[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 121 (Wednesday, July 18, 2018)]
[House]
[Pages H6471-H6472]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            A CALL TO ACTION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
New Hampshire (Ms. Shea-Porter) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. SHEA-PORTER. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to call this body to 
action. Two days ago, we watched, the world watched in horror in 
Finland as our President took Putin's side instead of our intelligence 
community's side. Our intelligence community told us, told him that 
Russia attacked our democracy and attacked our elections. For whatever 
reason, President Trump seems unable to clearly state that he agrees 
with intelligence.
  Just yesterday, when he said he misspoke, he then shifted and went 
back to it could be others. Why? We have to ask ourselves why. The 
Republican majority has been determined to do absolutely nothing in 
response when it is clear that there is much that we can and must do. 
Why?
  They have declined to pass additional legislation to serve as a 
deterrent to Russia and that would sanction Russia if they attacked our 
elections again. Why? Especially when we have been warned that Russia 
intends to interfere with our elections in just a few months.
  They have this whole Congress, but still Republicans have not passed 
any legislation to strengthen our election security system to mitigate 
this threat. Instead, congressional Republicans are trying to cut--this 
is unbelievable--trying to cut election security grants by hundreds of 
millions of dollars. Why? Don't they at least want to protect us going 
into the future?
  They have blocked votes to force the President to release his tax 
returns so we can know whether his business deals are affecting his 
decisions in the office of the Presidency. Why?
  And, most importantly, they have consistently refused to vote to 
protect Special Counsel Mueller's investigation. Why?
  Speaker Ryan controls the floor. Republicans are the ones who put all 
of

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the legislation on the floor. They could do this now, but they refuse 
to, even though they have the power. Why won't they? Why won't they let 
us investigate? Why won't they let us have a vote?
  America and the world is watching. They are wondering how long it 
will take for this Republican Congress to act. When will it be too 
much?
  We have heard some Republican heroes like John McCain and others who 
have said this was the most horrific performance and that we must--must 
talk about this, and yet we don't. Why?

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