[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 130 (Thursday, July 23, 2020)]
[House]
[Pages H3830-H3835]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       AMERICA IS A GREAT NATION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 3, 2019, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Arrington) is recognized 
for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.


                             General Leave

  Mr. ARRINGTON. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members 
may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks 
and include extraneous materials on the topic of my Special Order.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from Texas?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. ARRINGTON. Mr. Speaker, we are here as lovers of liberty, as 
patriots, as people concerned about the future of our country, just 
citizen legislators, people who have children and grandchildren and who 
want our posterity to inherit the blessings of liberty and all of the 
opportunities this great Nation has afforded not only myself and my 
colleagues, but all Americans.
  America is a great nation, and God has truly blessed America. America 
has been a blessing to the world, and as President Trump has said, we 
must keep America great.
  It is not just what that statement means to our citizens and to our 
children and the next generation of Americans; it is what America means 
and what this great experiment at liberty and democracy means for the 
entire world.
  Mr. Speaker, we are going to talk about the substance of that 
greatness, the true substance of it.
  I would suggest that what makes America great is the American people 
and the values, the beliefs--what defines us--our culture, what we 
esteem.
  That is what we must remember as we legislate, as we lead and 
represent our citizens throughout this great land, that what makes 
America great and what will keep America great are America's values. We 
must defend them. We must promote them.

                              {time}  1945

  We must fight for a future that has those values of faith, In God We 
Trust, one Nation under the sovereignty of God, with a firm belief, as 
John Adams says, that the Constitution is only good for a moral and 
religious people, for example.
  He understood that, at the foundation of this great country, that we 
would only be able to persist, and we have only persisted as the 
longest democracy in the history of the world because we bow the knee 
to our sovereign God, who, as Ben Franklin said, if a sparrow cannot 
fall to the ground apart from His will, then a Nation cannot rise apart 
from it. And I would submit that this great Nation cannot persist 
without that.
  We recognize that you can pass all the laws you want and, certainly, 
laws have their place in civil order, and the enforcement of those laws 
are critical for the domestic tranquility of our country. But you are 
not going to change anyone's heart through passing laws.
  And John Adams and our Founders understood that if this republic 
would continue for generations it would be because we always remembered 
that above and beyond passing good laws and making good policy is that 
we would recognize that we have a higher accountability, and that 
accountability is Almighty God, that same God whose providential hand 
was with this Nation from the very beginning and, I pray, will continue 
with all of us, on both sides of the aisle.
  Every person that swears an oath and has the good fortune and 
privilege of serving, I pray God's gracious and providential hand will 
continue to guide us in the challenges that we face today.
  We have our 21st century challenges, just like every generation has 
and, I would submit, we must return to what made this country great.
  Tonight, we are going to reflect on America's values, America's 
culture, and America's heritage, and why it matters to fight and defend 
those values.
  I have dear friends who are much more articulate, Mr. Speaker, than I 
am on this, and they speak from the heart. They speak with personal 
conviction. They ran for office to serve, and to strive for a more 
perfect union, and to hand this country better than we found it to 
their children and grandchildren.
  One of those individuals is Ralph Norman, from the great State of 
South Carolina, a businessman who decided that he would make tremendous 
sacrifice. He has got a beautiful and big family, and he said this is 
the best way he can love his grandchildren is to love his country 
through service and through making it better by passing the right laws 
and upholding the right values.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. 
Norman).
  Mr. NORMAN. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman for having 
this Special Order. It couldn't come at a more unique time. The 
history, defining America's values, our culture, and our heritage, now 
more than ever, need to be spotlighted.
  The gentleman summed it up well. It boils down to three things, 
faith, family, and country; faith, family, and country.
  America finds herself in an hour of peril. In the recent weeks and 
months,

[[Page H3831]]

we have seen the unhinging of civil order and the near collapse of the 
rule of law in certain cities.
  This Chamber should serve as the shining example for the rest of our 
great country. Sadly, we are failing to live up to that expectation. 
Instead of open and honest debate, we are allowing the ``cancel 
culture'' to creep inside these hallowed Halls that have stood for 
centuries.
  We hear calls for a ``national conversion,'' a ``wider debate,'' or a 
``public reckoning,'' and every day, we are denied it. A new regime of 
liberal gatekeepers is intent on enforcing this new dogma, even in 
institutions previously sworn to uphold the importance of the free 
exchange of ideas.
  Instead of opportunities for many in America to grow and evolve 
through discourse, Americans are now losing their livelihood and loved 
ones over newly invented apostasies. I invite my colleagues on the 
other side of the aisle to join me in denouncing this uncivil and, to 
be honest with you, un-American way of disagreeing. We must remind the 
American people of our beautiful land what it looks like to agreeably 
disagree.
  From the exchange of ideas, we can achieve the negotiations and 
compromises that make up the foundation and the fabric of this great 
Nation and are the stepping-stones to a more perfect Union.
  The Federal Government has an obligation to make sure that any 
institution it supports upholds the Bill of Rights, including the right 
of freedom of speech.
  It does not give you, however, the right to tear down this great 
Nation. It does not give you the right to tear down people's dreams, 
money that was put in, dollars that were put in to building a lifelong 
business, to destroy.
  You do not build America up by tearing down America. We cannot do 
this in the current state of cancelation.
  Until we can once again welcome disagreement, debate, and a healthy 
exchange of ideas, I fear for our future; I fear for our children; and 
I fear for our grandchildren.
  In the words of Winston Churchill, who had the fantastic quote when 
Great Britain was under siege by Germany, he said:

       There will be a time when doing your best is not good 
     enough. We must do what is required.

  And I will call on all Americans and, really, on both sides of the 
aisle, to do what is required to keep America great; to make it even 
greater; and to go for what made this country great, to uphold our 
Constitution, our Bill of Rights, and our God-given freedoms that can 
only come from God.
  Mr. Speaker, I thank Congressman Arrington for having this Special 
Order.
  Mr. ARRINGTON. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman, and I consider him 
a great friend. As he spoke, I was thinking about the statement that 
Alexis de Tocqueville made that, I think, truly hits at the heart of 
this experiment that has persisted as the greatest beacon of liberty in 
all the land and, I mean, in all the globe, and that is America is 
great because America is good. And part of our goodness is civil 
discourse and debate.

  Mr. Speaker, I am going to introduce another classmate and colleague 
of ours,   Jim Banks; and he was part of our class that came in and 
said from the outset we need civil discourse. We have strong 
convictions. We have deeply held beliefs, and we will fight for the 
traditional American values that we believe have made America great.
  But we can do that right here, without tearing a single person down, 
and contributing to the swampiness of this place and being a great 
example to generations of Americans.
  The gentleman represents that. He is a great statesman, a great 
American. I thank him for his time.
  The next colleague of mine, from the Hoosier State, who is, no doubt, 
a freedom fighter, and who I am terribly honored to serve with, and to 
know his beautiful family, his wife, Amanda, and his three children. I 
thank Representative Banks for joining us and taking part in this 
discussion about defending America's values.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Banks).
  Mr. BANKS. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend and colleague from the 
great State of Texas for organizing this important conversation that we 
are having here this evening. There is so much, as the gentleman has 
already said, that makes America great, our history, our culture, our 
values, our people.
  But, Mr. Speaker, 300 years ago, colonists left their homes to come 
to these shores and become free. They didn't want to be bullied for 
their beliefs anymore.
  Our Founding Fathers thought this freedom was so important they 
enshrined it in the First Amendment. But it is under attack more than 
ever today in the form of what has become known as the ``cancel 
culture.''
  If you hold the wrong beliefs; if you support the wrong candidate; if 
you affiliate yourself with the wrong party; if you watch the wrong 
news network, you can get canceled; which means that they can take your 
job, they can take your privacy and your reputation away from you in a 
flash.
  You can even get canceled for not doing something. If you refuse to 
utter or endorse the so-called politically correct movements or 
phrases, they will come to destroy you.
  This is an affront to the very idea of what America is and who we 
are, as Americans, and I vow to fight it with every fiber of my being.
  I appreciate my colleague from Texas organizing this Special Order to 
talk about these important issues, but from the bottom of my heart, 
this is what is on my mind and my heart as we serve in this body today. 
We have got to do everything we can to change it.
  Mr. ARRINGTON. Mr. Speaker, I thank my beloved brother in Christ and 
dear friend for not only his service as a Member of Congress, but for 
his service in wearing the uniform.
  I think, at its core, this mission that we have to steward and to 
protect, as the Federal Government's limited--emphasis on limited--role 
in the affairs of our great citizenry, is to keep us safe and keep us 
free.
  I thank the gentleman for doing that for his whole career. And God 
bless him for his service, both in the military and here in the United 
States Congress. I am honored to serve with him.
  Now, another liberty loving Texan who has been in public service, who 
has been a prosecutor, and has been a leader for our Lone Star State; 
and, now, he too, has been willing to leave a lot of good things 
behind, including a loving family, to come up here to this city and to 
fight for our freedom, to change the culture of this place so that it 
serves the people who hold the sovereignty and the future in their 
hands. He is a dear friend, and I am honored to have him, Chip Roy, of 
the great State of Texas.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Roy).
  Mr. ROY. Mr. Speaker, my father is a proud west Texan, also a proud 
graduate of Texas Tech University, as the gentleman well knows. And I 
just appreciate the gentleman's passion for this country and what he is 
doing by giving us this time to talk in defense of the greatness of our 
Nation.
  Now, I wouldn't think I would be standing on the floor of the House 
of Representatives having to defend the greatness of the United States 
of America. We were sitting in this very Chamber, in the State of the 
Union address, when the President of the United States was touting the 
greatness of this country, and only about half of this body stood up to 
clap its hands to agree about the greatness of this country.
  I just want to say, you know, as a Member of this body, of one-435th, 
and one-half of one-third of the Federal Government, I believe this 
country is great.

                              {time}  2000

  I am proud of this country. I am unapologetically proud to be an 
American. Flaws we have because we are flawed men and flawed women. We 
know that. It is certainly a tenet of my faith, and that is faith in 
the Almighty and faith in the Lord and my Savior Jesus Christ. But for 
Him, I would be condemned because we are flawed. But we have to 
remember that this country has stood for something greater.
  Just a few weeks ago, I went up to Independence Hall in Philadelphia 
on the 244th anniversary of our separation from the crown. I went into 
Independence Hall on that day on July 2, the actual day that we 
separated from the

[[Page H3832]]

crown. It was an honor to be there. I went up there to record a video. 
I never thought I would have to record a video saying why this 
building, Independence Hall, and why these monuments are important.
  It is not the bricks; it is not the mortar; it is not the marble; and 
it is not the iron. It is the ideals they represent. It is the ideals 
that this country was founded upon, and it is those ideals that carry 
forward.
  We will never measure up to those ideals because we are flawed human 
beings, but we will always be striving to achieve the greatness that 
our Founders laid out for us and that our forefathers and our current 
brothers and sisters have died and bled for.
  When we go down to the World War II Memorial and see 4,000--and I 
can't remember the exact number--4,100 almost stars on that monument, 
that is one for every 100 Americans who gave their life thousands of 
miles away in Europe and in the Pacific, fighting for something far 
greater than they.
  It wasn't for conquest. It was to stop tyranny. It was to stop 
fascism. It was to stop the spread of that around the globe. That is 
what our country represents.
  We had the great clash in our Civil War a mere 80 years after our 
founding. Few republics in the history of mankind would have survived 
that. But it was because it was for the fulfillment of the Declaration. 
It was a fight for the fulfillment of those ideals and the greatness of 
this country.
  That greatness is exemplified by our heritage. My grandmother was a 
single mom in west Texas, in Sweetwater, Texas, because my grandfather 
died of cancer when my dad was 7 years old. Now, imagine her finding 
out my father had polio--a pandemic--in September 1949 while my 
grandfather was dying of cancer. Then he passes away in November, and 
my dad coming home from the hospital for a few days each week to be 
able to see his dad, whom he had only seen for 2 years because his dad 
was in the Pacific.
  Then my grandmother, a single mom in west Texas, runs and becomes the 
first woman elected county clerk in Nolan County, Texas. She raises my 
dad and gets him through therapy. My dad is still alive and walking 
today because of her hard work, taking on double jobs.
  He goes on to be the first to go to college, Texas Tech. I go on to 
be the first to go to graduate school, and now here I am in Congress.
  This story is not unique. Each and every one of us has one of those 
stories. That is the greatness of this country. Her dad, my 
grandmother's dad, had lost the farm in the Depression.
  How many stories do you know like that?
  He went on to be the janitor in a church in Sweetwater, Texas, for 
the rest of his life after he lost the farm. It was noble. It was noble 
because he was raising my grandmother and raising my dad, who was newly 
without a father.
  That was what we do. That is what we do as Americans. That is our 
greatness. I am just, frankly, not going to apologize for it. I am not. 
I love this country.
  As we sit here in the face of a pandemic, why is our leadership 
telling our country to cower in fear? That is not the American way. 
That polio that struck my father? We beat it.
  Mr. Speaker, 30,000 kids died and 300,000 got injured. Mitch 
McConnell is one of them. My dad is one of them. He walks with a hobble 
today. But we beat it with the Salk vaccine.
  We beat the Germans. We beat the Japanese. We have been fighting and 
standing up against the evils of totalitarianism. We took down the 
Soviet Union when Mr. Reagan said ``tear down that wall'' to Mr. 
Gorbachev. That is who we are as a country. I am just not going to 
apologize for it.
  Here is the thing: Why aren't we talking as a group together on a 
bipartisan basis instead of tearing each other down? Why aren't we 
talking about the great things that we have been achieving?
  Fifty million tests. Think about that. Fifty million tests--more than 
Russia, India, and the U.K. combined. That is an extraordinary 
achievement.
  How many ventilators? How many PPE, et cetera?
  I have all sorts of numbers, but we have an extraordinary production: 
19 billion gloves, 775 million surgical masks, 187 million N95 
respirators, 32 million face shields, and we keep pumping them out.
  Doctors have been working through the night, trying to figure out how 
to keep people alive and work through this pandemic and fight through 
it. Our fatality rate is going down, and it has been going down for 12 
consecutive weeks.
  We should be applauding that and championing that. We shouldn't be 
backbiting about what the President says or what somebody in this body 
says. We should be championing the greatness of this country to 
overcome this pandemic because that is what we are doing.
  We should be making the American people confident to be able to get 
their kids back to school. Why? Because this virus--God, thank You--
this virus doesn't attack our kids, at least the data currently shows 
that. We can adapt if that changes. But that is the clear truth.
  Let's listen to the epidemiologists from Stanford like Dr. Ioannidis 
and Dr. Scott Atlas. Let's listen to the reports from Oxford and Yale, 
hardly some institutions of far-rightwing extremism. These are doctors 
who are telling us that our kids can go back to school, that we can go 
back to work, and that we can keep our country open.

  Why does that matter? Because being closed is harming our kids and 
harming our society. Forty-five percent of Black-owned businesses have 
been crippled, crushed, and closed during this. A study by Harvard said 
that 110,000 American small businesses would likely close their doors 
permanently. We have seen the jobless claims, almost 50 million jobless 
claims. I think we are hovering around 20 million still. These are real 
people, real people's lives.
  Next week is the 9-year anniversary since I was diagnosed with 
Hodgkin's lymphoma. I walked into the doctor's office, and I asked the 
doctor: Well, what are my chances, doc?
  I have stage 3.
  He said: Well, I am not going to tell you that number because, for 
you, it is zero percent or 100 percent. What are you going to choose?
  I chose 100 percent because I wanted to live. I wanted to see my 
then-4-month-old daughter grow up. I wanted to see my then-2-year-old 
son grow up. That is what we need for this country.
  Choose 100 percent. Choose the way for us to succeed as a country and 
march forward.
  When I saw that great doctor, a great man from Syria, he told me that 
story, and he gave me his plan for me for my treatment. It is now the 
treatment--it was a trial drug that is now the standard of care for 
Hodgkin's lymphoma patients. But I went and got a second opinion, a 
third opinion, and a fourth opinion. Why? Because that is what you do, 
and that is what we should be doing right now, listening to all the 
experts.
  This body should have hearing after hearing, calling in people for 
the experts. But we are not having these hearings. Why not? Why have we 
only met something like, ballpark, 13 of the last 90-something days? 
Someone explain that to me.
  Someone explain to me how the Founding Fathers in 1793, when 5,000 
out of 50,000 Philadelphians died from yellow fever, they found a way 
to meet and have this body meet. Instead, what do we get? Proxy voting.
  Do you know what that means, American people? We have people on 
boats, calling in to hearings to register their votes. Think about 
that. That is not what the Constitution means.
  I am proud to be in court tomorrow, litigating that against the 
Speaker of the House. We will be right here in court because it is 
unconstitutional.
  But more important than that, it means we are not here leading. We 
are not here on the floor of the House of Representatives doing our job 
and projecting confidence to the American people that we can all meet 
and do what we are supposed to do.
  We should have hearing after hearing after hearing, calling 
epidemiology experts about what we can do to ensure that the American 
people go back to work confidently, go to school, go to work, create 
wealth, create opportunity, and get back on our feet.
  I am not going to use up much more of the gentleman's time, but I do 
want to say this: This stuff is all related. If

[[Page H3833]]

you think the lawlessness on the streets of Portland and the dead 
babies--Black, White, and otherwise in Chicago, New York, and Atlanta; 
the 8-year-old girl who got killed with her mom; the gentleman walking 
across the street holding his 8-year-old daughter's hand; a Black man 
and a Black girl, he got gunned down in the streets of New York; a 1-
year-old infant in New York; a 3-year-old Black baby boy in Chicago; a 
19-year-old Black young man in a so-called autonomous zone in Seattle--
they are dead and they are gone because of lawlessness, because we are 
refusing to do our job to stand up for the very rule of law that sets 
this country apart from the rest of the world and always has. That is 
all related.
  When you shut your country down, Mr. Speaker, the mental impact of 
that is real. And that is not just me. There are smart doctors who 
believe that.
  John Ioannidis, whom I said was from Stanford University, asserted 
that extended lockdowns might not be the best approach. One of the 
bottom lines is that we don't know how long social distancing measures 
and lockdowns can be maintained without major consequences to the 
economy, society, and mental health.
  Ioannidis wrote: ``Unpredictable evolutions may ensue, including 
financial crisis, unrest, civil strife, war, and a meltdown of the 
social fabric.''
  I feel extremely sad that my predictions were verified.
  The leaders of this body, all 435 of us, have an obligation to be 
here to do our job, to hold hearings, to speak the truth, to seek the 
truth, and to speak the truth to the American people.
  I don't take it cavalierly. My 77-year-old father, I didn't see him 
between Christmas and July Fourth to protect him. My kids are going 
back to school on August 20 in Austin, Texas.
  Do I worry about my family? Of course I do. But we are going to get 
back in the saddle, and we are going to get back to do our jobs and get 
this country moving forward.
  To my friend from Texas, I am sorry I took up too much time. I thank 
my friend for doing this. I love this country. I will never apologize 
for loving this country, and we are going to work together to get this 
country back in the saddle.
  Mr. ARRINGTON. Mr. Speaker, as we say in west Texas, amen and amen. I 
could listen to Representative Roy all night because he speaks from his 
heart and from a passion for his country and for his fellow countrymen. 
He is a truth seeker and a fighter for all that is good about this 
country.
  We are glad the gentleman is here as part of the great delegation of 
Texas. We are all better in this body because of his presence and his 
service as a Member of Congress.
  May God bless the gentleman. I thank him for his words tonight.
  Now, I want to invite another colleague who is a lover of freedom and 
a great patriot, who is unabashed and beaming in his pride for the 
United States of America.

  Mr. Allen is another gentleman who could be doing a lot of things. He 
is an accomplished businessman who could be doing a lot of things and 
spending a lot of quality time with his children and grandchildren, 
but, once again, he believes that the best way he can love his family 
and love those grandchildren is to hand them a better, stronger, safer, 
and freer United States of America.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from the 12th District of 
Georgia (Mr. Allen), who is my dear friend.
  Mr. ALLEN. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman from Texas for 
holding this special order.
  This is a topic that we need to have a family discussion on. This 
Congress needs to sit down together and have a family discussion on 
where we are as a nation because I am deeply troubled by the state of 
our Nation, and most of my constituents who talk with me on a daily 
basis ask me what in the world is going on.
  I go back to my childhood. I grew up on a farm, and I learned the 
value of hard work. I tell people that outside of this President, my 
daddy was the hardest worker that I have ever known. I am not sure he 
could outwork this President.
  Mr. Speaker, my dad was one of five people in my county that you 
would go to see if you were going to run for public office. That is how 
much he cared about his community; that is how much he cared about that 
county; and that is how much he cared about his State.
  I will be honest with you. My mother, my brother, my sister, and I 
would get upset with him because he spent time doing things outside of 
the home, trying to make our county and our State a better place to 
live. So, one day, I asked him about it.
  I said: Dad, why are you so involved in public service?
  He said: Son, I grew up in the Great Depression, and I fought in 
World War II. And in both times, I really thought there was a 
possibility we were going to lose this country.
  I think he made a covenant with God that he would do everything he 
could to sustain the great Nation that he had the opportunity to grow 
up in and farm and to be involved in education and all the amazing work 
that my father did for that community. But he left me with this--and my 
dear friend, Ralph Norman, talked about this tonight.
  My dad said: Son, you have to understand one thing. Apathy is the 
enemy of freedom.

                              {time}  2015

  You look at voter turnout, and you look at folks who say, ``I really 
don't want to get involved,'' or, ``I don't want to get out and knock 
on doors or make phone calls.''
  Folks, I am going to sound the alarm. I am going to sound the alarm 
for a lot of different people groups.
  Take the small business community. The small business community 
generates about 50 percent of the jobs in this country. Seventy percent 
of all the new jobs created in this amazing economy we had before 
COVID-19 were generated by the small business community.
  The first reason I ran for Congress was because of the war on past 
administrations on small business.
  Let me tell you, small business, you need to get involved in this 
process, because if we aren't careful, there will be another war on 
small business.
  I came down here today to talk about two amendments, and a lot of 
those amendments dealt with the regulatory environment that, prior to 
President Trump, was destroying the small business community.
  You know, one of the greatest privileges that I have had in my life--
and I think this is maybe the greatest gift I have ever received from 
God--is the privilege to give people the opportunity to have a good 
job, to have the dignity and respect they deserve, to empower them to 
be what God created them to be, and to allow them to provide for their 
family, their country, and their church.
  There is no greater satisfaction that I have found in this country--I 
have not found one person who is unhappy, that is not filled with joy 
when they are serving others. And we still have a tremendous amount of 
that going on in this country.
  But over the past few months, we have seen radical progressive 
attacks on our Nation. What started as legitimate and peaceful protests 
has since been hijacked by violent lawbreakers.
  Now, let's be clear, the mob wants total anarchy. And we are seeing 
it play out before our eyes, and it started long before we got here. 
Now we are experiencing attacks on law enforcement. I saw that in my 
generation on the military.
  The destruction of Presidential memorials, the establishment of so-
called autonomous zones. If you ask these folks who are destroying 
these things, they don't even know who they are, but all that does is 
that represents authority.
  Well, I was fortunate almost 20 years ago to become--well, I had a 
spiritual awakening, and I began to have this thirst for the Bible. And 
so I began to research the Bible and to try to run my business and to 
exhibit leadership skills and to deal with the issues of our culture 
based on Biblical history and what is going on in the Bible.
  Well, Romans 13 is very clear about authority. God ordains all 
authority. And I encourage you to read Romans 13, because it will tell 
you and describe to you the issues involved with authority and what 
happens to a nation when those who rebel against authority, what can 
happen.
  In fact, I also am involved in many Bible studies here in Congress, 
and it has been quite an education for me to

[[Page H3834]]

understand what is the relationship between God and government in our 
culture.
  Obviously, we heard tonight that this Nation was founded based on 
people who came here seeking religious freedom. And so if you look at 
exactly why God ordained government 4,000 years ago, it was one thing, 
and that is to restrain evil. That is to deal with anarchy. That is to 
deal with exactly what we are faced with right now.
  Mr. Speaker, Members of this body are turning away from God. We 
should be one voice here condemning this anarchy and evil we are seeing 
across this country.
  Well, I believe the best way forward is for our State and local 
governments to step up. The Federal Government also has a unique role 
to play.
  Like I said, Speaker Pelosi and Democratic leaders have shown time 
and time again that they would rather pass partisan, political 
messaging bills than work with Republicans on bipartisan legislation--
like meaningful police reform.
  My dear friend Senator Tim Scott has worked tirelessly to provide 
police reform that I believe will work for America. The police force 
needs it. They need our support. And I will tell you, they have my 
support. Yes, there are going to be bad outcomes. It is the human 
condition. We talked about that as well.
  But there should be, at this time in the history of our country, 
under this pandemic, unprecedented bipartisanship. But, clearly, over 
the last few weeks, it shows that we would rather appease those on what 
we term the radical left than work toward a more perfect Union.
  Please, my friends, please, America, wake up.
  Mr. Speaker, I hope my colleagues across the aisle realize sooner 
than later that appeasing the mob will never stop. It will never be 
enough. It is just like government funding. I have seen that in reality 
with this pandemic. It is a feeding frenzy, and we are seeing it play 
out right before our eyes here.
  And let me tell you something: We need to look and try to look into 
the future. Say, for example, if we were born today, when we look back 
and understand why we are leaving our children and grandchildren--and I 
don't know how many generations--400, 500 years--the obligation of this 
debt. I don't know of any nation in history that has done something 
like that. I mean, that in itself is a crisis.
  Yet we are continuing to explode the debt. When I saw the 
appropriations package, I could not believe it. We are trying to fight 
the pandemic. Yes, we have created a lot of debt to deal with that, 
and, yes, you are going to have to deal with emergencies. But just to 
go and spend money that you don't have?
  People say, well, this is taxpayer money. This is not taxpayer money, 
folks. This is maybe 400 to 500 years down the road. Now, how are you 
going to explain that to your children and grandchildren?
  Mr. Speaker, there are seven influences in our culture: There is the 
church. There is family. There is education. There is arts and 
entertainment. There is the media. There is the government. And there 
is the business.

  And where do those influences stand today?
  The church has been mitigated. Our Founders--yes, they didn't do it 
perfect, but let me tell you, the church was a tremendous influence in 
the founding of this country. When they couldn't agree, they brought in 
the great ministers. And the ministers would reveal the Scriptures and 
tell those Founders: This is how you come together.
  We don't have that here. I have never heard somebody stand up and 
say: This is what the Scripture says and this is why we need to come 
together, and this is how we need to move forward.
  I did say on this House floor in a Special Order on Bible Week that I 
believe that the Bible has an answer to every problem we have got, if 
we just researched it and we had someone to come down and tell us how 
we should go. There are profits everywhere. We listen to them on Sunday 
mornings.
  Come on, folks, we need wise counsel.
  Then there is the family. The family has been devastated. Fifty 
percent of the children in this country are born in single-parent 
homes. I don't blame children for being angry. And single moms, I tell 
you, my heart goes out to them.
  Education, you know, we took the values that God gave us out of the 
education system, and we are seeing the fruits of that right now.
  Arts and entertainment are supporting everything out there that, 
frankly, is very difficult for us to understand. The media, the media 
is so biased today.
  The government, the government is trying to fix everything. Let me 
tell you, the more problems we have in this society, the more this 
government has got to spend. Folks, there is not enough money in the 
world to fix a culture in anarchy. It won't work.
  The business community, the business community is under siege. Like I 
said, the reason I ran for Congress is there was a war on small 
business.
  Big business, I will tell you, I am disappointed in some of these 
large companies that are buying in to some of these things that we see 
today--the anarchy, the other things.
  Mr. Speaker, I think it is time in America that we stand up and 
defend the Nation we love. And those who wish to harm it--yes, people 
ask me: Do you think we are under God's judgment?
  I say: No, I think that would be a lot more difficult than what we 
are seeing right now.
  When you are under the judgment of God, you have got to look back at 
what Israel went through. But I can tell you this. God could have 
stopped this pandemic like that. God can stop this anarchy like that. 
But God has removed his protection, in my opinion, from this Nation. 
And until we repent from our evil ways and confess our sin, then God 
will heal our land, and that is the only hope that we have.
  Mr. ARRINGTON. Mr. Speaker, my colleague and brother in Christ speaks 
the truth. And as I said, we can pass all the laws we want, 
Representative Allen, but we cannot pass laws that change the human 
heart.
  We must return to those core values, to that relationship with God to 
remember that the greatest commandment is to love God with all your 
heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to love your neighbor. And it is 
hard to find a lot of love in this world today.
  Mr. Speaker, may I inquire how much time is remaining on my Special 
Order.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman from Texas has 13 minutes 
remaining.
  Mr. ARRINGTON. Mr. Speaker, the rise of socialism in this country is 
real. Probably in times past it was used hyperbolically against Big 
Government, liberals, but it is real, and it is hard to believe that 
such a destructive system of government and deceptive ideology has 
become mainstream in these United States. This beacon of freedom, this 
great experiment--not accident, but experiment--and liberty and 
democracy.
  How do I know? Because people don't put their name to legislation on 
behalf of the 800,000 to a million American citizens they represent if 
they don't mean it.

                              {time}  2030

  H.R. 1 through H.R. 10 are just more government control, less freedom 
to we, the people, government takeover of elections, the Federal 
Government takeover of healthcare, taking over agriculture and energy 
and government seeping into every facet of our lives.
  One of our central values, as we think about the defense of American 
values, is the value of freedom. And the central purpose of government 
is to protect our freedom. The central tenet of our democratic republic 
is that sovereignty resides, not in the State, but in we, the people.
  There has been no other nation in the world, in the history of the 
world, that has done more because of that powerful force of freedom 
that elevates and unleashes the human spirit like nothing in the world, 
save and except the love of God, and no other country that holds 
freedom in such high regard and puts such a premium on freedom, on 
liberty, has done more to lift people out of poverty, to protect human 
rights and fundamental God-given freedoms.
  No other nation has raised the standard of living or contributed to 
the quality of life, not only in this Nation, but in nations around the 
world, like the United States of America.

[[Page H3835]]

  And I would submit, Mr. Speaker, that in large part, outside--save 
and except the providential hand and favor of Almighty God, that God 
that my colleague, Representative Rick Allen, implored us to return to, 
to repent and return and cry out for mercy--save and except for that, 
it has been freedom.
  And this freedom is a remarkable thing. It is an attribute, it is a 
privilege, it is a responsibility, and people are literally risking 
their lives today--people will die this week just trying to get here.
  They are not trying to get into Venezuela. They are not trying to get 
into Cuba. God bless those people and the poor citizens of those 
countries that don't have what we have that empowers us to be the envy 
of the world. And that is a tremendous responsibility.
  And there is no doubt that is a core value. And I say: How are we 
losing this? How do we actually have a debate, a sincere debate, a 
legitimate debate, about government control, central planning, 
socialism as an ideology and as a system of government, when we have 
the backdrop of all of this history?
  No, it is not perfect. We were striving for a more perfect Union. 
Imperfect people striving for a more perfect Union. And that is the 
legacy that has been handed to us. That is our mission and our calling.
  I think about the erosion of the values we have talked about this 
evening. I think about the entitlement culture that we have created. I 
say ``we.'' I say Republicans and Democrats alike. We continue to 
expand the government as the answer to all that ails us, as the 
solution to every problem, with no regard for the cost and consequence.
  $23 trillion before COVID; $4 trillion by the end of this year added 
on top of it. We will surpass our highest debt load per GDP in the 
history of this great Nation. Not since World War II have we been up 
over 108 percent debt-to-GDP. That is where we are heading.
  And we have done that, and it has been at no cost. We don't hit 
anybody's pocketbook, and we don't cut someone's pet project and their 
favorite program to offset the cost.
  So why wouldn't people think you can get everything for free? Why 
wouldn't we have created a generation of Americans that think things 
are really free, at no cost?
  Well, there will be a rude awaking when the chickens come home to 
roost with respect to our fiscal affairs, because this $27-$28 
trillion, on our way, is a deferred tax on our children. And it is 
unconscionable. It is immoral. And it is un-American for a generation 
of leaders to do that to our posterity.
  On top of that, we have had the tyranny of usurpation of the will of 
the people. Listen, let's debate issues of immigration, let's debate 
all issues, and may the will of the people prevail. That is the way it 
works. Not by executive fiat, not by judicial activism, some judge 
making the determination of what is best. The people know what's best.
  I believe that that government fiat and the tyranny of unelected 
bureaucrats and judges making policy decisions is another way we have 
accelerated the decline of this country, and we have moved away from 
these values.
  I think now we are seeing maybe another phase of this. Mob tyranny, 
people running around in the streets destroying property, assaulting 
police officers and law-abiding citizens. It is just a free-for-all. No 
law, no order; chaos.
  And our great American cities are just burning, I believe, in large 
part, because our local leaders in these cities, they are scared 
because they have been intimidated. And that is how the mob works, 
through fear and intimidation, and nobody is standing up to them.
  But the people who have the resources, the people who are law-abiding 
contributors to those cities, and the best employers, they will 
eventually leave. But the poorest among our fellow countrymen in those 
cities, they can't go anywhere.
  Mr. Speaker, I think the President is doing exactly what he should 
do. I am very sensitive to government intervention, and I think it is a 
very delicate thing when you intervene in civil affairs. That is a 
local and State issue.
  But when you have this kind of mob violence that is unabated, when 
you have systems of law enforcement and local leaders that are 
overwhelmed and either unwilling or incapable of stopping it and you 
are risking the lives of our fellow Americans and their rights are 
being trampled and local law enforcement and Federal law enforcement 
officers are being assaulted and our buildings are being burned, Mr. 
Speaker, we have got to do something.
  There is an appropriate way to engage, and this President has done 
that, through civil law enforcement officers of this Government to go 
protect that property, to protect those law enforcement and other 
Federal personnel, and to come alongside the local law enforcement 
there in Portland and Seattle so that they can keep some semblance of 
order and protection for their people. Because the local leaders have 
completely abdicated it.

  And Americans all over are just scratching their heads and their 
hearts are breaking and they are tremendously concerned about what 
happens. And there is one thought that you just let it all burn to the 
ground, and that will be the lesson for Americans all over this 
country, in cities and communities, all over this country. We could do 
that.
  Or we could say: You know what? Those are American citizens, by God. 
Those are American citizens, and nobody is coming to their help.
  I hope we support this President as he is taking a measured approach 
to come alongside those local law enforcement officers who have been 
totally disrespected, dismissed, and either partially defunded or 
significantly defunded, and certainly hamstrung to do their job.
  You watch as these criminals shoot fireworks in their faces and as 
they rough them up and call them names. It is just a sad scenario for a 
Nation as great as ours.
  We are big enough to have the protests. That is as American as apple 
pie. Peaceful assembly, peaceful protest, speaking your truth to power, 
that is what made this country great. But what we are seeing in Seattle 
and Portland must stop. And we all must condemn it, Mr. Speaker.
  And as for me, I stand with this President, and I say use every 
resource--use every resource in civil law enforcement to keep the 
peace, to protect our citizens and protect the taxpayers' Federal 
property in all these cities where their local leaders have completely 
lost control.
  Mr. Speaker, thank you for the indulgence tonight, and I yield back 
the balance of my time.

                          ____________________