[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 105 (Wednesday, June 16, 2021)]
[House]
[Pages H2880-H2886]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         SELF-INFLICTED CRISES

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 4, 2021, the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. Johnson) is 
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.


                             General Leave

  Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that 
all Members have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks 
and include extraneous material on the subject of my 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. Mr. Speaker, during my time tonight, my 
colleagues and I will address the major crises happening here at home, 
happening close to home, and now happening abroad. Our message tonight 
will cover many topics, but the theme is consistent. These crises are 
self-inflicted. There are the direct results of disastrous policy 
decisions from the Biden administration.
  We have a large number of Members who want to participate tonight, so 
I will begin immediately by yielding to the gentleman from central 
Pennsylvania (Mr. Joyce), my good friend.
  Mr. JOYCE of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, under the leadership of the 
Biden administration, Americans are facing escalating challenges to our 
economy, to our national security and, ultimately, to our way of life. 
As we have heard many times, our Nation continues to jump from crisis 
to crisis.
  On this floor, I have often raised concerns about the border crisis, 
and it continues to spiral out of control as we record an increasing 
number of migrants crossing the southern border, along with gang 
violence, human trafficking, and deadly illicit drugs.
  Border agents seized over 900 pounds of fentanyl at our southern 
border last month alone. Today, we are witnessing an escalating crisis 
and, unlike our Vice President, the American people aren't laughing.
  More than 80 days ago, President Biden tasked Vice President Harris 
with addressing the border crisis. Months later, she has yet to visit 
the border and witness the devastation firsthand.

                              {time}  2045

  How many days will it take? One hundred? Two hundred? A year?
  If Vice President Harris needs encouragement to get to the southwest 
border, then Congress can provide an incentive. I am proud to support 
Congresswoman Ashley Hinson's See the Crisis Act, which would defund 
Vice President Harris' international travel until she visits America's 
southwest border.
  It is simple. If the Vice President wants to go to Europe, then she 
must go to the border first.
  This is no laughing matter. At home in Pennsylvania, the border 
crisis is a matter of life and death. Lives are depending on border 
security.
  The truth is clear: We can't afford the Biden border crisis. We can't 
afford the Biden economic crisis. We can't afford the Biden national 
security crisis. And we can't afford the Biden energy crisis.
  This pattern is rooted in the Biden administration's broken policies. 
Under President Biden's watch, we are a nation in crisis.
  The American people are paying attention, and they are counting on us 
to stop this alarming trend and restore our Nation's path to recovery.
  Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman. The 
American people are counting on us, and they deserve a President who 
will ensure their safety, security, and freedom, both here at home and 
abroad.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. C. Scott 
Franklin), who represents Florida's Fifth Congressional District.
  Mr. C. SCOTT FRANKLIN of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I rise tonight because 
our country is facing a growing economic crisis, a crisis of the Biden 
administration's making.
  With his massive and reckless spending programs, President Biden has 
mortgaged our economic security. Long after this current administration 
has skipped town, future generations of hardworking Americans will be 
stuck holding the bill.
  It is human nature to like free stuff, I suppose, and as long as 
Uncle Sam is willing to dole out money to everyone and everything in 
sight, it is easy to understand why people are happily lining up for 
their fair share.
  It is also a universal truth that there is no such thing as a free 
lunch. Unchecked spending doesn't just hurt us in the future. It is 
also destructive in the near term.
  My Democrat colleagues have tried for months to convince the American 
people that it is only the rich who will pay for reckless spending 
policies, but people know better. Americans across the country are 
starting to feel the pinch of this unbridled spending.
  They are certainly noticing it back in my home State of Florida, 
where drivers are paying more for gas than they have in nearly a 
decade. They see it when they go to the grocery store, where prices on 
everything from a jar of peanut butter to a gallon of milk have spiked 
sharply. They are feeling the pain on nearly everything they buy, with 
consumer costs rising at the highest rate in nearly 13 years.
  This inflation President Biden has created is an immediate tax on 
workers, causing each hard-earned dollar to be worth less than it was 
before. At the same time, skyrocketing costs of materials are making it 
even harder for small business owners to reopen.
  With high unemployment, record job openings, and spiraling inflation, 
it is time for the Biden administration to acknowledge that their bad 
medicine is hurting the patient. Congress has the authority and the 
responsibility to rein in this reckless spending, and the time to act 
is now.
  Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Mr. Speaker, my friend is exactly right. 
The people do know better, and the pain hardworking Americans are 
feeling is very real.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Meuser), 
who represents Pennsylvania's Ninth Congressional District.
  Mr. MEUSER. Mr. Speaker, in less than 6 months, the Biden 
administration's policies have disrupted the fundamentals of our 
economy and have caused significant inflation.

[[Page H2881]]

  In March, congressional Democrats pushed through the $1.9 trillion 
American Rescue Plan, some thought after the recovery began, in a 
highly partisan process without one Republican vote. This level of 
spending was unwarranted. Even many liberal-minded economists estimated 
it was three times bigger than needed and warned of inflationary 
pressures not seen in a generation as a result.
  Inflation occurs when too many dollars are chasing too few goods, and 
predictability, this influx of spending resulted in prices increasing 
4.2 percent in April and 5 percent last month. The reality is that 
inflation is a tax, Mr. Speaker, on every American family who is now 
paying more for essential goods, such as food and gasoline and many 
others, and whose savings are now worth less. Again, even liberal-
minded economists called this the least responsible fiscal policy of 
the last 40 years.
  At the same time, businesses are struggling to compete with Federal 
unemployment benefits. In one month, 4 million Americans walked off 
their jobs. Last month, there were a record 9.3 million open jobs, a 
level not seen since the beginning of World War II, when Americans were 
leaving to go fight the war. Yet, the Biden administration denies the 
correlation between open jobs and excessive, untargeted unemployment 
benefits.
  Undeterred by the data, the Biden administration shows no sign of 
letting up, proposing a $6 trillion budget this year that will put our 
country on a path to record debt and that reports show will disrupt our 
long-term economic growth.
  The Biden administration is persistent in its charade that inflation 
is not occurring, unemployment benefits don't deter work, and their 
policies won't significantly disrupt our country's strength and 
economic growth.
  The reality is, the Biden agenda only grows government, not the 
private-sector economy.

  This can be a great American decade if we unleash the power of 
American innovators and entrepreneurs, but we can't do that under the 
yoke of excessive and untargeted spending, increased taxes, and 
inflation. We must, Mr. Speaker, grow opportunity in America, which 
creates the American Dream. Government should only serve this purpose.
  Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Mr. Speaker, my friend said it so well. 
This administration either doesn't understand those fundamentals of the 
economy or doesn't care. It is very perplexing.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Baird), who 
represents Indiana's Fourth Congressional District.
  Mr. BAIRD. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from Louisiana for his 
allowing me to have the opportunity to be here and speak on this issue.
  Today, I rise, Mr. Speaker, because our country is in crisis. Despite 
promises to the contrary, President Biden's policies are crushing small 
businesses and hurting hardworking Americans.
  The simple fact is that we should be cruising into an economic 
recovery thanks to the Trump administration's advancements. Instead, we 
are drowning in Democrats' reckless spending packages that have led to 
a greater increase in inflation rates than we have seen since the 2008 
economic crisis.
  As a result, Americans are paying more for everything. Gasoline is 
over 50 percent more expensive today than it was 12 months ago. 
Transportation services are up 11 percent since last May. Food and 
energy prices have seen a combined price increase of nearly 4 percent, 
a dramatic increase that we haven't seen since 1992.
  The average American simply cannot afford this, and it is time that 
we prioritize American paychecks over wasteful government spending.
  Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Mr. Speaker, ``reckless'' is a word we hear 
over and over tonight and as we talk to our constituents because there 
is no better word to describe what is happening with this 
administration.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Gimenez), the 
former mayor of Miami who represents Florida's 26th Congressional 
District.
  Mr. GIMENEZ. Mr. Speaker, many of my colleagues tonight have been 
sounding the alarm on the crisis our country faces at the hands of the 
most radical, progressive fringes of our politics. Institutionally, we 
are facing a grave danger right here in Congress, with a sitting Member 
of Congress choosing to continue her anti-Semitic and anti-American 
rhetoric from the halls of our government.
  When a Member of Congress, who describes themselves as a starter of 
fires, fuels anti-Semitic violence against Jewish communities by 
perpetuating false stereotypes and anti-Semitic tropes; denigrates 
strategic allies of the United States and accuses Members of Congress 
of unconstitutionally pledging allegiance to a foreign sovereign 
because of their support of the U.S.-Israel partnership; whitewashes 
the September 11 terrorist attacks that resulted in the death of over 
3,000 innocent Americans; draws equivalence between the United States 
and criminal organizations such as Hamas and the Taliban, both of which 
have been deemed by the Department of State as terrorist organizations, 
it is the absolute responsibility of Speaker Pelosi and Democratic 
leadership to hold their Members accountable.
  Unfortunately, Speaker Pelosi has lacked the backbone to act and has 
chosen to cower in terror as Members of Congress in her party shred 
America apart from this podium.
  They may call themselves a fire starter, but I have built my career 
as a firefighter. I cannot and will not allow this behavior to go 
unnoticed and be allowed to be swept under the rug.
  These comments and policy stances undermine the interests of the 
United States abroad and weaken the effectiveness of our foreign 
policy, sending a dangerous signal to our allies and our adversaries 
alike that the United States tolerates anti-Semitism, that we no longer 
believe in the long-term mission of supporting free peoples and free 
markets, and that we no longer remain committed to combating acts of 
terror against the United States and our allies.
  While we are encouraged that several of my colleagues across the 
aisle have posed their strong rebuke of these anti-American comments 
and policy stances, the only rebuke on this issue that will have any 
meaningful impact is one by the Speaker and the majority of the House 
of Representatives.
  To turn a blind eye on this would be a ``cowardly refusal,'' as 
Speaker Pelosi characterizes it, to hold Members on your side of the 
aisle accountable and dereliction of your role as the leader of your 
party and as the Speaker of the House of Representatives, an 
institution we all so proudly and honorably serve.
  Anti-Americans have no right to threaten our country without 
retribution. America deserves better.
  Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Mr. Speaker, my friend is exactly right. 
That language is dangerous, and our colleague that he referenced is 
contributing to the foreign policy crises that have developed rapidly 
over the last few months.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Arizona (Mrs. Lesko).
  Mrs. LESKO. Mr. Speaker, there is growing evidence that COVID-19 
originated in a lab in Wuhan, China, which the liberal media and Big 
Tech dismissed as a conspiracy theory.
  Time and time again, the Chinese Communist Party has lied and covered 
up the origins of COVID-19. Republicans have repeatedly called for a 
full, thorough investigation into this virus, but these calls have 
fallen on deaf ears.
  It is unclear why my colleagues on the other side of the aisle have 
refused to hold Communist China accountable. They refuse to allocate 
any resources to support a full investigation or even hold a hearing. 
They are allowing China to get away with its deadly lies.
  Over 600,000 Americans have died from COVID-19. It is time to stop 
pushing the America last agenda that prioritizes the Chinese Communist 
Party over giving the American people the answers they deserve.

  Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Mr. Speaker, my friend from Arizona is 
exactly right. This crisis with China and the Chinese Communist Party 
is perhaps the greatest threat that we face as a people today, and we 
need the White House to stand strong. I am so grateful she brought that 
good word.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Keller), 
who represents Pennsylvania's 12th Congressional District.
  Mr. KELLER. Mr. Speaker, when I was a kid, my brother and I would 
help

[[Page H2882]]

our dad make ends meet by collecting aluminum cans on the side of the 
road. We didn't make much, but what we made, we used to buy food. Very 
early, we learned the value of a dollar.
  Today, the value of that same dollar has plummeted because of 
wasteful, Big Government spending, like the kind President Biden has 
embraced with his disastrous economic policies.
  One of President Biden's core campaign promises was that he would not 
raise taxes on any Americans making less than $400,000 a year. What he 
failed to mention was the hidden tax brought on by his inflationary 
spending. In May, the Consumer Price Index jumped to 5 percent, the 
fastest rate since 2008.
  Every American is feeling the strain from this administration's 
reckless spending spree. From the gas pump and the supermarket to the 
clothing store and the car dealership, Americans are spending more and 
getting less.
  While the current administration shovels trillions of taxpayer 
dollars into the furnace of a runaway train, it is clear that Joe Biden 
is intent on saddling our kids and grandkids with insurmountable debt.
  It is time for Joe Biden to stop playing politics with taxpayer money 
and start doing what is right for our country. Let's get Americans back 
to work, get the government out of the way, and allow taxpayers to keep 
more of their own money. After all, they have earned it.

                              {time}  2100

  Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Mr. Speaker, Mr. Keller is correct. When we 
were kids, they taught us the value of a dollar. That is not what our 
Democrat colleagues are teaching anymore. Now they are subscribing to 
what we call fantasy economics, modern monetary theory and all the 
rest. Mr. Keller is exactly right, and I am so grateful that he brought 
that word tonight.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield next to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Babin), 
representing the 36th District.
  Mr. BABIN. Mr. Speaker, I have one question for President Biden and 
his administration: What will it take? We are halfway through 2021 and 
more than 700,000 illegal aliens have already been apprehended 
unlawfully crossing our southern border.
  Finally, as this administration begrudgingly chokes out the words 
``border crisis,'' Americans and migrants alike are being raped, 
trafficked, kidnapped, exploited, and murdered.
  Drug cartels are fully in control of the U.S.-Mexico border and in 
many places on both sides of the border, and they are not stopping 
there. They are infiltrating every community across the country--not 
just down at our border States--and they are hell-bent on causing us 
harm. Every State is now a border State.
  More deadly drugs, like meth and fentanyl, are coming up through the 
southern border than ever before to kill over 70,000 Americans every 
year from overdoses. There has been over a 300 percent increase of 
fentanyl seized at the southern border. Even FBI Director Christopher 
Wray said that there was no question that cartel activity from Mexico 
is spilling over into the United States. And yet the Biden 
administration is silent. Silent.
  Today marks 84 days since Vice President Kamala Harris was foolishly 
dubbed the border czar. Last week, when asked when she planned to 
actually do her job and visit the border, she had the audacity to 
laugh. If any American didn't show up for their job for 84 days, they 
would probably be fired.
  Clearly, this administration has all but abandoned our border 
communities and all of its American citizens. What a slap in the face 
to the American people, the rule of law, his sworn oath of office, and 
to the migrants who put their lives at risk to come here because Biden 
told them to and encouraged them to.
  So what will it take? How much worse does the worst border crisis in 
our history need to get before President Biden begins fulfilling his 
duty to defend and secure the homeland and protect us and our 
sovereignty? How many more children need to be thrown from 18-foot 
walls or abandoned to die? How many more women and girls and young boys 
need to be sexually assaulted, trafficked, or murdered? How many more 
Americans need to die from drug overdoses or have a loved one hurt by 
an illegal alien who shouldn't even be here?
  I am speaking for the millions of Americans who have empathy for 
those wanting to come here but who want to do so in a legal way. I am 
speaking as a descendant of immigrants myself. I am speaking as a 
taxpaying citizen who knows that we are trillions of dollars in debt 
and do not have the money to pay for noncitizens who are breaking our 
laws. Lastly, I am speaking as an American who loves his country enough 
to die for it. Enough is enough.
  President Biden needs to do his job, secure our border, and protect 
this great Nation and the oath that he swore to uphold.
  Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Mr. Speaker, despite the obvious magnitude 
of that big problem on the border that we have seen and talk about all 
the time, hammering home that theme, there have been zero visits to the 
border by the President or the border czar, the Vice President.
  In fact, when Kamala Harris was asked in an interview this week if 
she planned on visiting the border, she laughed about it. But I tell 
you, those Customs and Border Patrol agents will tell her that it is no 
laughing matter. I am grateful that Mr. Babin brought that forward 
tonight.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield next to the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Rose), 
my good friend, who represents the Sixth District.
  Mr. ROSE. Mr. Speaker, the evidence of the Chinese Communist Party's 
denial, distortion, and concealment of the coronavirus pandemic from 
its critical beginning to the present day is overwhelming.
  In January 2020, if not before, the Chinese Communist Party knew it 
was dealing with a fast-spreading disease in Wuhan but rejected 
transparency in favor of a propaganda campaign to spread 
disinformation.
  From manipulated statistics and the prevention of an investigation by 
international experts to ousted journalists and whistleblowers who were 
silenced through intimidation and foul play, there are countless 
examples of how the CCP lied to the rest of the world about the origins 
of the pandemic.
  Prominent epidemiologists and biologists have raised concerns about a 
possible spillover in the Wuhan lab, and CDC director Dr. Walensky said 
it is possible COVID could have leaked from a lab.
  It was recently reported that three researchers from China's Wuhan 
Institute of Virology became ill with symptoms consistent with COVID-19 
and sought hospital care in November of 2019. On top of that, China has 
not been forthright in sharing information nor have they cooperated 
with the U.S. or the global community.
  The dishonesty of China's Communist leadership regarding the 
coronavirus pandemic has led to hundreds of thousands of American 
deaths, millions of sick Americans, and trillions of dollars of 
economic damage to our country.
  In the face of this mounting evidence, I join 211 of my House 
colleagues in urging Speaker Pelosi to investigate the origins of 
COVID-19. But House Democrats continue to stonewall this effort.
  The Biden administration and House Democrats cannot continue to turn 
a blind eye to the CCP's nefarious behavior. We must penalize and hold 
the CCP legally and financially responsible for the human and economic 
suffering its Communist Government has caused. Enough is enough.

  Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Mr. Speaker, that is such an important 
point. The evidence is mounting that China is indeed responsible for 
the COVID crisis, and we must hold them accountable.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. Higgins), 
who represents the Third District, and is the third Louisianan on the 
floor now.
  Mr. HIGGINS of Louisiana. Mr. Speaker, my ancestral forefather 
traveled to this country 200 years ago or so. He was born a poor 
Irishman with no path toward prosperity that did not lead through 
oppressive government, indentured servitude.
  He arrived in the port of New Orleans after scrapping together enough 
money to book passage on a sailing vessel that had been converted from 
carrying cargo to carrying human beings. He survived the journey, 
although many poor Irishmen did not.

[[Page H2883]]

  He came to this land seeking freedom. He found it. He prospered. And 
through the generations the Higgins family established itself as a 
solid, working-class American family. Construction workers, firemen, 
police officers, soldiers, and sailors.
  After my father passed, my mother and her sister, my Aunt Gloria, 
took it upon themselves to research the family tree. They discovered 
some of the truths that I am sharing with you tonight. This was way 
before the Internet and computers and iPhones. They worked in the 
actual archives.
  One of the things they discovered was a letter written by my 
ancestral forefather describing the conditions on a vessel he traveled 
to America upon. His sleeping berth measured 2 by 2 by 5. 2 by 2 by 5. 
I think about that as I serve within this body.
  I recognize the pain that our ancestral forefathers and foremothers 
endured to carve this country of greatness from the wilderness. There 
has never been a moment when American patriots claimed that our Nation 
was perfect. We have always known that we are imperfect men driven by 
perfect intent to create a nation where a man could breathe free, and 
indeed we have.
  The sovereignty of America requires action from this body and from 
this executive, our current executive, to maintain the security and 
sovereignty of our Nation at the southern border. The very promise of 
America is threatened by the policies and weakness of action and 
refusal to act in response to 1.1 million criminal crossings year to 
date.

                              {time}  2110

  The very freedoms and opportunities that our ancestral forefathers 
and foremothers came to this country to embrace, the blood and life and 
limb that has been sacrificed by generations of patriots past have 
preserved America.
  America itself is imperiled from within. It is the duty and the sworn 
oath of Members of this body to ring our voices loud and clear across 
the land that we will not allow America to fall into decline. We will 
not become judicious managers of our Nation's fall. We will stand and 
we will fight; we will make noise and we will be heard.
  I thank my colleague for allowing us to gather this evening and speak 
on behalf of the citizens that we serve, the Nation that we love, and 
the future that we will not allow to demise.
  Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Mr. Speaker, I thank Captain Higgins for 
those impassioned words. He is exactly right.
  One of the things that is so heartbreaking, frustrating, 
unconscionable about this is we can solve this crisis at the border 
pretty simply. All we need the White House to do is reimplement the 
Trump-era policies because that increased border security, it 
discouraged illegal immigration and it reinstituted law and order, and 
we can do that, but they won't.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Carter), who 
represents Georgia's First Congressional District.
  Mr. CARTER of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for 
yielding.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise today to discuss the many foreign failures 
President Biden and the Democrats have made putting our national 
security and country at risk.
  When President Biden came into office, he and Vice President Harris 
invited people to come through our border. President Biden even stopped 
construction of the highly successful and necessary border wall.
  The Biden border crisis was preventable, and can be fixed if 
President Biden and Vice President Harris would visit the border like I 
have.
  President Biden has also been apologetic to our Nation's greatest 
foes. He refused for months to acknowledge the possibility that the 
coronavirus was man-made in the Wuhan lab. He let big tech silence 
those who spoke out about the evidence, despite leaked emails from Dr. 
Fauci that showed even he knew the lab leak theory was highly possible 
and likely probable.
  And now President Biden wants to hand our vaccine technology over to 
China free of charge. Members on both sides of the aisle recognize the 
dangers of this. Yet President Biden would rather side with the Chinese 
Communist Party than American innovators and American workers.
  And most recently, the Biden administration and my colleagues across 
the aisle won't condemn anti-Semitic comments made by Members of this 
Chamber.
  To conflate the U.S. and Israel with Hamas and Iran is disgusting. It 
is wrong. And it is an insult to the men and women who fought for our 
country and who still defend our country against terrorism.
  It is time for President Biden to put America first. President Trump 
did, and our country was stronger than ever before. Now it is time for 
President Biden to do his job and stand up for the U.S. and 
hardworking, patriotic Americans.
  You work for Americans, not for foreign countries.
  Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Mr. Speaker, that is a great reminder of 
who the President serves, and it is confounding to us that he doesn't 
understand these basic truths.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Burchett), 
who represents Tennessee's Second District.
  Mr. BURCHETT. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for yielding. Second 
Congressional District, but first in our hearts.
  Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Always.
  Mr. BURCHETT. Mr. Speaker, 1 year ago, the average cost of gas in 
America was $2.17 a gallon. Today, it is $3.07 per gallon, a 41 percent 
increase.
  But it isn't just gas prices. Costs for many goods and services 
Americans rely on are quickly rising. The Consumer Price Index, which 
tracks the cost of things, like food and energy, jumped 5 percent in 
May compared to 1 year ago.
  This inflation is the ultimate cost of President Biden's $2 trillion 
Big Government spending spree back in January, Mr. Speaker. The Federal 
Government is printing money at a breakneck pace, decreasing the 
purchasing power of our dollars.
  Meanwhile, businesses can't get folks to come back to work, thanks to 
President Biden's generous unemployment benefits. And lately in east 
Tennessee, I have heard stories from small business owners who can't 
find enough workers to keep up with their demand.
  They need to tell the folks at Wright's Cafeteria, where my good 
friend David Wright owns his restaurant that was his mama's and 
daddy's, they can't get folks to come back to work. He is still too 
behind in the kitchen. He hasn't been open for months.
  Another friend of mine, Mike Chase, owns Calhoun's, which is a world-
famous restaurant chain in the area. And, actually, in Gatlinburg, 
Tennessee, they have had to close down in a tourist section of our 
community that is heavily populated during the day by well-heeled 
tourists wanting to spend their money, yet he had to close down because 
he can't get people to work.
  Another friend of mine, Charlie Peroulas, at the Pizza Palace, world-
famous onion rings. Mr. Speaker, I would literally crawl across 
Magnolia Avenue on glass to eat their onion rings. They are that good. 
And his pizzas are great as well. He has not been able to have full 
shifts and to serve the community as he has in the past.
  Stories like these, though, aren't unique to east Tennessee, Mr. 
Speaker. This is happening all over the country. Businesses are raising 
their prices to stay alive, and those costs are passed along to the 
American consumers.
  President Biden promised there would be no tax increase on working 
Americans, but inflation sure as heck isn't leaving any money in the 
pockets of our middle class, Mr. Speaker. His outrageous spending is 
causing long-term economic damage and saddling future generations with 
debt. And if President Biden isn't stopped in this venture, future 
generations will inherit a worthless American dollar, Mr. Speaker.
  Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Mr. Speaker, the gentleman covered a lot, 
and he is right, this crisis we have, the jobs and the economy was so 
preventable.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. 
Wilson), one of my heroes in the Congress.
  Mr. WILSON of South Carolina. Mr. Speaker, I thank Chairman   Mike 
Johnson for his leadership for promoting the truth tonight. It has been 
so refreshing to hear our colleagues bring

[[Page H2884]]

facts to the American people that they need to know.
  And thanks to the leadership of Vice President Mike Pence through 
Operation Warp Speed to develop the Wuhan virus vaccine, America has 
been able to get back to work with jobs being available.
  In May of this year, the Centers for Disease Control released updated 
guidance saying that fully vaccinated people no longer needed to wear a 
mask or social distance in most cases. America should be completely 
open for business to create jobs.
  We saw President Trump created jobs. Under his leadership, we had 
record low unemployment for African Americans, for Asian Americans, for 
Hispanics. We had record employment. The most number of jobs ever for 
youth and women in the United States by cutting taxes, not raising the 
taxes either directly or by inflation, as Mr. Biden is doing.
  Unfortunately, the Biden administration does not agree with science. 
Even with this huge win to the American people, the administration and 
Democrats want to continue to have unemployed Americans be dependent on 
the government by incentivizing them to remain unemployed with 
increased benefits that pay more than a small business can provide, 
destroying jobs.
  I commend Governor Henry McMaster for ending these increased benefits 
and getting South Carolina back to work. Congress should follow suit 
creating jobs.
  I am grateful to be a cosponsor of H.R. 3104, the Get Americans Back 
to Work Act, sponsored by Congressman Dusty Johnson. This bill will 
remove the supplemental Federal self-destructive benefits by June 30 of 
this year.
  I encourage my colleagues to pass this legislation. We must not 
continue to indebt future generations with reckless spending or create 
inflation, which destroys the retirement savings of our senior citizens 
and equally is crippling to small businesses that are the backbone of 
this country.
  Jobs are uplifting, fulfilling, and meaningful for a productive life.
  Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Mr. Speaker, the Biden administration 
Democrats continue to push policies that pay people more to stay at 
home than go back to work, so the results are not surprising at all.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Perry), 
who represents Pennsylvania's 10th Congressional District.

                              {time}  2120

  Mr. PERRY. Mr. Speaker, I thank my good friend, Mr. Johnson, for this 
Special Order, talking, unfortunately, about the things that make us 
sad to see happening in our country.
  Here, before, they were talking about the climate crisis. We sure do 
have a climate crisis. We have a climate of unbridled spending 
happening in this country without any eye toward the consequences.
  Of course, we have a border crisis. We have a law-and-order crisis 
going on.
  We have a leadership crisis in this country. We are ceding the 
leadership of the United States of America to thugs in Russia, China, 
and Iran.
  We have a political crisis, where everything is politicized, where we 
can't even get together on things we agree with because the other side 
forces you to take votes that potentially destroy the fabric of our 
country, our neighborhoods. The things that we agree on, we can't even 
do that here because there has to be a political price to pay for 
everything.
  Of course, the financial crisis--inflation is here, and it is here to 
stay. In May, consumer prices spiked 5 percent from the previous year. 
That is the biggest spike since August 2008. Remember that? The 
beginning of the Great Recession?
  We don't have to be doing this, but I think we are going to do it 
again. Overall, prices jumped at a shocking 9.7 percent annualized rate 
from March through May. That is 10 percent. Oh, by the way, that 
coincides with the time that the Biden fiscal policies started coming 
into play. They are beginning to devastate the economy like we knew 
they would.
  In real terms, if you are driving, you are paying 40 percent more 
today than you did at the start of the year.
  And it is artificial, right? We closed the Keystone pipeline down. We 
let Russia have their pipeline, but we closed ours down. Do you think 
the gas isn't coming? It is still coming. We are just paying a lot more 
for it because they have to put it on a truck or a train. Heaven 
forbid, it can't go through the Keystone pipeline. Oh, we can't have 
that.
  Guess who pays? Every single one of us. But who does it hurt the 
most? Do you remember the days when you were growing up and couldn't 
afford to fill up your gas tank? You put five bucks in and prayed you 
got to the end of the week? That is who it is hurting, and it is 
happening again.
  Food prices are up 2.4 percent, and the transport cost of food, up 25 
percent. Again, who does it hurt the most?
  Meanwhile, the May jobs report shows 9.3 million job openings in the 
U.S., nearly a million increase over the numbers for April.
  That is the largest increase ever since the Bureau of Labor 
Statistics began counting. These are indicators of bad things 
happening. They are also indicators and a manifestation of bad policy 
when we, as the government, pay more for people to stay home than they 
make if they would go to work.
  Who can blame them? They are looking out for their economic best 
interests. If they can make more staying home, well, God bless them. 
They have to because they have to pay the higher prices from all this 
inflation that is ``not happening.'' I say that tongue-in-cheek because 
that is what the President has told us, and that is what Janet Yellen 
told us.
  Well, we might have been born at night, Mr. Johnson, but it wasn't 
last night. We know it is happening. It is obvious to any Economics 101 
student.
  The Biden administration and Democrats in Congress have extended 
these benefits through September. So guess what? It is just going to 
keep going.
  Labor is going to cost more, and everything associated with labor is 
going to cost more. Who is it going to hurt the most? The people 
working the hardest at the bottom trying to make their way out.
  Families can't afford it. Do you know who else can't afford it, Mr. 
Johnson? My good friend. I have a friend at home. He started a business 
51 years ago. He came home from fighting for his country in Vietnam, 
and he started a business from scratch 51 years ago. He hired hundreds 
of people and was known around the world for his product.
  Well, guess what just happened this month?
  Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Mr. Speaker, out of business.
  Mr. PERRY. Mr. Speaker, gotta shut her down, man. Gotta shut her 
down. The policies affect people's lives.
  Like I said, the President and Secretary Yellen said that inflation 
wasn't real just a few months ago. Now they are saying it won't be 
permanent. If you believe what they said a couple of months ago, you 
might as well believe that.
  While they are pursuing another $6 trillion in spending, we can't go 
to the bank. We are just going to print it. Guess what is going to 
happen? It is going to be runaway inflation, and it is actually going 
to threaten the continuation of this very Republic. And that spending 
is in addition to the $2.1 trillion budget deficit for the first 8 
months of this fiscal year, the largest on record, which follows $3 
trillion last year, which was another record.
  We just simply can't afford these reckless policies. We love our 
country. We want to work with the other side. This isn't working. It is 
not working for the American people. It is not working for any of us.
  We are at the tipping point in a lot of ways in this country. One of 
them is economic, and we can do something about it. But we need the 
President to have some fiscal restraint. We need the people in this 
body to have some fiscal restraint.
  Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for offering this Special Order 
tonight. We don't need to kowtow. We don't need to kneel at the altar 
of the green crazy people who want to drive the agenda.
  We have a great country, and we could save it. We don't have to let 
China open a coal plant--one every week--while we hobble ourselves and 
shut ourselves out of the great resources that we have in this country. 
We don't have to do it.

  Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Mr. Speaker, I am very grateful for those 
comments.

[[Page H2885]]

  Mr. Perry is exactly right. He mentioned Economics 101. Some of our 
colleagues would do well to go take a refresher course.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Clyde), who 
represents Georgia's Ninth District.
  Mr. CLYDE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today on behalf of the people of 
Georgia's Ninth District to bring attention to two major issues 
plaguing our country as we speak, the economic crisis and the Biden 
border crisis, as both will affect our country for years to come.
  Inflationary pressures are crippling consumer purchasing power at 
record rates, and our national debt is on the rise.
  My constituents are eager to course-correct our Nation's fiscal ship 
so we can guarantee that the American Dream is attainable for future 
generations of Americans. Unfortunately, the Biden administration shows 
no signs of curtailing its spending habits any time soon, as Democrats 
are keying up a plan to shoehorn through Congress, the progressive 
American Jobs and Families Plan, which combined total $4 trillion in 
deficit spending.
  Folks, the debt is already at $28.4 trillion. The White House has 
announced a budget that will leave the American people holding a 
stunning $39 trillion in debt by 2031. And what is truly scary? The 
interest payments on the debt are on track to eclipse our Nation's 
defense spending in just 10 years. As a military officer, that doesn't 
sit well with me.
  The looming debt spiral will quite literally be the death of the 
American Dream as we know it if we don't act now. It is clear the Biden 
administration has no regard for Americans' pocketbooks, nor does it 
show any remorse for the future generations who will be left to bear 
the brunt of Democrat-controlled spending.
  If that wasn't enough of a crisis, it has been 84 days since Vice 
President Harris was tapped as the border czar, yet she still has not 
made a trip to the U.S.-Mexico border. I have traveled to the border 
twice and have personally witnessed the escalation of the crisis. Why 
has the Vice President not gone?
  The Department of Homeland Security published shocking statistics 
that paint a very clear picture of how the Biden administration 
policies are creating a devastating crisis on the border. Last month, 
encounters at the border exceeded 180,000. This level of apprehension 
has not been seen in over 21 years and is up 675 percent when compared 
to May of last year.
  Dangerous human traffickers, gang members, and other criminals are 
smuggling deadly drugs over the border and into our communities at an 
alarming rate, refueling the opioid crisis, the very crisis former 
President Trump successfully subdued.
  When we look at fentanyl seizures alone, Customs and Border 
Protection has already seized almost double the amount of fentanyl in 
the first 8 months of fiscal year 2021 than it did in all 12 months of 
fiscal year 2020.
  The numbers will only continue to rise as more illicit substances 
come across the border through September, especially as Biden continues 
reversing Trump's successful border policies.
  Enough is enough. We must put country over progressive politics, and 
I look forward to standing with my Republican colleagues to do so.
  Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend for those 
remarks, and I thank him for his service.
  Mr. Speaker, may I inquire how much time is remaining.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman has 13 minutes remaining.

                              {time}  2130

  Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from 
Texas (Mr. Gohmert), who represents Texas' First Congressional 
District.
  Mr. GOHMERT. Mr. Speaker, emails--as this headline says from Wendell 
Husebo--emails show Anthony Fauci scrambled at the beginning of the 
pandemic to determine the potential U.S. role in funding coronavirus 
research abroad, and that was because he provided money to a firm that 
provided money to the Wuhan lab.
  As this points out, after Fauci made that comment that we didn't do 
that, a couple months later, the man responsible for steering U.S. 
Government funding to the Wuhan Institution of Virology, Peter Daszak, 
the president of EcoHealth Alliance, thanked Dr. Fauci on April 18, 
2020, for publicly dismissing the theory coronavirus may have leaked 
from that lab to which they furnished money.
  Here is another story from the same person. Anthony Fauci said in 
released emails: Drugstore masks are not really effective.
  He told us, Oh, gosh, you know, we need to be taking a mask, 
everybody should be wearing a mask, but that was only after he had been 
against it before he became for it.
  And this points out and quotes him as just being one of the biggest 
hypocrites. And in fact, that he completely lied to the American 
people, because he says that ``Masks are really for infected people . . 
. '' He goes on further: ``The typical mask you buy in the drugstore is 
not really effective . . . '' and he says, ``I do not recommend that 
you wear a mask, particularly since you are going to a very low risk 
location. Your instincts are correct, money is best spent on medical 
countermeasures such as diagnostics and vaccines.''
  But as Fauci emails show, the U.S. scientists knew COVID looked 
engineered only days before insisting that the virus was natural. And 
that is another one of the reasons that Representative Taylor Greene 
filed the Fire Fauci Act, and I would encourage people to get on board.
  But the virologist who told Fauci that SARS-CoV-2 potentially looked 
engineered--he eliminated his Twitter account. That article is June 
7th.
  And then we find out that ``weight-adjusted hydroxychloroquine and 
azithromycin boosted survival of ventilated COVID-19 patients by 200 
percent,'' according to a study. We have had hundreds of thousands of 
Americans who have died while Fauci and others belittled a 
hydroxychloroquine regimen, and the good that it could do, and the good 
it has done for most of those who have taken it.
  So we know that in the 1950s President Eisenhower said: No, we got no 
U-2 flights going over the Soviet Union. And they shot one down. He had 
to go on TV and say: I am sorry, I lied. I am very sorry, I thought I 
was doing the right thing by the country.
  In the 1960s, President Kennedy, he went on television, and said: I 
am sorry. It is my fault, basically, that people died in the Bay of 
Pigs invasion.
  But who is going to come forward and say, you know what, this was my 
fault? It is not going to be Fauci. We don't know if it will be 
President Biden, but somebody owes a big apology to the American 
people.
  Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Mr. Speaker, Mr. Gohmert is exactly right. 
And the scope of that tragedy is something that is hard to wrap your 
mind around.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from West Virginia (Mr. 
Mooney).
  Mr. MOONEY. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to address an issue of great 
importance to all of our constituents: their economic livelihoods. It 
has only been 6 months since President Biden took office and already 
our country is moving in the wrong direction.
  Under President Trump we saw unparalleled economic growth. Now under 
President Biden, we are faced with more and more government spending, 
fewer and fewer people going back to work, and skyrocketing inflation, 
which devalues your money. You can see here, a picture is worth a 
thousand words. 4.2 less percent value to your dollar today after all 
the spending the government has been doing here lately.
  By the end of 2020, the economy was resurgent. And since the economy 
was crippled by the initial lock-downs in March and April of 2020, 
there had been an improvement in the unemployment rate each month, 
until this spring. After 11 months of significant job growth, the 
unemployment rate increased this past April for the first time since 
last year.
  More Americans are getting vaccinated every day and COVID-19 
restrictions are being lifted around the country. This should be a time 
when the recovery reaches new heights. There were 9.3 million jobs 
openings in April. That is more job openings than any other time in the 
last year. But those jobs may not get filled any time soon, due to 
President Biden and many of my Democrat colleagues' and

[[Page H2886]]

friends' decision here in this Chamber to continue an unsustainable 
level of Federal unemployment benefits. Some workers can make more 
money on unemployment than going back to work.
  Commonsense dictates that if you pay people not to work, they will 
take you up on it. Most people will not act against their own economic 
interests by working if they can make more money staying home.
  The failure of the Biden administration has forced some Governors to 
act on their own. So far, 25 States have announced plans to wind down 
the extra $300 a week in Federal unemployment benefits.
  Governor Jim Justice in my State of West Virginia announced that our 
State will join that group here this month, in June. So when Federal 
leadership fails, Governors must step up and make the best decisions 
for their States.
  West Virginia has had a particular problem with worker shortages for 
years now. Gil White, who is our State Director of the National 
Federation of Independent Businesses, was asked on WV MetroNews about 
the worker shortage, and he responded, ``That is not a myth; it's a 
reality. I don't care if it's large business or small business 
employers. I think there is a common theme that finding workers is very 
challenging, to say the least.''
  After a tumultuous year with government shutdowns and strict capacity 
limits, the last thing small businesses need is a worker shortage that 
leaves them unprepared to meet the demands of a reopening economy.
  President Biden's solution to this problem, along with every other 
problem, seems to be more spending of your hard-earned taxpayer 
dollars. But with our budget deficit at an alarming level, and you see 
it here how it is just skyrocketing, our budget deficit, more spending 
will bring about more problems.
  Our debt is currently $28 trillion, and our deficits have grown 
substantially larger in the past year due to spending increases in 
response to COVID-19. And, yet, President Biden is currently pushing 
for more than $4 trillion in new spending. $4 trillion.
  President Biden has proposed to build hundreds of thousands of 
electric vehicle charging stations, retrofit buildings across America, 
to make them greener, and a laundry list of other progressive 
priorities.
  Despite his sometimes moderate demeanor, President Biden's platform 
is far left. President Biden made a long list of promises to the left 
wing of his party, like when he said he would ``get rid of fossil 
fuels.'' It should come as no surprise that his administration is 
shaping up to be the most liberal in recent memory.
  We should not keep borrowing money from China in order to spend money 
that we don't have here in America. There is a simple solution, unwind 
these expensive government programs, continue opening up the economy, 
and let people earn a living again. That is our country's path forward.
  Mr. Speaker, I have a couple more comments I would like to make on a 
separate issue.
  I rise today to address the crisis at the southern border. These 
images here show children being dropped over the border fence, and show 
migrants nearly drowning trying to cross the river on the border.
  Ladies and gentlemen, dumping children across a fence like this into 
the wilderness is not an immigration policy. That is child abuse. That 
is not how we are supposed to do this. It is an outrage. If President 
Trump had done that, he would be attacked everywhere.
  The border crisis is a humanitarian crisis. Even the President of 
Guatemala, Alejandro Giammattei, blamed the Biden administration's open 
border messaging calling it ``lukewarm'' and ``confusing.''
  He explained this messaging actually increases the number of 
unaccompanied minors that are sent out on the journey and are 
subsequently trafficked by coyotes and cartels.
  Data shows that Customs and Border Patrol agents stopped over 180,000 
illegal border crossings in the month of May alone, the highest in over 
20 years. Look, we can have our own opinions, but we are not entitled 
to our own facts.
  This is a crisis, ladies and gentlemen. It is time for America's 
border czar, Vice President Kamala Harris, to do her job and address 
the humanitarian crisis at the border to protect to lives of these 
young children.

                              {time}  2140

  Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Mr. Speaker, how much time remains on the 
clock?
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman has 3 minutes remaining.
  Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Mr. Speaker, I will need to summarize, 
then.
  I am delighted to have had so many of my colleagues here tonight to 
help us sound the alarms and inform the American people what is going 
on here.
  We have a crisis here at home. We have a crisis on the southern 
border. And we have multiple developing crises abroad. You heard the 
broad spectrum of all those tonight, Mr. Speaker.
  Whether it is our concern about jobs in the economy with the rising 
inflation, with this humanitarian crisis with young children and 
traffickers and drug cartels at the border, or whether we are talking 
about this administration's critical foreign policy blunders, you can 
summarize it all, Mr. Speaker.
  Maybe it was summarized best tonight by the gentleman from 
Pennsylvania (Mr. Perry). He said in one phrase: We have a leadership 
crisis.
  We certainly do. But I will tell you, Mr. Speaker, all these issues 
and everything that my colleagues talked about tonight can and should 
be addressed in a bipartisan way. All of us on this side of the aisle 
want to do that. We are anxious to do that. We should all want 
Americans to get back to work. We should all want to end the 
humanitarian crisis at the border. We should all want to achieve peace 
through strength on the international stage.
  It is time for President Biden and it is time for our Democrat 
colleagues to work with Republicans for the American people.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

                          ____________________