[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 18 (Tuesday, January 29, 2019)]
[House]
[Page H1279]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                PUT A BORDER SECURITY PLAN ON THE FLOOR

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 3, 2019, the Chair recognizes the gentleman from Florida (Mr. 
Gaetz) for 30 minutes.
  Mr. GAETZ. Madam Speaker, here we are, 2\1/2\ weeks away from a 
potential government shutdown. It is not 5 yet, and I am on the floor 
of the House of Representatives of the United States Congress, and 
there is functionally nobody here. I choose to address the body from 
the podium, rather than the well, to illustrate this point.
  Now, anywhere else in America, if you were facing some cataclysmic 
event like a shutdown or a shutoff or a business losing a major client, 
you would have the whole team here working, getting together, 
workshopping solutions, offering amendments, ripening proposals and 
actually doing the work that we are supposed to be doing for the 
country.
  With this 2\1/2\ weeks to the shutdown, it is notable to me that 
Congress got into town last night and we are leaving tomorrow. It is 
like we have got the French workweek around here. And the Democrats are 
in control. They are driving, Madam Speaker.
  So my call is to Speaker Pelosi:
  If you have got a border security package, put it on the floor.
  If you have got an idea on how to make sure that our country is 
safer, respecting the rule of law, creating a climate of rising wages 
for our workers, making sure that people in their neighborhoods are 
safe and not having to face the gangs and the cartels and the criminals 
and MS-13, let's see it.
  Democrats often were right to criticize Republicans during the 115th 
Congress that we had constrained rules, limited debates. We had 
diminished opportunity for Members to offer amendments. But we don't 
even have a bill. It kind of makes me wonder why.
  It may be the Democrats can come to no consensus on border security. 
I mean, heck, we have got a group of them who probably are from Rust 
Belt States, from the Midwest, where a lot of their constituents voted 
for President Trump and believe that we ought to have physical 
barriers, believe that we ought to be a nation of laws and borders--
pretty rational stuff. And then you have got this other wing of the 
Democratic Party, Madam Speaker, that thinks that walls and borders are 
racist and immoral.
  How is it that the country is expecting us to lead--you to lead, in 
the majority--if we aren't able to at least come to this floor and 
offer concrete solutions?
  You know what we voted on these last couple of days? We have been 
voting on whether or not we are going to establish studies on the 
potential harms of cryptocurrency. Now, that may be a virtuous 
objective, but it seems less poignant and less timely than the 
impending shutdown we potentially have in 2\1/2\ weeks.
  We took votes on whether or not the Department of Homeland Security 
should offer more mentorship and training to law enforcement on Tribal 
lands--also virtuous, but certainly not what we ought to be doing here.
  Madam Speaker, each and every day, when we walk these Halls, we stand 
under the busts and statues and murals of some of the greatest 
Americans to have ever lived. There are times when I feel we are 
unworthy to cast our gaze upon them and upon their likeness because 
here we are, trusted to fulfill the promise of the country, and it is 
not even 5 yet on a workday, and I am the only one here and everybody 
is packing their bags getting ready to go home.
  It is a travesty and it is a shame brought upon this House. I 
certainly hope in the coming weeks we can do better.
  Madam Speaker, I thank your indulgence, and I yield back the balance 
of my time.

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