[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 69 (Wednesday, April 21, 2021)]
[House]
[Pages H2041-H2047]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




       THE BIDEN BORDER CRISIS AND SO-CALLED INFRASTRUCTURE PLAN

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 4, 2021, the Chair recognizes the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. 
Johnson) for 60 minutes.


                             General Leave

  Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that 
all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend 
their remarks and include extraneous material on the subject of this 
Special Order.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from Louisiana?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Madam Speaker, during my Special Order 
tonight, my colleagues and I will address the inaction by the Biden 
administration and House Democrats to address this major crisis that we 
see on our southern border, this humanitarian crisis. And, yes, that is 
the right word. It is a crisis by any objective measure.
  We are also going to address tonight the President's so-called 
infrastructure plan. That is a lot for us to talk about. So we will 
squeeze it into this hour.
  When President Biden was inaugurated, the American people will 
remember, Madam Speaker, that he called for unity. He promised to work 
across the aisle, to work with Republicans in Congress. But so far 
those words have been completely empty promises.
  Everyone can acknowledge and everyone can see on television that 
there is a real crisis at the southern border,

[[Page H2042]]

and it is a crisis of the administration's creation.
  President Biden has stopped construction of the border wall. He 
reimplemented the catch-and-release policy of the Obama administration. 
He reversed the remain in Mexico policy of the Trump administration. 
And he selectively is enforcing immigration laws.
  The results are not surprising. Our Border Patrol is now completely 
overwhelmed, and the southwest border encounters have reached a 15-year 
high. I want you to look at these numbers, Madam Speaker. This is the 
border crisis. The first column here is January of this year. We had 
78,323 southwest border encounters. The next month, in February, it 
goes up to 100,441. Last month, in March, it was 171,700. This is a 
crisis. We all know the numbers for April are going to be staggering.
  I know that there are Members on both sides of the aisle here--I know 
there are Members, our Democrat colleagues, who want to join us to take 
action to fix this. But we can't do it without the administration.
  Look, here are five simple steps that we can take that would help end 
the border crisis:
  Number one, finish the wall;
  Number two, reinstate the remain in Mexico policy;
  Number three, turn away high-risk individuals at our border. These 
are dangerous folks, some of them, coming across, and we know that.
  Number four, require negative COVID tests before releasing migrants, 
illegal immigrants, into the U.S.;
  Number five, let's send a clear message to the whole world to 
discourage illegal immigration.
  What a concept. These aren't difficult things. The Trump 
administration had it all figured out, but now politics has gotten in 
the way of good policy.
  In addition to finally solving the border crisis, there is another 
item in the news that Americans desperately want us to address, and 
that is the need for an infrastructure package. That could be a 
bipartisan solution that we could all work on together. It should be 
nonpartisan, but because it impacts every single congressional district 
in every State, all of us, every American, wants this to happen.
  But the plan that the White House introduced isn't really about 
infrastructure at all. In fact, only 6 percent of the $2.5 trillion 
proposal would go towards bridges, highways, and roads. The rest goes 
to fund Democrat Big Government priorities, like the Green New Deal, 
and payoffs to liberal special interest groups. What an outrage.
  The facts are that the House majority is the slimmest of any House 
majority since World War II, and the Senate is divided 50/50. Given 
these facts, we just want our Democratic colleagues and President Biden 
to end this partisan agenda for the sake of the American people.
  I look forward, Madam Speaker, to hearing from my Republican 
colleagues tonight about both of these issues.
  Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. 
Grothman), who represents the Sixth Congressional District of 
Wisconsin.
  Mr. GROTHMAN. Madam Speaker, I would like to address the Chair with 
regard to the upcoming infrastructure bill. I am going to talk about 
some numbers. I don't mean to bore you with numbers.
  When you put together a bill, you don't want to be an outlier. I am 
going to address two areas in which I think this bill makes this an 
outlier in very, very serious ways.
  The first one is, you have changes in the tax law. And when you look 
at the taxes that a business pays in this country, a corporation, you 
have to look at kind of a double taxation. They will tax you at a 
corporate rate when the business earns the money; and when the business 
gives the money to its shareholders, you will be taxed at a dividend 
rate.
  There is a graph here comparing all of the OECD countries around the 
world as to where they stand on this combined tax rate. The lowest 
countries, the Baltic countries, Latvia and Estonia, are 20 percent.
  Right now, the United States, even after the last tax cut, at 47 
percent, is middle of the pack. Actually, a little bit higher. If the 
tax hikes are put in effect that are published right now, you are going 
up to 62.7 percent. In other words, of the over 20 countries here, the 
United States will have the highest combined dividend, plus corporate 
tax rate. That is an outlier and a dangerous place to be an outlier.
  There are a lot of things that go into a decision as to where you put 
a manufacturing facility, but taxes is certainly one of them. And given 
one of our goals should be to bring manufacturing back to the country, 
it is a bad place to be as the highest combined corporate tax rate, 
plus dividends.

  The next area I am going to address is the money supply. To a certain 
extent, because of previous bills passed during the COVID crisis, we 
have had a rather dramatic increase in the money supply.
  I would suggest you google ``M1.'' You will see that, in the last 6 
months, the amount of dollars floating around has gone through the 
roof. Some people, including me, would say M2 would be a better 
measurement. But even if you look at M2, we have a 27 percent increase 
in the money supply over the past year. That is just screaming we are 
going to have a lot of inflation in the very near future.
  It is certainly not the only reason, but we already see the rapid 
increase in the cost of housing construction. We see an increase in 
food prices and an increase in energy prices. This is given what we 
have already done.
  Now, you are going to tell us--or some people are going to say that 
we are going to raise enough taxes to pay for this spending. But we are 
going to be raising enough taxes over the next 10 or 15 years. We know 
around here that when we say we are going to make a pay-for the next 10 
or 15 years, a lot of times that pay-for never materializes.
  So I am afraid we are going to have another big increase in the money 
supply when we have already had a 27 percent increase in the last year, 
and this is going to come back and cause serious concern. I beg the 
majority to look at a graph of the combined tax rates, us compared to 
the other OECD countries, and I beg them to look at the money supply 
and don't make us any more of an outlier on either.
  Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman from 
Wisconsin for that dire warning. I guess if you subscribe to modern 
monetary theory, none of this is a concern, but it is for those of us 
who live in the real world.
  Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Fallon), who 
represents the Fourth Congressional District of Texas.
  Mr. FALLON. Madam Speaker, the Biden infrastructure plan is another 
classic example of the old bait-and-switch. Much like the COVID relief 
bill, where only 9 percent of the $1.9 trillion price tag actually went 
to COVID relief, this plan has very little to do with infrastructure.
  The definition of the word in the Cambridge Dictionary is: The basic 
system and services, such as transport and power supplies, that a 
country or organization uses in order to work effectively.
  So we know what it really means: roads, bridges; and, in the 21st 
century, broadband internet would qualify.
  How much of the $2.2 trillion is actually going to infrastructure?
  $115 billion is set aside for bridges, roads, and highways; just 5 
percent. And under a more broad definition, if we include public 
transportation and broadband, the total grows to $405 billion, which is 
still just 18 percent of the new spending.
  So where does the other 82 percent go?
  Democrats across the country have said their definition of 
infrastructure includes universal pre-K, climate action, climate 
justice, eradicating right-to-work environments, caregiving, affordable 
housing, police accountability, and paid leave.
  This ain't infrastructure.
  So we all know what this is: The largest corporate welfare slush fund 
in American history.
  Joe Biden will have virtual carte blanche to nepotistically dole out 
hundreds of billions of dollars to curry favor with allies, supporters, 
friends, and family.
  This isn't the hallmark of innovation, but it will ensure that the 
D.C. swamp continues to be a festering pool of corruption.

[[Page H2043]]

  


                              {time}  2000

  Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. I thank the gentleman from Texas.
  We came here to drain the swamp, but it is really difficult during 
the current administration. We will get back to it soon, though, I am 
confident of that.
  Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Latta), who 
represents the Fifth District.
  Mr. LATTA. I thank my friend for yielding and hosting tonight's 
Special Order.
  Quite a few of us have gone down to the border in the last several 
weeks, and, Madam Speaker, we do have a crisis at the border. When I 
say, a crisis, I mean an unmitigated crisis at the border.
  We were at McAllen and going in to see the border crossing that night 
and the people streaming across, the Border Patrol was probably going 
to process over a thousand people that night. A thousand people.
  The next morning, we were able to go to the Donna facility. And the 
Donna facility, the best way to describe it, it is a canvas building, 
you might say, a very nice building. It has air conditioning and all, 
but it was only built to hold 250 people. The day we were there, there 
were 3,500 people being housed there, the vast majority being kids.
  We went into the pods they have. These pods are only supposed to hold 
33 children. One held 412. Another had 450. And the week before there 
were over 600 in one.
  There is a problem; it is a crisis. But it is not being seen as a 
crisis down at the White House. I implore the President and the Vice 
President to go down there and see what is happening. It is absolutely 
essential, because these children that are being held there, according 
to what they say, they are supposed to only be there for 72 hours. Some 
are being held for 3 weeks. One little girl was there for over 28 days.
  So we do have a crisis at the border. It has got to be noted, and the 
President and Vice President have to know it. It is absolutely 
essential.
  Let me just finish with this: The other thing that is happening, when 
you take 40 percent of our Border Patrol offline and put them into the 
facilities and also in processing, we have got drugs flowing across the 
border. Last year we had 88,000 people in this country die of 
overdoses. That is going up exponentially.
  So let's get something done down there, Mr. President. It is 
essential. We have got to do it today.
  Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. I thank my friend for that compelling 
eyewitness account. Anyone who is looking at the evidence cannot deny 
this is a problem.
  I would like to yield to the gentlewoman from Arizona (Mrs. Lesko). 
Being from a border State, she knows a whole lot about this.
  Mrs. LESKO. Madam Speaker, there is a border crisis. Let's just face 
it. President Biden even slipped over the weekend and said it was a 
crisis. Then the White House had to pull it back. When thousands of 
people are crossing the border each and every day, it is a humanitarian 
crisis, it is a health crisis, and it is a national security crisis 
because we now know that at least a couple of the people that they 
caught were on the terrorist watch list.
  Just yesterday, the Governor of Arizona declared a State emergency 
and sent National Guard to help our law enforcement in our border 
communities. You know what the Customs and Border Patrol did under the 
Biden administration? They dropped off 16 people, including kids, in 
the middle of a park in a small community 80 miles north of the border, 
Gila Bend, Arizona.
  They don't have a shelter; they don't have a hospital there. They 
have nothing. The mayor and his wife had to borrow a van to transport 
these people to a Phoenix shelter. Now, what kind of President does 
that?
  If this happened, if these unaccompanied children were just left to 
be handled by cartels, by a U.S. citizen, that U.S. citizen would be 
charged with child abuse and be in prison right now. This is 
unconscionable, and it needs to stop now.
  Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. I thank the gentlewoman for that passion. 
She is right, she has been there, and she sees it herself.
  I yield to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Nehls), who represents the 
22nd Congressional District and will bring another border State 
perspective. He also knows a lot about law enforcement.
  Mr. NEHLS. Madam Speaker, for weeks now our country has witnessed the 
never-ending horrific images and stories from our southern border. We 
have heard from Border Patrol that they don't have enough agents to 
secure the southern border and babysit--yes, babysit--the tens of 
thousands of migrant children flooding across our southern border. As a 
result, criminal illegal aliens are slipping through undetected.
  We are a nation of laws and law and order, or at least we used to be. 
Ever since this current administration assumed control of the White 
House, there has been an outright refusal--yes, refusal--to put the 
American people first and address the crisis at our southern border.
  The administration's inactions will cost American lives, will cost 
billions of taxpayer dollars, and once again put the responsibility of 
the Federal Government on individual States.
  I know this. I dealt with it firsthand as a sheriff in Fort Bend 
County, Texas. I had to tell dozens of residents in my home county 
whose homes were burglarized by a ring of illegal aliens from Honduras 
and Colombia that many of the illegal aliens had been deported multiple 
times.
  In January of 2020, in my office, I had to sit and tell a son whose 
mother was killed in a hit and run that the illegal alien that ran his 
mother over had been deported six--yes, six--times prior. That fellow 
right there.
  Madam Speaker, enough is enough. End this crisis. Put the American 
people first and secure our southern border.
  Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. I am so grateful for those comments and for 
the gentleman's expertise. This passion that you see, Madam Speaker, is 
deserved. We are so concerned that the President doesn't share it, and 
that is what you are hearing echoed over and over tonight.

  Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Taylor), who 
represents the Third District.
  Mr. TAYLOR. Madam Speaker, as I walked through rows and rows of 
children who had just made a long and dangerous journey to Texas' 
southern border sitting on cots in a crowded room three times the size 
of the room that we are in right now, it has never been more clear to 
me than right there that illegal immigration benefits no one.
  I have witnessed the heartbreaking conditions inside these emergency 
intake sites. In the words of one facility commander, the volunteers 
and staff that were working there tirelessly, they were operating under 
a crisis level of care. A crisis level of care. There is no doubt that 
we are facing a humanitarian crisis, a health crisis, and a national 
security crisis, all of great proportions.
  We didn't get here overnight. The Biden-Harris administration made a 
reckless decision, choosing to overturn policies implemented by 
President Trump. But those policies were working, and the Biden-Harris 
administration had no replacement policy, no strategy, no plan to 
replace it.
  During my visit to this facility in north Texas, I listened to the 
stories of cartels and coyotes advertising that they could get your 
children across the U.S. border on television. That is right. The 
cartels are advertising on television that they can get children 
smuggled across our southern border.
  By stopping construction and the strategic importance of the border 
wall and rescinding the remain in Mexico policy, President Biden and 
Vice President Harris are sending a clear message: If you come to the 
United States, we will let you in.
  Currently, as cartels are exploiting this administration's 
irresponsible open border policies, the cartels are raking in roughly 
$14 million a day. That is right, you heard me correctly. $14 million a 
day going straight into the hands of criminals because of the reckless 
policy decisions of the Biden administration.
  If that statistic isn't enough on its own, DHS is projecting 117,000 
children without their parents will arrive at the border this year 
alone. That is a 45 percent increase over the highest we have ever had.
  Madam Speaker, this is a crisis, and this administration and 
Democrats in

[[Page H2044]]

Congress need to call it just that and fix it.
  Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. I thank the gentleman for that perspective 
from Texas again. So we've got Texas and Arizona. Madam Speaker, we are 
going to move a little further west, all the way west to California.
  I yield to the gentleman from California (Mr. Garcia), who represents 
the 25th District there.
  Mr. GARCIA of California. I thank Mr. Johnson for hosting this very 
important Special Order hour.
  I rise today to share my concerns about our crisis at the southern 
border. As a first-generation American, I understand the opportunities 
that this Nation provides and why every human being on this planet 
should want to come to the United States. I am a product of the 
American Dream, but I also value the law. I value law and order.
  The first step in fixing our broken immigration system must be 
securing our border. In March we saw over 172,000 migrants attempt to 
illegally cross our border. That is a 71 percent increase in just one 
month.
  The Biden administration continues to fail to address this crisis. 
This is no doubt a product of the Biden administration's policy, but 
make no mistake, this is now our collective problem. It is affecting 
our local neighborhoods, it is affecting our governments, it is 
affecting those who have come here legally, who are now being cut in 
front of by folks who are breaking the law to come here.
  Communities in border towns are stretched thin and running low on 
local resources as more migrants flood their communities. This isn't 
just about the border. The crisis impacts all of us across America, 
including my district, the beautiful 25th District, where we see a rise 
in crime tied to illegal immigration and human trafficking. This is 
being aggravated by the defund the police movement.
  The crisis at our border is about security. It is about safety, and 
it is about humanity. No human being should be experiencing in their 
entire lifetime what hundreds of thousands of humans are experiencing 
right now at our own southern border.
  Let me be clear. We can be a welcoming nation, but we can also be a 
nation that abides by its own laws and enforces them simultaneously. We 
need to secure the border, provide the resources to our Border Patrol 
agents, and stop incentivizing people to come here illegally. When we 
do those things, we can address the rest of our problems.
  Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. I thank the gentleman for that compelling 
testimony from a first-generation American. That is meaningful. We 
prize immigration, the legal kind. We believe in the rule of law, and 
that is what maintains order.
  I yield to the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Cawthorn), the 
youngest Member of Congress, but he is wise beyond his years.
  Mr. CAWTHORN. Madam Speaker, if Americans like what Democrats did for 
Baltimore, then they will love what Democrats will do for the planet.
  The Biden infrastructure bill and the stimulus bill before it shows 
that Democrats are more interested in transforming our Nation's 
definitions of words than they are our physical infrastructure of roads 
and bridges. We need to cut government waste, not create more.
  And now the left wants to drag the Green New Deal through America's 
back door without any regard for the wishes of millions of Americans. 
Make no mistake, this infrastructure proposal is a wolf in sheep's 
clothing. It is a Socialist wish list disguised as a roads and bridges 
initiative.
  This is exactly what Democrats have been doing since the day I was 
sworn in. They know that America is in desperate need of infrastructure 
reform, and they know that Republicans and Americans nationwide would 
vote for a commonsense infrastructure proposal, but have they proposed 
such an initiative? Absolutely not.

                              {time}  2015

  They will pretend that this legislation deals with infrastructure, 
and then they will stand on the steps of their multimillion-dollar 
mansions and decry any votes against their Trojan horse of a bill.
  Americans are fed up. Why aren't we passing legislation that does 
what it claims to be doing? Why are my colleagues on the left so 
excited to pretend critical race theory is the same as critically 
needed roads?
  Let's dispense between this false equivalency. Let's build bridges, 
not just the physical but actual bipartisan bridges here in Congress. 
Why aren't we working together on the pitifully few issues that we 
still happen to agree on these days?
  I am wondering. My constituents are wondering. America is wondering.
  Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Madam Speaker, I thank Mr. Cawthorn for 
that perspective.
  Madam Speaker, I will move briskly because we have a lot of Members, 
as you can see, who are passionate about these issues and want to weigh 
in tonight.
  I yield to the gentleman from the First District of the great State 
of Alabama (Mr. Carl), who will take the podium here.
  Mr. CARL. Madam Speaker, I rise today to express my concern for the 
unprecedented crisis at our southern border because of the Biden 
administration's reckless open-border policy and failure to enforce our 
Nation's immigration laws.
  We are seeing thousands of illegal immigrants crossing the border 
every single day, and there is no sign of letting up. The President and 
the Vice President are nowhere to be found.
  That is not leadership. We need leadership. We have a crisis at the 
border, and leadership, we are making a call for help, please.
  The Vice President was appointed as the border czar weeks ago and has 
yet to take a single trip to the southern border. That is unacceptable.
  We must have strong border protection for the health, safety, and 
security of American citizens. It is time for this administration and 
the far left to put America first by enforcing our immigration laws and 
putting an end to this horrific crisis at our southern border.
  Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman 
from North Carolina (Ms. Foxx).
  Ms. FOXX. Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague from Louisiana for 
yielding and for holding this Special Order tonight.
  The American people are frightened by what they are seeing unfold at 
the southern border. That fear is real, and it is only amplified by an 
administration that has chosen to sit back and do absolutely nothing.
  For months, the Biden administration has struggled to decide what to 
call this situation, often scrambling to find the newest and less 
severe synonym to the word ``crisis.'' The word ``crisis'' suits this 
situation perfectly, but apparently, that word is too harsh, according 
to the White House.
  Pretty soon, this administration won't have any words left to use, 
and they will accept the reality that they need to own up to the crisis 
they created.
  Republicans are not interested in letting complacency take hold while 
the country we love is left open and vulnerable and changed forever. We 
will continue to call out this administration for its failures, and we 
will continue to fight to protect America and its citizens.
  Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from 
North Carolina for her remarks, and we do call out the administration. 
That is what this Special Order is all about.
  I yield to the gentleman from Tennessee's Second District (Mr. 
Burchett).
  Mr. BURCHETT. Madam Speaker, I thank Vice Chairman Johnson for 
yielding.
  Madam Speaker, the crisis at the southern border is a problem of the 
Biden administration's own creation. As soon as they took office, the 
Biden administration slapped an ``open for business'' sign on our 
southern border. They scrapped commonsense immigration policies that 
were keeping our country secure. Now, our southern border is 
overwhelmed with immigrants who expect to enter the country without 
proper vetting.
  Hiding among those massive crowds of people are drug smugglers, child 
traffickers, and terrorists who have no intention of positively 
impacting American communities.
  We need to know who is coming into our country and why, for the sake 
of national security.

[[Page H2045]]

  Ironically, even though Joe Biden and Kamala Harris decried this 
practice, children are still being packed into overcrowded detention 
facilities and sleeping in cages. They were outraged about this back 
when they were campaigning for President, but now they are actually 
silent on the issue.
  We need to get back to the successful border security policies of the 
Trump administration, including construction of our border wall. I am 
an original cosponsor of the Finish the Wall Act, which would resume 
construction of the border wall and make it more difficult for folks, 
especially the bad actors, to cross the southern border illegally.
  House Republicans are ready to secure the border, and I am proud to 
join my colleagues on the floor this evening to call out the Biden 
administration's ongoing inaction. If President Biden is not physically 
or mentally capable of addressing this problem, he should step down.
  Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman from 
Tennessee for those bold words, and he is right. I think that expresses 
the sentiment of a lot of Americans.
  I yield to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Gimenez), who knows a lot 
about immigration as well as infrastructure because he is a former fire 
chief and mayor and now a Member of Congress.
  Mr. GIMENEZ. Madam Speaker, over the past several weeks, I have 
joined Leader McCarthy and House Homeland Security Committee 
Republicans on two separate trips to our southern border. What I saw on 
the ground is heartbreaking: countless unaccompanied minors, often very 
young girls, left at the hands of international cartels, many of them 
violated; migrants packed into cramped processing facilities; and 
seizures of illicit narcotics being trafficked into the United States.

  Unfortunately, the Biden-Harris White House has drastically shifted 
from the previous administration's policies on immigration and border 
security through executive order. At no point during the crafting of 
these executive orders were congressional Republicans consulted, nor 
have Republicans had a proper venue for input on plans from the White 
House. The result? Day by day, the crisis along our southern border is 
getting worse.
  It has been a month since President Biden named our Vice President, 
Kamala Harris, as the border czar. What have we seen so far? Zero media 
appearances about the border, no press conferences, no trips to the 
border, radio silence for the Vice President.
  She said she is going to the Northern Triangle to meet with 
Guatemalans and Hondurans. She doesn't need to. She can come to the 
southern border and talk directly to Guatemalans and Hondurans, and 
migrants from many other countries, while they are illegally crossing 
the border.
  While she is at it, Vice President Harris should speak with Customs 
and Border Protection agents who are on the ground handling the 
situation instead of Federal bureaucrats sitting in their offices in 
Washington.
  As an immigrant, I call on Vice President Harris to do her job and 
fix this crisis.
  Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for 
speaking with such authority.
  Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Pennsylvania's Ninth 
District (Mr. Meuser).
  Mr. MEUSER. Madam Speaker, I thank my friend, the gentleman from 
Louisiana, Vice Chair   Mike Johnson, for yielding.
  Madam Speaker, we can all agree our Nation's transportation and 
infrastructure system is in need of investment to improve our quality 
of life and economic competitiveness. Very unfortunately, the Biden 
administration has thus far chosen a go-it-alone approach in solving 
this problem with a $2.3 trillion proposal, whereby less than 8 percent 
would go toward improving our Nation's roads, bridges, highways, 
airports, ports, and waterways, traditional infrastructure.
  The rest is filled with provisions that have nothing to do with 
traditional T&I as we all know it, including $173 billion for electric 
cars and car electrical ports for powering; $400 billion to expand 
Medicaid programs, which is not infrastructure; and hundreds of 
billions of dollars to implement provisions of the Green New Deal.
  As a means to pay for it, the Biden administration and Democratic 
leadership plan to raise taxes by over $2 trillion. At a time when our 
economy is in recovery, and we are supposed to be on the side of 
American manufacturing and repatriating jobs, bringing these companies 
back to America, the idea of significant tax increases is another 
upside-down policy and will certainly not attract business but only 
export them.
  Additionally, our infrastructure plan needs to be supplemented by 
private capital investment. That is where accountability comes from. 
That is why I plan to introduce the Infrastructure Bank for America 
Act, which would add to existing government funding with private 
investment, increasing access to capital for worthy infrastructure 
projects that deliver on R&I and deliver value to the American people 
at a fraction of the cost to the taxpayer.
  Contrary to the Biden infrastructure plan, IBA investments would not 
be restricted and would help finance surface transportation projects, 
grid security, broadband, and revitalization of cities and towns across 
America and my district.
  Thus far, the Biden administration has failed to reach across the 
aisle in a meaningful way to accomplish anything. We should unite to 
fix our roads, bridges, highways, airports, and other gateways to 
growth and innovation, not exploit this opportunity and pass a $2 
trillion liberal wish list that will raise taxes, impose Green New Deal 
mandates, and add trillions to our national debt.
  Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for 
mentioning just one of the many Republican ideas we have. And as he 
said, we are not there at the table.
  Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Tennessee's Sixth 
District (Mr. Rose).
  Mr. ROSE. Madam Speaker, I rise today to call attention to a critical 
need for infrastructure for all of America, and especially in my home 
State of Tennessee.
  I believe it is past time that we build new transportation systems 
and refurbish structures to accommodate our modern economy and our 
growing workforce. I am a strong proponent of fixing our crumbling 
roads and bridges and expanding access to broadband internet in 
unserved areas.
  In Tennessee, over half a million residents only have access to one 
internet service provider, and 274,000 Tennesseans still have no access 
at their place of residence. These are real infrastructure projects 
that desperately need our attention.
  Unfortunately, President Biden's most recent multitrillion-dollar 
giveaway has little to do with actual infrastructure, with only 6 
percent of this bill going to projects that fund roads, bridges, or 
highways.
  Even if we use the most expanded definition of infrastructure, which 
might include upgrading wastewater and drinking water systems, 
expanding high-speed broadband internet service to 100 percent of the 
Nation, modernizing the electric grid, and improving infrastructure 
resilience, infrastructure in this plan is only 24 percent of its total 
cost.
  President Biden is attempting to redefine infrastructure to include 
all of the Democratic Party's pet projects and extreme priorities. In 
this case, it means enacting Green New Deal-style programs 
and implementing job-killing tax hikes on Americans and their 
businesses.

  Since this proposal has little to do with infrastructure and grossly 
inflates the number of jobs it would actually create, we should call 
this proposal what it really is, a con job.
  Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Madam Speaker, it is a con job, indeed.
  Madam Speaker, may I inquire how much time I have remaining.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman from Louisiana has 32 minutes 
remaining.
  Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman 
from Michigan's First District (Mr. Bergman), who is the highest ranked 
military officer ever elected to the United States Congress and also my 
dear friend and classmate.
  Mr. BERGMAN. Madam Speaker, I thank Representative Johnson for 
yielding. It is an honor to be here on the floor with him tonight.
  Our country recognizes leadership at all levels, regardless of party 
ideology,

[[Page H2046]]

and I see here on the floor real leadership, committed leadership.
  I rise today to express deep concern for the state of our Nation's 
southern border. Words matter, and it is time we start calling this 
situation what it really is: a crisis. In simple words, it is what it 
is. Don't try to paint it in many different ways.
  President Biden has invited this crisis through his words and in his 
executive actions, including terminating construction of the wall on 
our southern border.
  We need real leadership now. Now is not the time to be hiding. We 
need the leaders to step out and step up. It is time to put up and put 
out the political gamesmanship, put that all behind us and take a 
serious look at what is happening on the southern border. When I say a 
serious look, I mean that literally.
  Vice President Harris, let alone President Biden, has yet to visit 
the border since being charged with addressing the crisis there. The 
United States is and must always remain a free and welcoming Nation.
  We are all immigrants. We are immigrants by generations who came here 
for one of two reasons, for an opportunity or fleeing persecution. That 
hasn't changed.

                              {time}  2030

  We are also, and by all standards measured, a Nation of law and 
order, and our laws must be followed.
  Madam Speaker, I urge Congress to take up critical legislation, such 
as Representative Andy Biggs' Stopping Border Surges Act and 
Representative Jeff Duncan's H.R. 88, Build up Illegal Line Defenses 
with Assets Lawfully Lifted Act of 2021. These bills will begin to 
address the root cause of our immigration issues.
  In addition, the bureaucracies here in D.C. can play a positive role, 
such as Department of Labor and DHS. They can help. Because when you 
look at those who seek to come here legally and work as guest workers, 
we can bring good people from around the world here through the H2B and 
H2A programs. They do not seek permanent status; they come here to 
work, and they go home. The bureaucracies can get involved to help 
good, legal immigration occur after you separate out the guest worker 
programs.
  Madam Speaker, we can secure our border, protect those wishing to 
come here legally, and crack down on those who wish to do us harm--and 
I mean, crack down on those who wish to do us harm. It is time this 
body gets to work to address this critical issue immediately.
  Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Madam Speaker, I thank the general. I 
appreciate that so much.
  Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Baird), 
Fourth District, another American hero, another hero of mine, a 
gentleman who sacrificially served his country and deserves to speak 
here tonight and has great insight for us.
  Mr. BAIRD. Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague from Louisiana for 
yielding. I appreciate the opportunity to be here.
  Madam Speaker, this evening I really rise to voice my concerns over 
the President's $2 trillion infrastructure plan.
  One concern is the steep price tag, but a bigger concern is what the 
administration is trying to classify as infrastructure. These attempts 
from some on the other side of the aisle to classify their partisan 
priorities as infrastructure, is inexcusable and it is irresponsible.
  The President is asking American taxpayers to fork over $2 trillion. 
If the President is asking Americans to make a substantial investment, 
it is Congress' responsibility to ensure that these tax dollars are 
spent wisely.
  Unfortunately, the President's proposed bill doesn't do this. How can 
it be infrastructure legislation when less than 6 percent goes to roads 
and bridges and less than 5 percent goes to broadband infrastructure?
  There is a true need for infrastructure. For instance, in my 
district, our rural communities need help getting their last mile of 
broadband. This pandemic has proven that high speed broadband must be 
addressed.
  Madam Speaker, I hope we can remove the partisan approach to this 
bill and solve the real infrastructure challenges of our country.
  Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Madam Speaker, I thank my friend. It is so 
sad that broadband needs are not being met because politics are in the 
way.
  Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Carter).
  Mr. CARTER of Georgia. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for 
yielding.
  Madam Speaker, I rise today with serious reservations about the 
proposed infrastructure policies coming before this body.
  Every Member in Congress represents a district with infrastructure 
needs. Urban or rural, conservative or liberal, we all represent 
communities that have dire infrastructure needs we should be 
addressing.
  That is why President Biden's recent discussion about infrastructure, 
along with his comments about wanting to establish a bipartisan 
legislative effort were encouraging.
  Unfortunately, none of this would come to fruition. We didn't see a 
bipartisan push. We didn't see significant input taken from Members and 
Senators on our side of the aisle. We didn't see a willingness to want 
to work together.
  The $2.2 trillion plan wasn't released after significant back-and-
forth discussions. No, it was released after development by the White 
House and then pushed out in a media blitz.
  As anticipated, the package was a partisan exercise. Just 5 percent 
goes to repairing roads and bridges. As the core definition of 
infrastructure, there is very little attention shown. Only 1 percent 
goes to airports. Other countries around the world continue to build 
state-of-the-art airports, as airports here in the United States 
struggle to keep up with demand. Ports and inland waterways, an issue 
important to me as the representative of two major seaports, is even 
more astounding. Just one percent of this bill goes to ports and inland 
waterways. Ridiculous.
  Now is the time for real infrastructure investments, but this isn't 
the plan Americans need.
  I urge my colleagues to start from scratch and focus on the real 
issue here: Our Nation's infrastructure needs.
  Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman so 
much for that.
  Madam Speaker, I am delighted to go back across the country again to 
the great State of California's Eighth District. I yield to the 
gentleman from California (Mr. Obernolte).
  Mr. OBERNOLTE. Madam Speaker, infrastructure is a bipartisan issue. 
We all agree that one of the primary functions of government is to 
provide for the people collectively what they are unable to 
individually provide for themselves. I am talking about things like 
highways and roads and dams and harbors and airports. Things that 
represent long-term investments in the future of our country.
  Unfortunately, the infrastructure package we are currently 
considering only devotes 12 percent of the over $2 trillion of spending 
to infrastructure projects like those.
  To give you some egregious examples, the proposed infrastructure 
package devotes substantially more money to subsidizing the purchase of 
electric vehicles than it does to building the roads and the highways 
that those vehicles would drive on.
  The proposed infrastructure package devotes over ten times as much 
money to expansion of Medicaid than it does to the construction of 
water infrastructure, of dams and of airports put together.
  It is not to say that these other projects are without merit, but the 
problem is that almost every dollar of this spending contributes to our 
national debt. That means that we need to consider only the projects 
that represent a true, long-term investment in our country.
  Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to 
pare this package down to the projects that accomplish exactly that.
  Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for 
that California perspective.
  Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. 
Thompson), the Republican leader of the House Agriculture Committee.
  Mr. THOMPSON of Pennsylvania. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman 
for yielding.

[[Page H2047]]

  Madam Speaker, I rise today to discuss the Democrat's infrastructure 
bill.
  We have seen a lot in the news over the last few weeks about 
President Biden's not-so-much infrastructure plan. There is so much 
unrelated pork in this bill that even Washington reporters are hesitant 
to call it an infrastructure plan.
  When we think of the word ``infrastructure,'' we think roads, 
bridges, highways. We can expand further and think of ports, waterways, 
and airports. Democrats so-called infrastructure plan is not really 
about infrastructure--6 percent is allocated to roads, bridges, and 
highways, and a mere 2 percent for airways, waterways, and ports. 
Together, we are just barely getting to 8 percent of the $2.3 trillion 
plan to focus on infrastructure.
  But what is the rest focused on? Well, it is a wish list of 
Progressive policies and it is an excuse for Democrats to give $600 
billion--over half a trillion dollars--to the Green New Deal.
  While I believe there is an opportunity for bipartisanship--a 
successful infrastructure bill must be bipartisan--the majority must be 
willing to make reasonable concessions to address our reasonable 
concerns. If we do this right, it should look like a bill that we wrote 
together.
  This bill has the chance to fix our infrastructure, provide jobs, and 
jump-start our economy following COVID-19, but it will only succeed if 
Democrats choose to include Republicans and bring us to the table.
  Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman. That 
went so well, I think we will stay in the State of Pennsylvania, going 
to the 12th District.
  Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. 
Keller).
  Mr. KELLER. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Louisiana for 
yielding.
  Madam Speaker, improving America's infrastructure should be 
bipartisan. Revitalizing our Nation's roads and bridges, delivering 
broadband to rural America, and working together to build a more 
connected society are all things we can and should strive to 
accomplish.
  The Biden administration's so-called infrastructure plan is not 
infrastructure, and it is definitely not bipartisan. Less than 2 months 
removed from the last multi-trillion-dollar bill, the American people 
are about to be saddled with another massive tax-and-spend package--
this time with a price tag of $2.3 trillion and a bag of empty 
promises.
  With only a fraction of the $2.3 trillion going toward things like 
roads, bridges, waterways, dams, airports, and broadband, the majority 
of the plan is instead filled with non-infrastructure items.
  Case in point: Joe Biden spends 74 percent more of your money on 
subsidies for electric vehicles than it allocates for rural broadband. 
It is ironic that Washington Democrats talk about improving 
infrastructure while simultaneously working to dismantle and eliminate 
American energy jobs. Make no mistake, it takes American energy to 
build American infrastructure.
  While Washington Democrats talk about improvements to American 
infrastructure, they fail to recognize that Biden's $2.3 trillion plan 
is not the answer. Instead, we must embrace America's domestic energy 
industry, which has made greater strides in investing in our Nation's 
infrastructure than Joe Biden's wasteful spending plans ever could.
  If Joe Biden truly believes this is an infrastructure package, it is 
evidence that he has been in Washington, D.C., for far too long.
  Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman. And 
he has indeed been in Washington too long.
  Madam Speaker, there is a common denominator tonight. The crisis at 
the border and the problems with the infrastructure package were both 
entirely created by the Biden administration.
  They were both thus completely avoidable, completely predictable, and 
they have done and are doing an extraordinary disservice and real 
damage to the American people.
  We ask, again, of all of our Democrat colleagues and President Biden 
and his administration, please, please, for the sake of our country, 
put the partisanship aside. Let's govern with common sense, let's fix 
these problems before they become so great that we are unable to do so.
  Madam Speaker, we end the Special Order, and I yield back the balance 
of my time.

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