after the 2016 terrorist bomb plot targeting a Garden City apartment complex.

When the FBI reached out to Chief Utz about the bomb plot, he knew just what to do. He worked with the president of the East African Community Center to convene a meeting with people in the community to discuss the incident before it even hit the news. Once the news broke about the foiled attack, Chief Utz made it his personal mission to work alongside impacted families and protect them from further danger.

In March, Mike retired with more than 36 years in law enforcement, and Courtney Prewitt was sworn in as the Garden City chief of police.

I am honored to recognize Chief Utz and his family for their service to our local communities, and to congratulate Courtney on his new role, and to celebrate good law enforcement officers across the First District of Kansas and around the country who put on a uniform every day and promise to protect and serve.

In their honor, I cosponsored several pieces of pro-law enforcement legislation, including a resolution condemning calls to defund the police; the

Protect and Serve Act, which enhances penalties to anyone targeting and attacking law enforcement officers; the David Dorn Back the Blue Act, which supports State and local police departments; and a resolution designating this week as National Police Week.

America must stand with and stand for our law enforcement officers. Happy National Police Week.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to discuss the southern border. President Biden's policies paved the way for this full-scale crisis. He promised outright citizenship to more than 11 million illegal immigrants, placed a moratorium on deportations, and halted border wall construction.

I went to the southern border to witness firsthand this crisis last week:

I saw scared children. Under the Biden administration, Mexican cartels are the winners, and innocent children are the losers. Cartels are making hundreds of millions of dollars exploiting children as the daily average of unaccompanied minors crossing the border has nearly doubled.

I saw overcrowded facilities and overwhelmed Customs and Border Patrol agents. Texas migrant facilities are well over 700 percent capacity, and 40 percent of our agents are being pulled away from border control to process unaccompanied children.

I watched agents place $8 million worth of methamphetamine, cartel- smuggled drugs, on a table, and I learned that the cartel would throw migrant children in the Rio Grande as a distraction to avoid being apprehended.

We must end these disastrous, no-consequence policies, secure our border through a physical barrier, enhanced technology, and patrol agents, and adhere to and modernize our country's immigration system.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to thank the farmers and ranchers whose work does not stop.

Even in the face of extreme freezing temperatures this month, the likes of which we have not seen in decades, Kansas stood strong and got the job done.

The big First District of Kansas is one of the most productive agricultural areas in the country. The district is home to more than 60,000 farms and is made up of farmers, ranchers, feedlot managers, nutritionists, ethanol producers, ag lenders, and agribusiness owners who feed, fuel, and clothe the world.

I grew up in Quinter, and I spent thousands of hours on a tractor in fields and on horseback, doctoring cattle in our family's feed yard. I know well agriculture's working conditions are demanding on a good day, but especially so when our business partner, Mother Nature, is as unforgiving as she has been lately.

In the past month, Kansas spent 13 consecutive days with temperatures below freezing. This is a stretch of freezing temperatures we have not seen in our State for nearly 40 years.

But those who stand with snow up to their knees in the depths of winter or haul water in the drought of summer know agriculture does not take days off. No matter the temperature, our ag producers head to work long before most of us are awake and stay out until many of us have already laid our heads down at night.

They are people like Cody and Ashley Bornholdt of Inman, who bust ice by hand at all hours so their cattle have access to water and are still able to joke that after several days of negative

temperatures, zero degrees feels like a heat wave.

They are people like Gary Capoun of Alma, who delivers baby calves and hauls them on the floorboard of his pickup to someplace warmer where they can be bottle-fed to ensure that they get the nutrients needed to grow and survive in the wind chills.

They are the men and women staying up through the night so a baby animal gets a shot at life, a piece of equipment is ready to go early the next morning, the neighboring producer has the help they need to milk their herd, and so people like you and I have a safe and secure food supply.

As many across the country learned this last spring, our food does not come from a grocery store shelf. The importance of the agriculture and food supply chain cannot be overstated. This supply chain represents millions of people working every day in the U.S. It begins with farmers, ranchers, and growers, and it includes food processors and manufacturers, shippers, transportation workers, and, finally, those working in the grocery stores and restaurants. Each of these people is vital in ensuring we have food on our plates.

While most of us in the ``Big First'' of Kansas know how important agriculture is, I know that message can sometimes be lost on the way to the grocery store. So on behalf of Kansans and all Americans, I share a sincere thank-you to the farmers, ranchers, and producers who supply our food, fuel, and fiber.

Thank you. Thank you for pulling the baby calf out of the snowbank and nursing it back to life. Thank you for busting ice early and feeding hay late. Thank you for putting the needs of your livestock before yourselves. Thank you for your never-ending, backbreaking days. Thank you for, especially on cold days, working so hard for the extra hours and extra strength. Your efforts feed us and keep us warm, too.

It is an honor to represent you in the U.S. House of Representatives and on the House Agriculture Committee. May God bless you.

Celebrating National FFA Week

Mr. Speaker, I also rise today to celebrate National FFA Week.

The national FFA organization was founded by a group of young farmers in 1928 as the Future Farmers of America. Their mission was to prepare future generations for the challenges of feeding the world.

Today, more than 760,000 blue corduroy jacket-wearing FFA members in more than 8,700 chapters across the country, and more than 9,600 members in 220 chapters in Kansas alone, are still working hard to advance our Nation's most critical industry, food and agriculture.

These members are our future farmers, ranchers, engineers, doctors, lawyers, teachers, scientists, communicators, and businesspeople. They are the next generation of leaders.

This week, they will celebrate National FFA Week as a long-held tradition during George Washington's birthday to respect agriculture's heritage and recognize its future.

As a past chapter FFA president from Quinter, Kansas, and a proud FFA alumnus, I am honored to join nearly 80 of my colleagues to introduce H. Res. 150, expressing support for the designation of February 20 to February 27, 2021, as National FFA Week, recognizing the important role of the National FFA Organization in providing the next generation of leaders who will change the world, and celebrating 50 years of National FFA Alumni and Supporters.

Kansas FFA and the National FFA Organization have had a profound impact on me. FFA taught me belonging when I put on my FFA jacket the first time, responsibility when caring for my family's livestock in the bitter winters and drought-ridden summers, and pride in sharing about the organization I love on the House floor today.

Because of FFA and the next generation of agriculture, I know our brightest days are ahead.

Happy National FFA Week.

Mr. Speaker, I am humbled to deliver my first speech on the House floor today and discuss the future of our great Nation.

I grew up on a farm south of Quinter, Kansas, that my parents and brother still operate. The house my parents live in, and the house I grew up in, is the same house my great-great-grandfather ordered from a Montgomery Ward catalog in the early 1900s.

Growing up there meant I spent thousands of hours on a tractor working in the fields and on horseback doctoring cattle in the family feed yard. Those hours turned into love of country and lessons about the value of hard work.

My Kansas roots run deep, and my desire to serve our country is wider than a country mile. I ran for Congress to advocate for agriculture and our conservative Kansas values. Kansans are good people who carry a pioneering spirit with them, in the same way those who settled my State did over 160 years ago.

The people of Kansas 1, the Big First, know each other, look out for each other, and sacrifice for each other. The district is home to more than 60,000 farms and is made up of farmers, ranchers, feedlot managers, nutritionists, ethanol producers, ag lenders, and agribusiness owners who feed, fuel, and clothe the world.

As Congress becomes increasingly more urban, the distance from farm to fork has never been greater, and the Big First depends on strong voices for agriculture in Congress. That is why I am honored to serve on the House Agriculture Committee.

At the very top center of the Big First sits Lebanon, Kansas, a seemingly ordinary small town. About 2\1/2\ miles northwest of Lebanon is the exact middle of the contiguous 48 States. A few months ago, a group of us met in Lebanon and prayed for our Nation and that God's will would be done and that our future would be bright.

There is something about being in the middle of the country where farmers pray for rain, parents drive 30 miles one way to take their kids to school, and communities shrink and grow with oil and gas prices that gives you a great perspective. To really be in the middle of it all, though, we must demand results.

I have received many calls from family farmers in the Big First gravely concerned with President Biden's executive order restricting travel from countries like South Africa, where many of our legal farmworkers come from during harvest. I will tell you, if an issue matters to a Kansan, it matters to me.

I worked with a number of my colleagues here to issue a letter to President Biden, asking that he exempt essential workers, like those in agriculture, from his travel ban. Soon after, we were told the President would grant the exemption. But to me, an exemption to an overreaching executive order is not enough.

After watching President Biden issue 25 executive orders in his first 10 days as President, more than the last seven Presidents combined during their first 10 days, I decided I could no longer sit idle and watch executive orders dictate the direction of this country with no input from Congress. The executive branch was not created to legislate--Congress was.

We are now up to 42 executive orders from the Biden White House. That is why, earlier this week, I introduced the More Accountability is Necessary Now acts, six pieces of legislation promoting accountability and transparency to the administration's future executive orders.

The MANN acts require that the executive branch notify the American public and Congress of its intent to issue any new executive orders pertaining to agriculture, energy, the environment, pro-life provisions, the Second Amendment, and immigration.

The short-term impact of legislation like this would be to hold our elected leaders more accountable. But for the long term, we must never forget that America is the greatest and most noble experiment that has ever been endeavored.

When our Founding Fathers used the three words ``by their Creator'' 245 years ago, they unleashed freedom on humanity, because for the first time in history, people stood up and declared that freedoms do not flow from a king or government; they flow from God.

The power of that truth can never be stomped out because it rings loudly in the hearts and minds of Americans from coast to coast and certainly in the Big First, which in many ways is the pilot light of America. In my district, the basic values of faith, family, and freedom are alive and well. It is our responsibility to never let that light go out.

I believe that when we get into the middle of issues, roll up our sleeves, get to work, and do the heavy lifting, we gain better perspectives and better results. Being in the middle of it all instead of being stapled to our desks in Washington, D.C., makes us all better and is good for America.

Get in the middle of it. Stand face to face and engage. Spend time to think, pray, and reflect, like I did that day in the exact center of the country. I promise you will gain a better understanding of where we need to go as a nation.

I did not run for Congress to be a caretaker in the slow demise of America. I ran so I could fight and work to

make it stronger. That is what I intend to do while believing that our brightest days are yet to come.

Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.

My district in Kansas has a lot of oil and gas, and a lot of ethanol production as well, which is very important for the energy, the backstop for the country.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to discuss President Biden's recent executive actions and their impacts on American energy.

Kansas-1, the Big First, is one of the most productive agricultural areas of the country, and is also home to a flourishing energy industry. In a rural district like the Big First, communities shrink and grow with oil and gas prices. My district is the 11th largest district in this country and has more than 83,000 miles of roads. We depend on energy every day to fuel agricultural equipment and to transport our products across the country and around the world.

Crude oil and natural gas are the foundation that fuels the Big First. Whether it be diesel for a tractor, keeping our home and families warm, or filling up a gas tank to drive our kids 30 miles each way to school, my district needs energy. In addition, the Big First also produced nearly 500 million gallons of ethanol last year.

I am gravely concerned with President Biden's mandates on oil and gas. In my first few weeks in Congress, President Biden issued 25 executive orders in his first 10 days as President. That is more than the last 7 Presidents combined during their first 10 days. For example, President Biden delivered mixed messages claiming to support fossil fuels and American jobs, and then issued an executive order dismantling the Keystone XL pipeline.

The United States has achieved energy independence over the last several years. That said, we cannot sit idle and watch executive orders dictate the direction of our country with no input from Congress. The administration will soon fundamentally impact our energy independence. The executive branch was not created to legislate. Congress was.

Earlier this week, I introduced the More Accountability is Necessary Now Acts, six pieces of legislation promoting accountability and transparency to the administration's future executive orders. The MANN Acts require the executive branch to notify the American public of its intent to issue any new executive orders pertaining to six specific topics that impact my district, including energy and the environment.

We must hold our elected leaders accountable for the pipeline worker and the plant manager, for the farmer and rancher, for the millions of lives depending on agriculture and energy every day, and for the betterment of our democracy.