[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 39 (Tuesday, March 7, 2017)]
[House]
[Pages H1589-H1590]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  2145
                           TOPICS OF THE DAY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 3, 2017, the Chair recognizes the gentleman from Texas (Mr. 
Gohmert) until 10 p.m.
  Mr. GOHMERT. Mr. Speaker, I was handed a letter by a lady when I was 
at one of the many events that I attended in my district. It is how I 
stay in touch with what is going on. This lady says: ``U.S. Congressman 
Louie Gohmert: I am a 52-year-old widow. ObamaCare is a major financial 
problem for me. Someone needs to fix the healthcare system. One-third 
of the money I get from my deceased husband's retirement fund is given 
to health care. My deductible alone is $7,000.''
  She has an exclamation point.
  ``I am angry with the government deciding how I should spend what 
little money I have. I had to get a part-time job just to put gas in my 
car. So I clean tables and I mop floors. I am physically unable to work 
full time. I am frustrated with the fact I had to move back in with my 
parents just to make ends meet. Would you like that? Fulfilling. Could 
or would you do something to relieve this burden?''
  That is from a 52-year-old widow in my district. That is what we have 
done with the burden, ObamaCare. We here in Congress decided: You know 
what? We are going to tell people like this widow how she has to spend 
what little money she has left. We are going to force this woman to go 
clean tables and mop floors when she is physically unable to work full 
time because we here in Washington have decided we know better than she 
does. So we have every right in Congress to force people like this dear 
widow to get on her hands and knees to work for the United States 
Congress. Pay your taxes and now, that is not enough. We are going to 
tell you that you are being forced to spend your money on health care 
that will never help you a dime because you have a $7,000 deductible.
  Or how about hearing, 2 weeks ago, from a friend, one of those who 
was cut because of financial troubles. They had 100 employees. They 
can't afford the ObamaCare, so they have cut their 100 to 70, and they 
are continuing to work to get down to 49. Why? Because of ObamaCare. So 
we have already had 30 breadwinners, men and women, lose their jobs 
because of one thing: ObamaCare.
  And now there are going to be 21 more who lose their jobs because of 
one thing: ObamaCare. They have got to get it under 50 so they don't 
have to keep paying such ridiculous prices for health insurance that 
has such high deductibles nobody will ever benefit.
  Who is benefiting? Well, it can't be all of the health insurance 
companies because they have dropped out. They can't make money. So it 
has to be the government that is making all the money from this 
ObamaCare program.
  A single mom told me she had been working at McDonald's making ends 
meet, but because of ObamaCare, they cut her hours back. Now she has to 
work at both McDonald's and Burger King, and she was in tears because 
it is just too much.
  And why is she having to do it? Because people right here in this 
House and the other body, without one Republican vote in this body, 
told America: Too bad. You are not working enough at McDonald's. We 
want to make your life miserable. We are going to make you work at two 
places part time just like this widow that we condemned to start 
scrubbing tables and floors because the Democrats in this body, without 
a single Republican vote, decided we know better what you need to do 
with your time and your money than you do.
  So it is a problem of arrogance when Washington thinks it knows so 
much better than people across the country. And yes, I know, I 
represent the 26 percent that didn't vote for me. I understand that. 
And I have heard from them, and I don't need a townhall to know they 
are for keeping this albatross of a healthcare system. The ACA is not 
affordable, though. It is ridiculous to call it affordable care.
  One of the problems is, when you have to take precious healthcare 
dollars that used to go to providing care in a hospital, in a clinic, 
for a patient, now it goes to government navigators. Why? Because there 
were union officials that decided: We have lost too many union members. 
The unions that are growing are the government unions, the very ones 
that Franklin Roosevelt said you should never have a union composed of 
government workers.
  Think about it. You are working for the people of the United States 
of America. Why would you need a union to organize against the people? 
Sounds un-American. But those are the ones that are growing. And union 
leaders, without concern for their members, decided: Let's embrace as 
many aliens as we can get into the country, legally or otherwise, 
because they will join the union and that will grow our ranks; and we 
as union leaders will be better off, but our members' wages will 
continue to go down, our members will continue to lose jobs. But, gee, 
we may have more people in our union.
  We know that there was supposed to be thousands of new IRS agents 
hired so that they could help enforce ObamaCare. It is a travesty. The 
bill that has been filed is not going to do it, but, hopefully, our 
Republican leadership will be willing to work things out and not 
prevent good amendments that will make it palatable so enough of us can 
vote for it.
  I have gotten to know President Trump a bit, and I feel like he wants 
the best deal he can get for America. If this bill were the best he 
could get, he would probably have to live with that, but we can do a 
whole lot better. Some of us are determined we are not going to vote 
for one that doesn't.
  In the meantime, there is so much talk by President Obama and all of 
his minions that are still out there trying to undermine the Trump 
administration. We have a crisis here in Congress

[[Page H1590]]

that people are not talking about. I keep bringing it up. Doesn't seem 
to be a lot of folks who want to talk about it.
  There was a time when we had mainstream media that actually did 
research, asked questions, dug to the bottom of things. But there are 
IT--information technology, mainly working with computers--employees, 
shared employees for several Democrats that are under investigation. 
Imran Awan was the company owner. Abid Awan, Jamal Awan, Hina Alvi--the 
wife of Imran Awan--and Natalia Sova, wife of Abid Awan, each made 
$160,000 a year as IT-shared employees working on computers for various 
Democrats in the House of Representatives.

  The Awan brothers are of Pakistani descent, but their immigration 
status is unclear. There are a lot of things that are unknown about the 
Awan brothers. But they worked for our former DNC chair, Debbie 
Wasserman Schultz--that is Imran Awan. These people are under 
investigation for stealing material, potentially accessing material 
they shouldn't have, for taking material off of Capitol Hill and 
stealing it, using it in other places.
  We are told, oh, not to worry, they didn't access classified 
intelligence information in the SCIF; but other IT people tell me, once 
someone is in the congressional system, the calendar, email for one 
Member of Congress, if they are good, it is not that hard to break into 
lots of other Members of Congress' email and calendars.
  What country that hates America--some that like America--wouldn't 
love to know who people are meeting, especially on the Intelligence 
Committee like some of the people that have employed these?
  Some of them, very fine members of things like the Ethics Committee, 
Judiciary, Foreign Affairs, Intelligence Committee. Let's see, Andre 
Carson, Sandy Levin, Jackie Speier--a lot of people, good people--Tim 
Ryan. A lot of these folks, they employed these folks. They were very 
trusting, kind people. And these people didn't have a background check, 
and now they are under investigation. I heard some have been told that 
Imran Awan, the lead guy, went back to Pakistan.
  Well, if this guy set up and was working on computer systems, is it 
possible he could have--and this is what a normal mainstream reporter, 
30, 40 years ago back in the seventies would have asked: Well, did he 
set up the DNC computer system that got hacked, that was supposedly 
hacked by Russians or others, did he set that up so it could be hacked? 
I mean, there is a lot here going on that we don't know the answers to, 
and we deserve to know the answers.
  There were mortgage transfers, debt evading bankruptcies. Imran Awan, 
Jamal Awan were known to be the ringleaders of the group, had been 
providing services since 2005; has convictions for driving offenses 
which were serious enough to become criminal misdemeanors, used an 
illegal radar detector, drove an unregistered vehicle; some say, after 
masterminding the family's finances, was running the business 
completely by 2010 and instructed Abid not to even speak to anyone.
  The wives of Imran and Abid also began receiving paychecks from the 
House of Representatives. They purchased two homes in Lorton in 2008, 
one of which was associated with all three brothers at one time. Alvi 
sold that home in 2016 to the younger brother Jamal for $620,000.
  Imran owned a home and put it in his father's name in 2008 in 
Springfield. Abid later claimed, in bankruptcy, that the house was his.
  Jamal Awan was placed on the House payroll at age 20, making 
$160,000.
  Imran is also a real estate agent. Despite making $160,000 in 
congressional salaries, debts went unpaid by the Awan brothers, 
including debts to the Congressional Federal Credit Union.
  $100,000 was taken from a known Hezbollah-connected fugitive, a 
fugitive from the FBI; and they are associated with this Hezbollah-
connected agent, and there is no press out there getting to the bottom 
of it? What happened to the Washington press, the proud press of 
Washington of the 1970s? Well, they are in the bag for one party. They 
are not interested in getting to the bottom of the news. They are all 
about advocating.
  God not just bless America, God help America. We have got to have 
people wake up before we do much more damage to ourselves. It is time 
to turn this country around, and one of the things we should start with 
is getting to the bottom of this investigation; find out how much 
damage these alleged criminals did from Pakistan to our Congress, and 
also start undoing the damage ObamaCare has done so people can get jobs 
again they have lost, so people can have health care that has 
deductibles they can afford. It is time to make America great again.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

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