Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, it is a new day in America. I am very gratified that we now have a President that looks differently upon the innocent unborn than did the last one.

Mr. Speaker, protecting the lives of all Americans and their constitutional rights is why we are all here in this place. The bedrock foundation of this Republic is that clarion declaration of the self- evident truth that all human beings are created equal and endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights: the rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Every conflict and every battle our Nation has ever faced can be traced to this core commitment to this self-evident truth. It has made us the beacon of hope for the entire world, Mr. Speaker. It is who we are. Yet, today, another day has passed and we in this body have still failed to honor that foundational commitment.

While we move in the right direction, we have still failed our sworn oath and our God-given responsibility, as more than 3,000 additional American babies died today without the protection we should have already given them.

So, Mr. Speaker, let me just say, in the hopes that we will finally embrace the truth that abortion really does kill little babies, that it is time we looked up together again and looked to the Declaration of Independence and that we remember that we are the same America that rejected human slavery and that marched into Europe to arrest the Nazi Holocaust and that we are the courageous and compassionate nation that can find a better way for mothers and their unborn children than abortion on demand.

It is a new day in America, Mr. Speaker, and we all have a glorious new opportunity to make a better world and for America to be the one that leads the rest of the planet, just as we did in the days of slavery, from this tragic genocide of murdering more than 3,000 of our own children every day.

So now, Mr. Speaker, as we consider the plight of the unborn after 44 years under Roe v. Wade, may we each remind ourselves that our own days in this sunshine of life are all numbered and that all too soon each one of us will also walk from this Chamber for the very last time.

But if it should be that we are allowed to convene again on yet another day, may that be the day, Mr. Speaker, when we finally hear the cries of these little babies. May that be the day when we find the humanity, the courage, and the will to embrace together our human and our constitutional duty to protect these, the least of our tiny little brothers and sisters, from this murderous scourge called abortion on demand.

It has been 44 years, Mr. Speaker, since Roe v. Wade first stained the foundation of this Nation with the blood of its own children. But, thankfully, it is a new day in the land of the free and home of the brave. By the grace of God, help is finally on the way.

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

Mr. Speaker, one of the most important elements of this Republic is the ability of the people to understand and to remember the public actions and record of those they elect. This is vital to government accountability, to historical accuracy, and to the future direction of the future generations of this country.

So, Mr. Speaker, what follows is the record and legacy of President Barack Obama.

Last night, Mr. Speaker, President Barack Obama gave his farewell address to the Nation. In his speech, President Obama praised American exceptionalism for the very first time since his Presidency began. Unfortunately, Mr. Speaker, much of the remainder of the President's speech was far removed from reality.

Mr. Obama implied that his Presidency had increased trust and respect for America. Yet, the truth is that under Mr. Obama's Presidency, the trust and respect that both friend and foe alike previously had for America has been demonstrably diminished across the world. Mr. Obama, in fact, weakened our economy and led the most anemic military campaign in our history. So, Mr. Speaker, let us now recall the grand promise of candidate Barack Obama, bedecked with Greek columns and the rhetoric of bipartisan unity as it was, and let's compare it to the actual legacy of President Barack Obama, the partisan heckler at home and the lead from behind, apologize for America, academic abroad who was evermore eager to force Catholic nuns to buy birth control than he was to fight the ruthless butchers of the Islamic State.

Mr. Speaker, President Barack Obama has taken credit for a growing economy, but, after his failed stimulus, his was the worst economic recovery in the history of America. And his Presidency will be the first in modern times whose 8 years in office will fail to include even 1 year of 3 percent economic growth.

Under Barack Obama's Presidency, the number of long-term unemployed eclipsed 15 million for the very first time in history.

Today, 95 million Americans, the highest number in history, are now not in the workforce in America. And according to the latest numbers from the Census Bureau, household income fell by more than $2,100 in inflation-adjusted terms; and 45.3 million Americans, the highest number in history, now live in poverty. More than 43 million Americans were receiving food stamps under Barack Obama, the highest number in history.

Barack Obama single-handedly added almost as much deficit to the national debt as all of the other Presidents in the 240-year history of the United States of America combined. And Standard & Poor's downgraded the U.S. Government from its AAA credit rating for the very first time in history.

Mr. Obama's signature policy achieved what was called the Affordable Care Act. As we have learned year after year, essentially nothing Mr. Obama said about the Affordable Care Act was true. ObamaCare contained over $1 trillion in new taxes, which was the largest tax increase in history. Yet, millions remain uninsured. Healthcare costs have never been higher, and the entire debacle called ObamaCare is now catastrophically collapsing before our very eyes.

Mr. Speaker, Mr. Obama engineered the sequester on the military which had devastating consequences on our men and women in uniform and our ability to fight and win wars when necessary. Mr. Obama's was the opposite of a commitment to peace through strength.

When it came to justice at home, Barack Obama told us that adult male transvestites had the moral right and the legal right to go into the bathroom with little schoolgirls whether their parents liked it or not. He fundamentally sought to abrogate religious freedom in America. He weaponized the Internal Revenue Service, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Attorney General's Office, and the Justice Department against America's own citizens. It was and is the epitome of tyranny.

Mr. Obama unconstitutionally ignored and selectively applied America's immigration laws and illegally suspended immigration enforcement. He released 19,723 criminal illegal immigrants from prison into every State of the Union. These nearly 20,000 criminal illegal aliens were collectively convicted of over 60,000 crimes, including over 12,000 drunk driving convictions, and over 8,000 violent crimes such as assault, rape, and murder.

Mr. Obama's actions endangered Americans and denied justice to the victims of their crimes. Mr. Obama bears a share of the responsibility for every crime that these criminals have committed or will commit against Americans since he released them from prison into American society.

But, Mr. Speaker, perhaps Mr. Obama's most egregious broken promise to all Americans is when he said: ``I, Barack Hussein Obama, do solemnly swear that I will execute the Office of President of the United States faithfully, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.'' Since then, he has shown complete and open contempt for the Constitution.

Barack Obama blatantly stoked racial tensions in America, and, in the process, he painted a deadly target on the backs of the noble men and women in blue who risk their lives every day to protect the innocent citizens of this Nation.

Barack Obama consistently subjected Americans to condescending lectures. If we opposed ObamaCare, we didn't want people to have health insurance.

If we opposed wasteful stimulus spending, we hated schoolteachers and firemen.

If we opposed the nuclear deal with Iran, we were compared to terrorist-sponsoring Iranian mullahs.

If we believe in God and exercised our Second Amendment right, we were bitter.

If we didn't believe in open, unsecured borders and vetting those who came into this country, we were un-American.

If we believed in protecting unborn baby girls from being killed simply because they are little girls, we were waging war on women.

And Mr. Obama was also fond of using politically correct euphemisms and constantly using them to distort nearly every issue.

Evacuation of our Embassy in Yemen was ``a reduction in staff.''

Terror attacks are ``man-caused disasters.''

The global war on terror is an ``overseas contingency operation.''

An Islamic terrorist murdering 13 American soldiers is ``workplace violence.''

Terrorists beheading children, crucifying women, and burning men alive in the name of Islam are ``individuals from various religions'' who practice ``hateful ideologies.''

Veterans, pro-life groups, and States' rights advocates were listed as ``at-risk'' to become domestic terrorists.

Mr. Speaker, from day one, Barack Obama considered the cold war a giant misunderstanding. He did his famous reset with Russia and then turned and caved into everything that they wanted. Mr. Obama's policies of weakness and appeasement yielded Crimea, the South China Sea, the rise of the Islamic State, the return of Iran, and the unspeakable desecration of thousands upon thousands of innocent people in Aleppo where the result to date is now where 4 million refugees and 400,000 people are dead. And during the so-called Arab Spring, the Obama administration sided with the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt.

At the end of the Obama administration, the only countries in the world that we have better relations with are Iran and Cuba--and even that has been entirely on their terms.

Mr. Speaker, the average number of innocents killed by terrorists before the Obama Presidency was approximately 3,000 per year in the world. Now, under Barack Obama, it is probably 30,000 every year. Mr. Obama labeled the Islamic State a junior varsity team, and then stood by with a golf club in his hand while ISIS raped, butchered, and beheaded its way across Iraq, selling little, 6-year-old girls into slavery, burning people alive, and perpetrating a genocide against Christians and Yazidis. The Islamic State now keeps an estimated 3,000 girls and women in sexual slavery while Mr. Obama runs out the clock on his term of office and hands the fight against ISIS off to the next President.

Because of his delusional negotiation and acquiescence, the Islamic Republic of Iran, the number one sponsor of terrorism in this world, may place the finger of jihad on the launch button of an entire nuclear arsenal; and America's children and future generations may thereafter be forced to live their lives in the shadow of nuclear terrorism.

Mr. Obama stood before a group of thousands of supporters of Israel and proclaimed: ``When the chips are down, I have Israel's back.'' But then as President, he blatantly refused even to acknowledge Jerusalem as Israel's capital and consistently expressed more open rebuke toward Israel than he did toward Iran for building an entire nuclear effort to some day threaten the world.

I am going to say that again, Mr. Speaker.

As President, Mr. Obama blatantly refused to even acknowledge Jerusalem as Israel's capital. And he consistently expressed more open rebuke toward Israel for building houses in its capital city than he expressed for Iran's efforts to build nuclear weapons with which to existentially threaten Israel along with the peace and security of the entire human family.

In the political safety of his lameduck, he orchestrated and failed to veto a resolution that undermines Israel's very right to exist. Mr. Speaker, it was a cowardly act of political treachery that disgraced the United States, and it will send Barack Obama's name down the corridor of history as on overt traitor to the State of Israel.

When the Security Council Quartet meets on January 15 and the full United Nations Security Council meets

on January 17, I am gravely concerned that Barack Obama will overturn U.S. precedent going back to Lyndon Johnson and use the opportunity to stab Israel in the back one final time by allowing the anti-Semites at the U.N. to attempt to redraw the map of Israel to indefensible pre- 1967 borders, which would leave the only Jewish state less than 9 miles wide.

Mr. Speaker, no government leader has any greater responsibility than that of protecting the innocent. Yet, Mr. Obama stood by and allowed not only ISIS, Boko Haram, Russia, and Syria, but also Planned Parenthood to brutally desecrate the innocent on a horrific scale.

President Barack Obama went to great efforts, against taxpayers' wishes, to give billions of taxpayer dollars to Planned Parenthood to expand abortion on demand in America and throughout the world and to proactively promote policies to allow the indiscriminate killing of these, the most defenseless of all human beings.

As President, he appointed an empire of radically pro-abortion judges and government bureaucrats. When he was in the State legislature, Barack Obama actually voted ``no'' four times on a bill that would have protected babies after they were born alive.

In the U.S. Senate, Mr. Obama voted ``no'' on a bill that would have prohibited someone from taking a minor child out of State for an abortion without even notifying the child's parents.

He vowed to veto the Prenatal Nondiscrimination Act, which would prohibit discriminating against an unborn baby girl by subjecting her to abortion simply because she is a little girl instead of a little boy.

He promised to veto the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, a bill that would have protected both mothers and their little pain- capable babies between the beginning of their sixth month of pregnancy from the unspeakable cruelty of Planned Parenthood and evil monsters like Kermit Gosnell.

Mr. Speaker, perhaps most astonishingly, Barack Obama, the President of the United States and the leader of the free world, wrote a letter to Congress and said he would veto the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act to protect breathing, crying, kicking, born-alive human babies if it ever reached his desk.

Mr. Speaker, could not the President have agreed that little human babies who survive abortion and are born alive should be protected?

President Barack Obama's record is crystal clear. For his entire political life, he has strongly supported the full legalization of abortion on demand throughout all 9 months of pregnancy, for any reason or no reason, including sex selection, throughout all 9 months of pregnancy, and forcing American taxpayers to pay for it whether the taxpayers liked it or not.

Under Barack Obama, nearly 9 million innocent, defenseless little American babies were aborted before they ever saw the first smile of their mother.

Ironically, President Obama was in the unique position, perhaps among all other Presidents in history, of bringing this country together to protect these helpless little children. Yet, as the most powerful human being in the world, Mr. Obama chose to become the most powerful enemy of the most helpless human beings in the world. And nothing will stain his legacy or his claims of looking out for the little guy with more shame than going down in history as the ``Abortion President.''

Mr. Speaker, it gives me no pleasure to lay out this record. I truly and sincerely hoped for God's best for Barack Obama when he took office. I wrote him a letter, hoping that he would be remembered as someone who stood up for the Constitution and stood up for the innocent.

But in a Republic like ours, where the people are the final arbiters of our public policy and where those who would subvert this Republic consistently resort to deception and historical revisionism, an accurate record is vital to our Nation's survival and its future generations.

So, alas, Mr. Speaker, I am afraid Barack Obama tragically wasted his precious and historic opportunity. However, this is the true record of President Barack Obama and, to paraphrase William Wilberforce: We may choose to look the other way, but we can never again say that we did not know.

Mr. Speaker, Under President Obama, as of 2015, Democrats lost 900+ state legislature seats, 12 governors, 69 House seats, 13 Senate seats. Mr. Obama lost more U.S. Senate and U.S. House seats than any president since FDR. I would suggest this was not caused by a lack of political skills. It was Mr. Obama's policies and his attitude toward democracy and the Constitution that were so devastating to his Democrat party.

From the beginning of his presidency it was President Obama's theological conviction that America needed to be transformed into something far afield of the founding fathers dream.

Last night the President gave his farewell address to the country. In his speech, President Obama praised American exceptionalism for the first time in his presidency. Unfortunately Mr. Speaker, much of the remainder of the president's speech was far removed from reality.

Mr. Obama implied that his presidency increased America's wealth and power and respect. The truth is that under Mr. Obama's presidency, the trust and respect from both friend and foe for America has been demonstrably diminished across the world. Mr. Obama in fact weakened our economy and led the most anemic military campaign in our history.

One of the most important elements of this Republic is the ability of the people to understand and remember the public actions and record of those they elect. This is vital to the future direction of future generations of this country.

So I come before the House today in order to lay out, and call for the American people to reflect upon, the true record of Barack Obama's Presidency.

During this crucial moment of self-reflection happening in our great Republic, it is incumbent upon us to look back over the past eight years to fully comprehend what are the wages of two full terms of Progressive governance under President Barack Obama. Because Mr. Speaker, if Hillary Clinton had been elected president, the left-wing, mindset to ignore the foundations of this nation, the Constitution, and so many millions of those it was designed to protect, would have continued unabated and this Republic may have been lost.

Mr. Speaker, I solemnly wonder if America as a nation and Americans as individuals truly comprehend how close we came to actually losing this Republic and the founding fathers dream during the last election.

As Americans soberly reflect on that reality, let us now recall the grand promise of candidate Barack Obama, bedecked with Greek columns and the rhetoric of bipartisan unity as he was, and compare it to the actual legacy of President Barack Obama--the partisan heckler at home and the lead-from-behind, apologize for America, academic abroad who was ever more eager to force Catholic nuns to buy birth control than he was to fight the ruthless butchers of the Islamic State.

So Mr. Speaker, what follows is the record and the legacy of Barack Hussein Obama:

Economic Growth

Obama's presidency will be the first in modern times whose eight years in office will fail to include at least one year of 3 percent economic growth.

Mr. Obama has taken credit for a growing economy, but after his failed stimulus, his was the worst economic recovery in history.

Using the broadest measure of economic progress, growth in output, the growth rate over the first 25 quarters under Reagan was 34 percent versus 14.3 percent under Obama.

Yet, Under Barack Obama, the growth of a ravenous Leviathan called the federal government, grew larger and larger in scope and in power every single year he was president.

Mr. Speaker, I move that the House do now adjourn.

The motion was agreed to; accordingly (at 8 o'clock and 19 minutes p.m.), under its previous order, the House adjourned until tomorrow, Thursday, January 12, 2017, at 10 a.m. for morning-hour debate.

Mr. Speaker, on January 5, 2017, during the vote on roll call 11, on H. Res. 11, I inserted my voting card believing that my YEA vote had been recorded. It was my intention to vote YES on H. Res. 11.

I certainly thank the gentleman.

Mr. Speaker, I have cherished the privilege to chair the Subcommittee on the Constitution in this body, and throughout the Obama administration, I have been bewildered many times by this President's many casual dismissals of constitutional principle and the respect for the rule of law, itself, in America.

However, I now believe that the President's recent actions related to illegal immigration constitute a fundamental and seminal abrogation of his sworn oath to the Constitution. If left unchallenged, Mr. Speaker, this President's unconstitutional act could create a precedent that could threaten to place a permanent crack in the very foundations of this Republic. Consequently, the issue before us now is about far more than illegal immigration--it is about protecting the Constitution of the United States of America.

Now it is both the prerogative and the solemn responsibility of this House and of the U.S. Senate to uphold our own collective oath to the Constitution. Through the constitutional power of the purse, we must stand with and for the American people and refuse to fund this unconstitutional action by this President. We must call upon the Senate to continue to hold multiple votes for cloture so that this Nation can discover and understand who it is who prevents us from doing our constitutional duty.

Mr. Speaker, failing that, we must now call upon the United States Senate to subordinate its own cloture rules to the United States Constitution and to use their rules to change their rules for that purpose if it becomes a choice between the Senate cloture rules and the United States Constitution.

Mr. Speaker, Daniel Webster once said:

Hold on, my friends, to the Constitution and to the

Republic for which it stands, for miracles do not cluster;

and what has happened once in 6,000 years may never happen

again. So hold on to the Constitution, for, if the American

Constitution should fail, there will be anarchy throughout

the world.

Mr. Speaker, our duty is clear.

Mr. Speaker, we have heard a great deal about protocol this past week, and it all centers around the invitation by the Speaker of this House to the Prime Minister of Israel to come and speak to the body, as he has done twice before.

It is worth pointing out, Mr. Speaker, that Bibi Netanyahu is one of the most prescient voices that we have in the entire world to address some of the subjects and some of the dangers that face the United States of America, and yet this administration is caught up in a conundrum over protocol.

While it might be worth reminding this administration that ours is a government made up of three equal branches, it is even more important to remind this administration that, when Iran is pursuing a nuclear weapons capability with which to threaten the peace and security of the entire world, when ISIS and groups like it are slaughtering people the world over, when ISIS is crucifying and killing and torturing people in Iraq--when they are burning their prisoners alive in cages--this administration is caught up in protocol. Mr. Speaker, that is a profound distortion of priority.

Ironically, this administration, for all of its talk of protocol, not only violated protocol when it traded five Taliban leaders for Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl, but it broke the law itself. This administration has repeatedly sought to unconstitutionally usurp the powers of the legislative branch by brash fiat. It chooses to listen to these mysterious voices of those who did not vote in our Nation's election. Its constitutional overreach is evidenced by Cuba, immigration, ObamaCare, and a number of others.

Let us put that litany aside for a moment and just consider the arrogance of this administration as it comes now to proclaim that the Speaker of this House has somehow broken protocol by inviting the Prime Minister of our most vital ally on Earth to speak on this floor.

Worse, Mr. Speaker, it has sought to go after and silence the guest speaker, himself. In hearing the visceral rhetoric of this White House, one would think our Speaker had invited the prime minister of an enemy nation instead of one of our best friends on the planet. Unfortunately, this administration's claims of breached protocol are an attempt to overshadow the real elephant in the room, and truth itself.

The actual outrage here is not about the Israeli elections, as some might say. It is not about the doomed diplomatic overtures of this administration. The real crisis and the real threat is a nuclear- capable Iran, and Prime Minister Netanyahu--with the greatest credentials on Earth related to this threat--in coming to speak to all of us is acting as a trusted ally should act. I hope this administration and this Congress and the American people will listen to him very carefully.

The true problem here, Mr. Speaker, is that an outspoken enemy of our Nation, one that is, indeed, the leading state sponsor of global Islamic terrorism, is actively pursuing nuclear weapons that could create the gravest of threats to the United States, Israel, and the entire free world.

How quickly we forget that Iran considers the United States of America the ``Great Satan.'' How quickly we forget that last year, on November 4, Iran, once again, celebrated ``Death to America Day,'' commemorating the 1979 seizure of the United States Embassy. How quickly we forget that ``death to America'' is the rallying cry of Hezbollah, which has been backed by Iran, and it launched attacks on Israel just last week, killing and wounding good men.

How quickly we forget that one of Iran's stated goals is ``wiping Israel off the map.'' How quickly we forget that Iran collaborates with anti-U.S. regimes in South America and is actively seeking to exploit our borders and, of course, this administration's complete inattention to them. How quickly we forget that Iran continues to cooperate with North Korea in the development of long-range missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads to the United States of America.

Mr. Speaker, is this administration so naive or, worse, so arrogant as to believe that we can have any type of credible, diplomatic agreement with the leadership of such a regime?

I think it is embarrassing, Mr. Speaker, to the United States of America that this supposed breach of protocol has somehow permitted this administration through anonymous, yet somehow authoritative, sources to politically threaten the elected leader of our only democratic ally in the region--calling him names in the media and being vindictive in its every interaction with him. None of this salve for the administration's wounded ego has furthered the interests of the United States one iota. Ultimately, it has only diminished America's national security and Israel's right to defend herself.

Mr. Speaker, there are, unfortunately, only three things that will prevent Iran from eventually gaining nuclear weapons: one is a fundamental change of the regime in Iran; two is a direct military action to destroy their capability to build a nuclear weapons capability; or, finally, Mr. Speaker, it is the conviction in the minds of the jihadist leadership in Iran that military action will occur if that capability is not dismantled.

Mr. Speaker, indifference, cowardice, diplomacy--call it what you will, but in the end, ignorance, whether intentional or unintentional, is not a viable alternative to the truth. Along with so many others in this body and, really, in America, itself, I have every conviction that when Prime Minister Netanyahu speaks on the threat that Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons and its sponsorship of terrorism pose to global security, he will be speaking the truth. Once again, for the sake of America, for Israel, and for the free world, I pray that we all listen very carefully.

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

Mr. Speaker, there is nothing that I fear more for America than that, as a country, we might allow ourselves to grow numb to human atrocity in our own country and across the world.

Eight years ago, President George Bush warned that: ``To begin withdrawing before our commanders tell us we are ready would mean surrendering the future of Iraq.''

He said: ``It would mean that we would be risking mass killings on a horrific scale. It would mean increasing the probability that American troops would have to return at some later date to confront an enemy that is even more dangerous.''

Mr. Speaker, many of us in Congress warned President Obama, both in a private letter and in open declaration, of the danger that ISIS represented as it began to rise in Iraq.

We also warned the President that negotiating with terrorists by trading high-level Taliban leaders would lead to an increase in terrorists trying to leverage America and the world by taking hostages. Yet, this President ignored this, and so many other commonsense warnings, and atrocity after atrocity has occurred since.

Today, Mr. Speaker, the world watched in abject horror as 26-year old Jordanian pilot, 1st Lieutenant al-Kaseasbeh, who was taken captive by ISIS, was doused in gasoline, placed in a cage, and burned alive.

Mr. Speaker, this horrifying tragedy is the natural end to the timorous policy of appeasing or negotiating with or neglecting to have a just response to this mindless, heartless evil cancer called ISIS.

And the question occurs: When will this President respond decisively to this hellish evil?

Will it take a direct attack on American shopping malls?

Will it take a direct attack on an American grocery store or a school or an American magazine or some other venue where American blood will have to be spilled before this President calls the evil of global jihad for what it is?

It has been a full year since ISIS retook Fallujah and wiped out America's blood-bought gains. It has been a full 7 months since 55 of my colleagues and I beseeched the President to prioritize security and humanitarian support for religious minorities in Iraq, including the Yazidi people, a group that has now been nearly wiped out completely by ISIS.

Mr. Speaker, this administration can no longer claim ignorance. This Nation is at war with Islamist groups like ISIS that support and perpetrate the terrorism of global jihad. Terrorists understand it all too well. The American people understand it all too well, and it is time that this White House begin to understand it as well.

Mr. Speaker, if the Obama administration continues to sit on the sidelines and allows this unspeakable act of terrorism we have all witnessed today to go unanswered, as it has so many times before, we invite that sinister malevolence to our own shores.

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

Mr. Speaker, I move that the House do now adjourn.

The motion was agreed to; accordingly (at 7 o'clock and 10 minutes p.m.), under its previous order, the House adjourned until tomorrow, Wednesday, February 4, 2015, at 10 a.m. for morning hour debate.

Mr. Speaker, I am honored today to be able to stand here in support of H.R. 469, the Strengthening Child Welfare Response to Trafficking Act. This is one of many pieces of legislation this week that we are going to be doing in the Congress, and I am so grateful to all of the people who have been involved in this critically important issue. I would especially mention the cochair of the Congressional Foster Youth Caucus, Karen Bass, for introducing this groundbreaking legislation.

Mr. Speaker, Hubert Humphrey said a society is measured by how it treats those in the dawn of life, those in the shadows of life, and those in the twilight of life. This is such a critical issue to protect the 400,000 children in America who find themselves in foster care and vulnerable to being preyed upon by traffickers who know all too well how to exploit a child's hunger for love, acceptance, and a sense of belonging.

We must put the structures in place to treat child victims of trafficking like victims instead of treating them like criminals.

With that, Mr. Speaker, I remind us all that our first job here is to protect those who cannot protect themselves.

Mr. Speaker, I am honored to able to stand here today in support of H.R. 469, the Strengthening Child Welfare Response to Trafficking Act. I commend my colleague Representative Karen Bass, the founder of the Co-chair of the Congressional Foster Youth Caucus, for introducing this groundbreaking legislation and for continuing to devote herself tirelessly to making a better future for these abused and neglected children.

Hubert Humphrey said a society is measured by how it treats those in the dawn of life, those in the shadows of life, and those in the twilight of life. Mr. Speaker, this is so applicable to our nation's foster youth. Right now over 400,000 children in America find themselves in foster care for no fault of their own. . . . And it is that trauma of abuse or neglect, that brought them into foster care in the first place, on top of being in unfamiliar circumstances, that makes them exponentially more vulnerable to be preyed upon by traffickers, who know all too well how to exploit a child's hunger for love, acceptance, and a sense of belonging.

For too long, and far too often, victims of trafficking have been allowed to fall through the cracks in the system. We have not put structures in place to treat child victims of trafficking like victims, and not treat them like criminals.

This legislation will begin to bridge the gaps where law enforcement and child protection workers need to be better equipped in order to best protect children known or suspected to be victims of sex trafficking. It also requires the submission of annual reports on the number of child victims of sex trafficking, and the reporting of that data to Congress so that we can better assess how to prevent child sex trafficking, and remove barriers that keep us from truly serving those that have become victims, and most of all, to protect the hundreds of thousands of vulnerable children to keep them from ever having to endure the evil of sex trafficking.

I am grateful for my colleague Representative Bass's leadership on this issue, and to House Leadership for recognizing the priority that must be placed upon protecting some of our nation's most vulnerable children. And I pray we will continue to work and stand together for the right of every child to be safe, protected, cherished, and loved.

Mr. Speaker, another legislative day has come to an end, and sunset approaches fast in Washington, DC. And as I have so many years, I stand before you in this House with what I call a Sunset Memorial, because, you see, Mr. Speaker, before the sun sets today in America, almost 4,000 more defenseless unborn children will be killed by abortion on demand in the land of the free and the home of the brave. That is more than the number of innocent lives lost on September 11 in this country by a multitude of thousands. And it happens every day.

It has now been 42 years since the tragedy called Roe v. Wade was first handed down. Since then, the very foundation of this Nation has been stained by the blood of almost 56 million of its own unborn children. Some of them, Mr. Speaker, cried and screamed as they died, but because it was amniotic fluid going over the vocal cords instead of air, we couldn't hear them.

All of them had at least four things in common, Mr. Speaker. First, they were just little babies who had never done anything wrong to anyone. Each one of them died a nameless and lonely death. And each one of their mothers, whether she realizes it or not, will never quite be the same. All the gifts that these children might have brought for humanity and to humanity are now lost forever.

Yet, Mr. Speaker, even in the glare of such tragedy, this generation still clings to this blind, invincible ignorance while history repeats itself over and over again, and our silent genocide mercilessly annihilates the most helpless of all victims--those yet unborn.

We should remember the quotes of President Abraham Lincoln when he said:

Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not themselves,

and under a just God, cannot long retain it.

Mr. Lincoln called upon all of us to remember America's Founding Fathers when he said:

Their enlightened belief was that nothing stamped with the

divine image and likeness was sent into the world to be

trodden on or degraded and imbruted by its fellows.

He reminded those he called posterity--and that is us, Mr. Speaker:

When in the distant future some man, some factions, some

interests should set up a doctrine that some were not

entitled to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness that

their posterity--again, Mr. Speaker, that is us--might look

up again to the Declaration of Independence and take courage

to renew the battle which their fathers began.

Mr. Speaker, when authorities entered the clinic of Dr. Kermit Gosnell, they found a torture chamber for little babies that defies description within the constraints of the English language.

According to the grand jury report:

Dr. Kermit Gosnell had a simple solution for unwanted

babies: he killed them. Now, he didn't call it that. He

called it ``ensuring fetal demise.'' And the way he ensured

fetal demise was by sticking scissors in the back of the

baby's neck and cutting the spinal cord. He called it

snipping. Over the years there were hundreds of snippings.

Mr. Speaker, Ashley Baldwin, one of Dr. Gosnell's employees, said she saw babies breathing, and she described one as 2 feet long that no longer had eyes or a mouth, but, in her words, was making like this screeching noise. She said: ``It sounded like a little alien.''

For God's sake, Mr. Speaker, is this who we really are?

Kermit Gosnell now rightfully sits in prison for killing a mother and murdering innocent, pain-capable children like the one I just described. Yet if he had killed them only 5 minutes earlier and before they had passed through the birth canal, it would have all been perfectly legal in many of the United States of America, including here in the District of Columbia.

If there is one thing we must not miss about this unspeakably evil episode it is that Kermit Gosnell is not an anomaly. He is just the visible face of this lucrative enterprise of murdering pain-capable unborn children in America. Mr. Speaker, more than 18,000 very late- term abortions are occurring in America every year, placing the mothers at exponentially greater risk and subjecting their pain-capable unborn babies to torture and death without anesthesia. It is the worst atrocity in America today, and this in the land of the free and the home of the brave.

Throughout history there has often been great intensity surrounding the debates of protecting the innocent lives of those who, through no fault of their own, find themselves obscured in the shadows of humanity. It encourages me greatly that in nearly all of those cases the collective conscience was finally moved in favor of the victims.

The same thing is beginning to happen in this debate related to innocent, unborn children, Mr. Speaker, especially those that are pain capable. We are beginning to ask ourselves the real question: Does abortion take the life of a child? We are especially asking the question recently: Does very late-term abortion torture and take the life of a pain-capable baby? And we are finally beginning to realize as human beings that it does.

Ultrasound technology now demonstrates to all reasonable observers both the humanity of the victim and the inhumanity of what is being done to them. And we are beginning to realize as Americans that taking brutally the lives of the innocent unborn does not liberate anyone and that 56 million children, Mr. Speaker, is enough.

Ironically I have heard Barack Obama speak such poignant words that, whether he knows it or not, apply so profoundly to the tragedy of abortion on demand in America. Let me quote excerpted portions of his comments. He said:

This is our first task--caring for our children. It is our

first job. If we don't get that right, we don't get anything

right. That is how, as a society, we will be judged.

He went on to say:

And by that measure, can we truly say, as a nation, that we

are meeting our obligations? Can we honestly say that we are

doing enough to keep our children--all of them--safe from

harm? Can we say that we are truly doing enough to give all

the children of this country the chance they deserve to live

out their lives with happiness and purpose?

The President went on to say:

I have been reflecting on this the last few days, and if we

are honest with ourselves, the answer is no. We are not doing

enough. And we will have to change.

Oh, how true the President's words are, Mr. Speaker.

The President also said:

We can't tolerate this anymore. These tragedies must end.

And to end them, we must change.

And then the President asked:

Are we really prepared to say that we are powerless in the

face of such carnage, that the politics are too hard? Are we

prepared to say that such violence visited on our children

year after year after year is somehow the price of freedom?

Mr. Speaker, is this not the most relevant of questions we should all be asking in the midst of this genocidal murder of thousands of unborn babies in America every day?

The President has said: ``Our journey is not complete until all our children'' . . . are ``cared for and cherished and always safe from harm.''

Finally, he said: ``That is our generation's task--to make these words, these rights, these values of life and liberty and the pursuit of happiness real for every American.''

Mr. Speaker, never have I so deeply agreed with any words ever spoken by President Barack Obama as those I have just quoted, and yet this President in the most merciless distortion of logic and reason and humanity itself refuses to apply these majestic words to helpless unborn babies.

Oh, how I wish somehow that Mr. Obama and all of us could open our hearts and our ears to his words and ask ourselves in the core of our own soul why his words that should apply to all children cannot apply to the most helpless of all children.

Mr. Speaker, we honor Abraham Lincoln most because he found the courage as President of the United States in the days of slavery, and he found the humanity within himself to recognize the image of God stamped on the soul of slaves that the Supreme Court said were not human and that the tide of public opinion didn't recognize as protectable under the law.

Could it still be that President Barack Obama might consider that perspective as well as his own legacy, and even eternity itself, and recognize that those little unborn children look so desperately to him now for help?

Could it be that the President might finally remember that on the pages of the Bible on which he laid his hands were the words written in red: ``Inasmuch as you have done it unto one of the least of these My brethren, you have done it unto Me''?

Whether he does or not, it is time for those of us in this Chamber to remind ourselves of why we are really all here. Thomas Jefferson said:

The care of human life and its happiness and not its

destruction is the chief and only object of good government.

The phrase in the 14th Amendment capsulizes our entire Constitution. It says:

No State shall deprive any person of life, liberty or

property, without the due process of law.

The 14th Amendment tells us that we should have equal protection of the laws for all. Mr. Speaker, protecting the lives of all Americans and their constitutional rights is why we are all here.

The bedrock foundation of this Republic is that clarion declaration of the self-evident truth that all human beings are created equal and endowed by their Creator with unalienable rights, the rights of life and liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Every conflict and battle our Nation has ever faced can be traced to our commitment to this core self-evident truth. It has made us the beacon of hope for the entire world. Mr. Speaker, it is truly who we are.

Yet today another day has passed. As so many sunset memorials that I have given, another day has passed, and we in this body have failed again to honor that foundational commitment. We have failed our sworn oath and our God-given responsibility as we broke faith with nearly 4,000 more innocent, unborn babies who died today without the protection we should have given them.

So, Mr. Speaker, let me conclude this sunset memorial in the hope that perhaps someone new who heard it will finally embrace the truth that abortion really does kill little babies, that it hurts mothers in ways that we can never express, and that it is time we stood up together again and looked up to the Declaration of Independence, and that we remember that we are the same America that rejected human slavery and marched into Europe to arrest the Nazi Holocaust, and we are still the courageous and compassionate Nation that can find a better way for mothers and their unborn children than abortion on demand.

It is still not too late for us to make a better world and for America to be the one that leads the rest of the planet, just as we did in the days of slavery, from this tragic genocide of murdering nearly 4,000 of our own children every day.

So now, Mr. Speaker, as we consider the thousands, the hundreds of thousands out on The Mall marching to protect these little babies, as we consider the plight of the unborn for 42 years under Roe v. Wade, maybe we can each remind ourselves that our own days in this sunshine of life are all numbered and that we, too, each one, shall walk from these Chambers one day for the very last time.

If it should be that Congress is allowed to convene on yet another day, may that be the day when we finally hear the cries, when we finally hear the cries of innocent, unborn children. May that be the day when we find the humanity and the constitutional duty to protect these, the least of our tiny little American brothers and sisters, from this murderous scourge upon our Nation called abortion on demand.

Mr. Speaker, it is now 42 years to the day since Roe v. Wade first stained the foundation of this Nation with the blood of its own children--this, in the land of the free and the home of the brave.

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

Mr. Speaker, I move that the House do now adjourn.

The motion was agreed to; accordingly (at 3 o'clock and 8 minutes p.m.), under its previous order, the House adjourned until Monday, January 26, 2015, at noon for morning-hour debate.

I thank the gentlewoman.

Mr. Speaker, a great shadow looms over America, the home of the brave.

More than 18,000 very late-term abortions are occurring in America every year, placing the mothers at exponentially greater risk and subjecting their pain-capable babies to torture and death without anesthesia. It is the greatest human rights atrocity in the United States today.

Almost every other major civilized nation on Earth protects pain- capable babies at this age, and every credible poll of the American people shows that they are overwhelmingly in favor of protecting them. And yet we have given these little babies less legal protection from unnecessary painful cruelty than the protection we have given farm animals under the Federal Humane Slaughter Act.

But, Mr. Speaker, I would submit to you that today the winds of change have begun to blow and the tide of blindness and blood is finally turning in America because today we take up the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act in this Chamber.

It is not perfect, Mr. Speaker. Each one of us would have written it a little differently if we could have done so. However, no matter how it is shouted down or what distortions, deceptive what-ifs, distractions, diversions, gotchas, twisting of words, changing the subject, or blatant falsehoods the abortion industry hurls at this bill and its supporters, it is a deeply sincere effort, beginning at the sixth month of pregnancy, to protect both mothers and their pain- capable babies from the atrocity of late-term abortion on demand, and, ultimately, it is one all humane Americans can support if they truly understand it for themselves.

Mr. Speaker, what we are doing to these babies is real--and we all know it--and it is time to change and protect them.

Mr. Speaker, tomorrow is January 22, 2015. It

marks exactly 42 years to the day since the tragedy called Roe v. Wade was first handed down from the United States Supreme Court. Since then, every foundation of this Nation has been stained by the blood of more than 55 million of its own unborn children. Incomprehensibly, those who have profited from it most have hailed it as freedom.

We should all remember the words of President Abraham Lincoln when he said:

Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for

themselves and, under a just God, cannot long retain it.

Mr. Lincoln called upon all of us to remember America's Founding Fathers, and ``their enlightened belief that nothing stamped with the divine image and likeness was sent into the world to be trodden on or degraded and imbruted by its fellows.''

He reminded those he called posterity that when, in the distant future, some man, some factions, some interests should set up a doctrine that some were not entitled to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, that ``their posterity''--that is us, Mr. Speaker--that ``their posterity might look up again to the Declaration of Independence and take courage to renew the battle which their Fathers began.''

Mr. Speaker, for the sake of all of those who founded this Nation and dreamed of what America could someday be and for the sake of all of those since then who have died in darkness so America could walk in the light of freedom, it is so very important that those of us who are privileged to be Members of the United States Congress pause from time to time and remind ourselves of why we are really all here.

Thomas Jefferson, whose words marked the beginning of this Nation said, ``The care of human life and its happiness and not its destruction is the chief and only object of good government.''

The phrase in the Fifth Amendment capsulizes our entire Constitution. It says that no person shall be ``deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.''

The 14th Amendment says no State shall deny ``to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.''

Mr. Speaker, protecting the lives of all Americans and their constitutional rights is why we are all here; yet, today, a great shadow looms over America. When authorities entered the clinic of Dr. Kermit Gosnell, they found a torture chamber for little babies that defies description within the constraints of the English language.

According to the grand jury report:

Dr. Kermit Gosnell had a simple solution for unwanted

babies. He killed them. He didn't call it that. He called it

``ensuring fetal demise.'' The way he ensured fetal demise

was by sticking scissors in the back of the baby's neck and

cutting the spinal cord. He called it ``snipping.'' Over the

years, there were hundreds of ``snippings.''

Ashley Baldwin, one of Dr. Gosnell's employees, said she saw babies breathing, and she defined one as 2 feet long that no longer had eyes or a mouth but, in her words, was making like this ``screeching'' noise, and it ``sounded like a little alien.''

For God's sake, Mr. Speaker, is this who we truly are? Kermit Gosnell now rightfully sits in prison for killing a mother and murdering innocent children like the one I just described; yet, if he had killed these babies only 5 minutes earlier and before they had passed through the birth canal, it would have all been perfectly legal in much of the United States of America.

If there is one thing that we must not miss about this unspeakably evil episode, it is that Kermit Gosnell is not an anomaly; he is just the visible face of this lucrative enterprise of murdering pain-capable unborn children in America.

Mr. Speaker, more than 18,000 very late-term abortions are occurring in America every year, placing the mothers at exponentially greater risk and subjecting their pain-capable unborn babies to torture and death without anesthesia. It is the greatest atrocity in the United States.

According to the Bartlett study, a woman seeking an abortion at 20 weeks is 35 times more likely to die from an abortion than she was in the first trimester. At 21 weeks or more, she is 91 times more likely to die than she was in the first trimester.

Regardless of how supporters of abortion on demand might try to suppress it, it is undisputed and universally accepted by every credible expert that the risk to a mother's health from abortion increases as gestation increases.

There is no valid debate on that incontrovertible reality; yet supporters of abortion on demand try to suppress that.

They also have tried for decades, Mr. Speaker, to deny that unborn babies ever feel pain, even those at the beginning of the sixth month of pregnancy, as if somehow the ability to feel pain magically develops the very second the child is born.

Mr. Speaker, almost every other major civilized nation on this Earth protects pain-capable unborn babies at this age, and every credible poll of the American people shows that they are overwhelmingly in favor of protecting these children. Yet we have given these little babies less legal protection from unnecessary pain and cruelty than the protection we have given farm animals under the Federal Humane Slaughter Act. Mr. Speaker, it is a tragedy that beggars my ability to articulate.

But I would submit to you, Mr. Speaker, that the winds of change are beginning to blow and that the tide of blindness and blood is finally turning in America. Because tomorrow we will vote on the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act in this Chamber, and it will be a vote that every one of us will always remember and for which we shall be held accountable.

And no matter how it is shouted down or what distortions, deceptive what-ifs, distractions, diversions, gotchas, twisted words, changing the subject, or blatant falsehoods the abortion industry hurls at this bill and its supporters, it remains a deeply sincere effort, beginning at their sixth month of pregnancy, to protect both mothers and their pain-capable unborn babies from the atrocity of late-term abortion on demand; and ultimately, Mr. Speaker, it is one all humane Americans can support if they truly understand it for themselves.

Mr. Speaker, not long ago, I heard Barack Obama speak very noble and poignant words that, whether he realizes it or not, apply so profoundly to this subject. Let me quote, if you will, excerpted portions of his comments. He said: ``This is our first task, caring for our children. It's our first job. If we don't get that right, we don't get anything right. That's how, as a society, we will be judged.''

The President asked: ``Are we really prepared to say that we're powerless in the face of such carnage, that the politics are too hard? Are we prepared to say that such violence visited on our children year after year after year is somehow the price of our freedom?''

The President also said: ``Our journey is not complete until all our children are cared for and cherished and always safe from harm.''

``That is our generation's task--to make these words, these rights, these values of life and liberty and the pursuit of happiness real for every American.''

Mr. Speaker, never have I so deeply agreed with any words ever spoken by President Obama as those I have just quoted. How I wish that somehow we could all open our hearts and our ears to these incontrovertible words and ask ourselves in the core of our souls why these words that should apply to all children cannot include the most helpless and vulnerable of all children. How does any child become more vulnerable than these little pain-capable unborn babies?

Mr. Speaker, it seems that we are never quite so eloquent as when we decry the crimes of a past generation, and we are never quite so staggeringly blind as when we assess an atrocity in our own time.

What we are doing to these babies is real, and all of us here know that in our hearts. Medical science regarding the development of unborn babies beginning at the sixth month of pregnancy now demonstrates irrefutably that they do, in fact, feel pain. Many of them cry and scream as they die, but because it is amniotic fluid going over the vocal cords instead of air, we can't hear them. It is, Mr. Speaker, the greatest human rights atrocity in the United States of America today.

I began and I close with the wise counsel from Abraham Lincoln to all of

us. He said: ``Fellow citizens, we cannot escape history. We of this Congress and this administration will be remembered in spite of ourselves. No personal significance or insignificance can spare one or another of us. The fiery trial through which we pass will light us down, in honor or dishonor, to the last generation.''

Mr. Speaker, it is time to open our eyes and our souls and recognize that protecting pain-capable unborn children and their mothers is not a Republican issue or a Democrat issue. It is a test of our basic humanity and who we are as a human family. It is time to open our eyes and allow our consciences to catch up with our technology. It is time for Members of the United States Congress to open our eyes and recognize that protecting those who cannot protect themselves is why we are all here. And, Mr. Speaker, it is time for all Americans to open our eyes and our hearts to the humanity of these little unborn children of God and the inhumanity of what is being done to them.

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

``. . . nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.''

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank Chairman Mike McCaul, Subcommittee Chairman Pat Meehan, and, of course, Ranking Member Yvette Clarke for their principled and unwavering leadership in bringing this legislation to the floor. I was touched by the gentlelady's words as well. I would also especially like to personally thank Chairman Pete Sessions, the sole original cosponsor of this bill, for being a tireless champion of protecting our Nation's critical infrastructure against EMP.

Mr. Speaker, back in August of 2003, a large section of our electric grid was knocked out across the Eastern United States. Fifty million people were affected after 21 power plants shut down in just 3 minutes. Office workers streamed into parking lots, and many commuters were stranded inside their trains. In a matter of moments, those things that make up our critical infrastructure, from the electric grid to water pumps to cell phone service to computer systems, were disrupted. Life suddenly changed that day in New York, Mr. Speaker, as well as in Cleveland, Detroit, and all the way into Canada. In New York City alone, this short blackout was estimated to cost more than a half- billion dollars.

Mr. Speaker, a worst-case natural or manmade electromagnetic pulse-- EMP--event represents a dangerous threat that could have a prolonged catastrophic impact on our electric grid--our most critical and our most interdependent infrastructure.

There are at least 11 major government reports and studies describing our vulnerabilities to electromagnetic pulses. Our Defense Department has wisely hardened many of our most critical defense assets like our strategic nuclear triad and our missile defense systems. However, our civilian grid remains fundamentally unprotected against severe EMP.

Whether catalyzed by non-nuclear intentional electromagnetic interference, a major solar storm, or a high-altitude nuclear blast, EMP is an invisible force of ionized particles with the potential to overwhelm and destroy our present electrical power grids, which would profoundly impact our civilization.

The National Intelligence University of the United States recently translated an Iranian military doctrine called ``Passive Defense'' which referenced the use of nuclear EMP as a weapon more than 20 times. This doctrine stresses that electrical grids are vital to national existence. It includes a formula for calculating the value of electric power plants and for prioritizing the targeting of electric grid components and other infrastructures.

Mr. Speaker, we know all too well the Obama administration has just extended talks with the world's leading

state sponsor of terrorism, allowing them even more time in their inexorable march toward a nuclear weapons capability.

After the terrorist attacks on 9/11, the Department of Homeland Security was founded. It created a Presidentially-appointed position for an Assistant Secretary for Infrastructure Protection. Among the Assistant Secretary's main duties is the responsibility to ``develop a comprehensive national plan for securing the key resources and critical infrastructure of the United States, including power production, generation, and distribution systems.''

Yet 12 years later, Mr. Speaker, no such plan is in place, and our Nation's critical infrastructure, including those key resources like power production, generation, and distribution systems, are still vulnerable to large-scale blackouts from severe electromagnetic pulse and geomagnetic disturbances.

For all of these reasons, Mr. Speaker, we are here this night to pass the Critical Infrastructure Protection Act, which, if signed into law, will represent the first time in history that Congress will be specifically addressing this dangerous threat of electromagnetic pulse. This legislation will enhance the DHS threat assessments for EMP through research and reporting requirements. It will also help the United States prevent and prepare for such an event by including large- scale blackouts into existing national planning scenarios, including educational awareness for the first responders, all to protect the critical infrastructure. Most importantly, Mr. Speaker, it will require specific plans for protecting and recovering the electric grid and other critical infrastructure from a dangerous electromagnetic pulse event.

Mr. Speaker, there is a moment in the life of nearly every problem when it is big enough to be seen by reasonable people and still small enough to be addressed. Those of us in this Chamber, and across America, live in a time where there still may be opportunity for the free world to address and mitigate the vulnerability that naturally occurring or weaponized EMP represents to the mechanisms of our civilization. This is our moment.