[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 97 (Tuesday, June 11, 2019)]
[House]
[Pages H4395-H4396]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         IT IS TIME TO MOVE ON

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Kansas (Mr. Marshall) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. MARSHALL. Mr. Speaker, while the Judiciary Committee should be 
focused on securing the borders and overhauling a very broken 
immigration system, they, instead, bring a clown and circus show to 
town.
  When I looked up yesterday and saw John Dean, it took me back to the 
hot summer of 1974, when we saw John Dean and his cohorts on our 
television screens for days at a time. In an era with only three 
television stations--that is right, Mr. Speaker, we only had three 
stations growing up--Mr. Dean was on all three of them for hours at a 
time, for days on end.
  Bringing another convicted felon, and a biased one at that, a person 
who has tweeted 970 times anti-Trump propaganda, to bring this criminal 
to these Chambers was yet another embarrassment to the majority party. 
All of America realizes the Democratic leadership has dug a deep, deep 
hole for itself and, for all practical purposes, has started this 
impeachment process and hearings. Nevertheless, in contradiction to 
public wishes, it appears the Judiciary chairman will continue to dig a 
deeper hole by calling such a slanderous, offensive witness and move 
forward with impeachment.

  After doing over 38 townhalls across the State of Kansas since 
January, everywhere I go, folks tell me the same thing: It is time to 
move on.
  Mr. Speaker, we have real problems that need to be addressed. My 
folks back home are dealing with floods and tornadoes. The farmers 
can't get their crops in the field, and China and the European Union 
are blocking us from exporting our commodities. All these things are 
things we cannot control. We have enough problems without the 
Washington swamp adding to our misery.
  Folks back home want our border secured. They want a fair, 
streamlined immigration system, which helps fill the 70,000 open jobs 
we have across the State. From agriculture, to the aircraft industry, 
to high-tech jobs, Mr. Speaker, we need more people who are able and 
willing to work. And we all know this immigration reform is exactly 
what the Judiciary Committee should be taking up as we speak. Instead 
of fixing real problems, the Democrat-controlled House just keeps 
digging deeper down this false impeachment hole they have initiated.
  Mr. Speaker, I want to stop and applaud the President for his most 
recent efforts to secure our borders. As we all know, over the course 
of less than 2 weeks--record time for diplomacy in this age--the 
President was able to leverage potential tariffs into real action by 
the Mexican government. That is right, real action with real results.
  Thanks to these efforts, Mexico is going to place 6,000 new troops to 
control their southern border. Additionally, Mexico has agreed to 
shelter, feed, and help those who apply for asylum in this country. 
This all matters to Kansans, and we thank the President for his 
efforts.
  This is huge. How huge is it? Well, I have been to the border, almost 
a year ago now, and I know a crisis when I see it. It was a crisis then 
and, by all measures, this crisis has literally doubled.

[[Page H4396]]

  Every day, on average, we are now apprehending almost 5,000 people 
crossing the border illegally. We are housing, feeding, and providing 
healthcare to over 40,000 people daily. We literally have run out of 
bed space. We now have over 900,000 people waiting for asylum hearings, 
of which only 10 percent have a legitimate claim.
  Even in the words of the most liberal of newspapers, the New York 
Times agrees this is a crisis: ``While lawmakers wring their hands and 
drag their feet, tens of thousands of migrant children are suffering.
  ``Congress needs to get serious about dealing with that suffering.''
  Mr. Speaker, it is a shame that Congress won't do its job, that we 
won't secure the border, and that we won't overhaul a broken 
immigration system. Instead, the Democrats drive the agenda that 
started, for all practical purposes, an agenda that brings in the ghost 
of Christmas past, a convicted liar and felon, as their star witness 
for impeachment hearings.
  Mr. Speaker, I continue to learn lessons about leadership. Leaders 
must at times endure criticism and attacks and stay the course. Leaders 
keep their word, they demand results, and they hold people accountable. 
Leaders keep the ship moving into high headwinds. Leaders think outside 
the box. They use the tools given them. They don't make excuses. They 
never, never give up. Somehow, they always bring the light back to the 
objective, the goal at hand. When others won't lift, they lift the 
entire weight. They show the path, they shine the light, and they go 
first when others are afraid. Leaders don't repeat the mistakes of 
those who went before them over and over again.
  Mr. Speaker, great leaders all have their own unique style. One of my 
heroes was President General Dwight David Eisenhower, who was a 
visionary, able to move pieces around for the D-day invasion, but also 
had the vision to see the need for an interstate highway system, a 
space program, and civil rights.
  Another hero of mine is John Wayne's Rooster Cogburn, the mythical 
marshal from the movie ``True Grit,'' who often, when he couldn't get 
people to follow, well, I guess I would say, he just ran over them.
  Mr. Speaker, I thank our President for showing us what true 
leadership looks like, and what true grit looks like in real time, in 
real life.
  Mr. Speaker, we need the President to keep leading.

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