[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 129 (Thursday, July 22, 2021)]
[House]
[Pages H3826-H3831]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           ISSUES OF THE DAY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 4, 2021, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Gohmert) is recognized 
for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.
  Mr. GOHMERT. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Pennsylvania 
(Mr. Kelly).
  Mr. KELLY of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, first of all, I want to thank 
my good friend from the State of Texas (Mr. Gohmert.) It is always a 
pleasure to be with him.
  Today I want to talk about something that is near and dear to all of 
us. Maybe I am exaggerating when I say dear to all of us. But I am 
referring to a Federal agency that at one time former Senator Orrin 
Hatch described as the most feared Federal agency in our country. I am 
talking about the IRS; I am talking about right now the operations of 
the IRS.
  In recent months we have learned that the agency has yet to process 
millions and millions of tax returns filed over the past 3 years. 
People across this country have been waiting to receive money that is 
theirs far longer than is reasonable. The agency should be working 
night and day to catch up.
  I want to take this opportunity also to thank my friends on both 
sides of the aisle, because for most people in our districts, we are 
the IRS. We are the people answering those tough questions and helping 
them navigate in an almost impossible Federal agency in order to get 
things done.
  Now, at the same time as this backlog persists, the agency is doing 
things that take us back to the last time that Mr. Biden was in the 
White House, and we have returned to those bad, old, dark days of the 
Obama administration when Lois Lerner and her cronies were targeting 
conservative, nonprofit organizations because of their political views.
  Just weeks ago, the IRS was caught red-handed, once again. In a 
letter declining a nonprofit status to a Christian organization, the 
agency decried biblical teachings as a nonneutral, politically oriented 
form of speech. These bureaucrats had the audacity to say that the 
organization's Bible teachings about the Christian faith, which are 
shared by millions upon millions of Americans of all different 
political views, were too aligned with the Republican Party to warrant 
nonprofit status.
  Now, upon learning of this shameful decision, my friend from Texas, 
Kevin Brady, and I joined Americans across this country to demand 
answers as to how the IRS could come to such an egregious conclusion. 
Thankfully, and only because of this oversight and the exposure to what 
happened, our legislative oversight and the public's righteous 
indignation caused this agency to reverse its course; but, again, only 
because of our oversight and the exposure to what was actually taking 
place within this agency.

  This IRS needs more oversight and accountability if we are to expect 
it to do the right thing. But the one thing I want to explain to all of 
our citizens across the country, if you get a call from the IRS, 
understand that that call is not from the IRS. The IRS will only 
contact you by mail. When I go home, and I think all of my colleagues 
are the same, I hear people tell me, ``The IRS called me.'' I say, 
``That is not the IRS. That is a scam.''
  But you know what? There are things we have to do. We have not only 
an obligation, we have a responsibility to improve all Federal 
agencies.
  Now, it is sad to say that the only scandal entangling the IRS this 
year isn't the one I just talked about. In an outrageous criminal act, 
someone, either inside or outside the IRS, breached IRS systems and 
leaked the confidential tax records of thousands and thousands of 
Americans to a left-wing propaganda outlet, Pro Publica, which 
proceeded to publish these private financial details in pursuit of a 
political narrative on tax policy.
  This is an astonishing breach of trust that should cause every 
American to wonder if his or her own tax information could be 
weaponized against them. It is not farfetched. When President Donald 
Trump's tax returns were leaked to The New York Times last year, I 
noted that if this could happen to the President of the United States, 
it could happen to any American.
  Now, Mr. Speaker, here we are. In 2019, the late Representative John 
Lewis and I worked together to figure out how we could reform the IRS 
so that it would better serve our taxpayers. We worked as friends, set 
aside any political differences we may have had, and authored the 
Taxpayer First Act, which was passed with overwhelming support from 
this entire Congress and signed into law by President Trump 2 years ago 
in July of 2019.
  The primary intent of this legislation was to make the IRS a 
customer-service-oriented agency. Our tax system is a voluntary system. 
After all, this is one of the few Federal entities that Americans will 
interact with consistently for their entire lives. From their birth 
until their death they will have actions within the IRS.
  There are few things more intimidating than having to resolve a 
dispute with the IRS, so making it a resource rather than an adversary 
was our chief aim. That is what we were trying to get to.
  But how can an agency that takes years to process tax returns, leaks 
private financial records to damage certain taxpayers, and wields its 
vast power to punish people or organizations with certain political or 
religious views be seen as anything other than an adversary?
  The IRS is one of the most powerful forces in our lives. I have heard 
this so many times when I go back home, and I am sure you have heard 
it, and I am sure most Americans feel the same way: People tell me, ``I 
don't mind paying my taxes as long as those moneys that I put in get 
used the right way, but I do fear the agency with which I have to 
interact.''
  Let's work together to hold this agency accountable. It is not all 
members of the IRS who we are criticizing or who we are looking at 
right now. We are talking about certain things that happen within that 
agency that absolutely are terrifying to the average American.
  We, as a body, representing everyone in this country, need to take a 
look at where it is that we are failing and where it is that this 
agency has failed and why it has become such an intimidating agency.
  If you want to restore the faith in any of our agencies or any of the 
things that we do in our life, you do it by actually working within the 
framework of that agency and looking at what we can do as the personal 
representatives of the American people to cure the situation as it is 
now and make the IRS a service-based agency and not one of 
intimidation.
  Mr. GOHMERT. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate so much those observations. It 
is so important for everybody to understand, the IRS is feared, and we 
learn through people like Lois Lerner that it is not always honest, and 
yet nobody has been held to account. I am hoping that at some point 
that will occur. I am so grateful to my friend from Pennsylvania.
  At this time I yield to the gentleman from Oregon (Mr. Bentz).
  Mr. BENTZ. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to call the Nation's attention 
to a tragic event unfolding in my State of Oregon, the horrifically 
destructive Bootleg fire.

[[Page H3827]]

  This fire, now the third largest in my State's history, has consumed 
some 400,000 acres. That is about 660 square miles of previously 
beautiful landscape, pine, fir, sagebrush, grass, and meadows. The fire 
has taken millions of board feet of timber, the lives of thousands of 
forest creatures, cattle by the dozens, if not hundreds, horses, 
fences, buildings, and homes. The fire has released hundreds of 
thousands of tons of carbon, which could have remained sequestered far 
into the future. The smoke plume created by this conflagration has 
reached across this Nation, more than 2,000 miles, to pollute the air 
across the U.S., reaching finally the East Coast, including the air 
right here in Washington, D.C.
  I have spoken with people whose homes and ranches were in the path of 
this fire. It moved so fast they could not gather and remove their 
cattle in time to save them. They have been sending me pictures of 
animals that have perished and pictures of many others who had to be 
put down because of injuries they suffered from the flames from which 
they could not escape. These are truly some of the saddest photos I 
have ever seen.
  How did we get here? Fires happen naturally in our Western forests. 
They have always been a part of the Western landscape. These fires used 
to burn low to the ground at relatively low temperatures. Underbrush, 
vegetation, and smaller trees would burn, and in what were normal 
times, larger trees would survive.
  Then about 100 years ago, our Nation decided to put out and suppress 
these fires. For years the trees and brush that grew unabated by fire 
were reduced to some extent by logging activities then allowed in our 
forests.
  In the 1970s, forests saw the beginning of a steep reduction in 
forest management, and our forests began to grow unnaturally dense. 
Federal regulations decimated the timber industry, leaving more and 
more trees and brush on our Federal lands. The fires, fueled by this 
huge amount of ever-increasing woody mass, grew in their ferocity and 
danger. And now, after years of fire suppression and woefully 
inadequate forest management, we are paying the price.
  The horrific infernos we are seeing out West are not the fires of 
centuries past. These terrifying, out-of-control wildfires become so 
immense, they often start burning from the top of the trees, not from 
the underbrush, leaping from treetop to treetop, causing the fire to 
travel faster and burn hotter.
  The blame for our forests' deplorable and dangerous condition does 
not belong to any one person or group. However, I must call out the 
massive special-interest lawsuit industry that profits from the 
operation of the Equal Access to Justice Act by legally kneecapping 
almost every attempt to manage our Western forests.

                              {time}  1230

  So what is the long-term solution? We are seeing some early evidence 
that managed forests fared far better than did forests that were not 
thinned or otherwise treated in anticipation of the fires that are sure 
to come. Firefighters on the ground indicated that thinned areas slowed 
down the fires so that firefighters had a fighting chance to bring the 
fire in those areas under control.
  This is good news because it means there is some hope. There is a way 
out of this if Congress can find the political will to work toward a 
solution.
  I am pleased to report I am working with ranking member Bruce 
Westerman, whose Resilient Federal Forests Act will be a huge step 
toward giving the Forest Service the tools it needs to better manage 
our vast public lands.
  In fact, today, I introduced legislation included in that package, 
the Commonsense Coordination Act. This bill will cut through some of 
the red tape that agencies must overcome to complete critical forest 
management activities.
  I express my sympathy to the people suffering from the Bootleg fire 
and all the fires across the West. My staff and I have been on nonstop 
calls with local officials, county commissioners, and ranchers. The 
experiences they are sharing are incredibly sad and made more so by the 
fact that we could have done so much better when it came to protecting 
our Nation's forests and those that live in and around them. I will 
continue to do all I can here in Congress to help.
  Lastly, I thank all the brave men and women who are out fighting the 
fires, including firefighters, farmers, ranchers, helicopter pilots and 
others. This is hot, dirty, difficult, and dangerous work, but their 
tireless efforts are saving lives, homes, forests, wildlife, livestock, 
and property.
  Mr. GOHMERT. Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Bentz, and I have to give a 
shout-out to Bruce Westerman as the ranking member on the Natural 
Resources Committee. This very morning, we had a Republican group, but 
we couldn't get the whole committee to do it on that very issue of 
forest fires and maintaining healthy forests.
  Hopefully, we will get the majority to understand it is not enough to 
just let nature take its course. You trim the undergrowth. You have 
fire lanes so you can stop a fire when it gets started. There are so 
many things that Republicans understand is just good forest management.
  So whether it is lightning or something else that starts a fire, we 
don't have to see 400,000 acres go up in flames. This administration is 
determined not to do proper management of the forests, and so many 
people get hurt.
  I am proud to have a colleague like Mr. Bentz that will stand up for 
what is best for forests, for nature, and has a lot of common sense in 
the process.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Clyde).
  Mr. CLYDE. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.
  Encounters at the southern border have reached a 20-year high of now 
over one million illegals trying to smuggle themselves into our 
country. This proves that the Biden administration's immigration 
policies are not working and that they have reignited a crisis at our 
southern border previously contained by the Trump administration.
  In fact, the border crisis is getting so bad that States not even 
geographically connected to the border are feeling the effects.
  Just last week I was traveling down I-24 East from Nashville, 
Tennessee, to Chattanooga, Tennessee, and larger than day was this huge 
yellow billboard that said: ``CRISIS, Biden Fix the Border.'' The 
problems are drugs, cartels, and illegals. This was not some political 
party that put up that billboard, it was organic. It was homegrown 
right from the heart of the American people. The message is crystal 
clear, and America should stand up and take notice.
  So why am I seeing this sign in Tennessee, a State that has no 
connection to the southern border? It is because the Biden 
administration is flying illegals to every State in the Union making 
every State a border State. This must stop.
  Further complicating the crisis, the Biden administration is 
considering the elimination of title 42, a Centers for Disease Control 
public health authority that allows border officials to turn back 
illegal migrants due to the danger posed by communicable diseases.
  By doing this, the Biden administration is not only preventing U.S. 
border officials from doing their jobs, but unnecessarily exposing 
American citizens to the dangers of COVID-19.
  Since the beginning of the crisis, the Biden administration's 
reckless policies implemented by executive order have been exposing 
communities to COVID-19 by refusing to test every illegal migrant that 
is apprehended.
  Even Secretary Mayorkas himself admitted to me in a committee hearing 
that his agency has released illegals into the interior of the United 
States who are known to be infected with COVID-19. Local communities 
are then forced to deal with it.
  This is simply unacceptable.
  For these reasons I introduced H.R. 2076, the COVID-19 Border 
Protection Act. My bipartisan legislation requires the Department of 
Homeland Security, in consultation with Health and Human Services, to 
develop a comprehensive strategy to test illegals that are encountered 
at the border and quarantine those who test positive. With the rise of 
the new COVID-19 delta variant, it is critical that every illegal alien 
who crosses the border be tested.
  H.R. 2076 has bipartisan support and 41 cosponsors, including the 
support of all the GOP Members of the House Homeland Security 
Committee.

[[Page H3828]]

  I will continue to push this effort to safeguard the American people 
and will soon introduce an amendment to the fiscal year 2022 DHS 
appropriations that will help accomplish the goals of H.R. 2076.

  I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to support this 
legislation. I thank my good friend and colleague from Texas for 
holding this very important Special Order.
  Mr. GOHMERT. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate my friend from Georgia so much 
for making the effort to stand up for the constitutional rights of 
Members of Congress not to be detained from getting onto the House 
floor. We have metal detectors still at each entrance. We didn't used 
to have them at the Speaker's lobby. Those have been added.
  We are co-plaintiffs in a lawsuit that will, hopefully, result in 
those being removed so that we won't continue to have Republicans miss 
votes because they get detained, even for the short time, when the 
Speaker has full discretion as to when to bring down the gavel. We have 
had a number of Republicans who have missed votes that they would not 
have missed were there no metal detectors, and especially since there 
is no intelligence from any source of any Member being a threat to 
another Member then this totally unprecedented subjugating of House 
Members below what their roles are and being sent by the same number of 
people that sent the Speaker.
  It is time to get rid of the metal detectors, get rid of the 
subjugation and get back to the Nation's business.
  Mr. Speaker, I have to say I am so excited about the freshman class 
that came in this Congress. We just heard from three freshmen, and 
these are folks, especially including my friend from Florida, Kat 
Cammack, that has been added, and I am thrilled. I have been so 
reassured by the freshman class that has come in and the common sense 
that came with them.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Florida (Mrs. Cammack).
  Mrs. CAMMACK. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Texas for 
yielding. It is an honor and a privilege to serve alongside 
Representative Gohmert, and I look forward to many more conversations 
on so many different topics, and I thank him for allowing me to be part 
of this Special Order today.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise today to stand up for and in support of our 
Border Patrol agents, our National Guard, the officers of the Texas 
Department of Public Safety, our local law enforcement officers 
protecting our hometowns, and all those that have made securing our 
border their mission.
  In fact, my own Florida National Guard and several of our Florida 
officers and deputies have become part of the mission to secure our 
southwest border. For our Border Patrol agents, they have been trained 
to do a job that this administration will not let them do. They have 
dedicated their lives and careers to upholding the rule of law, 
something that this administration will not do.
  They have continually put themselves in harm's way, keeping their 
heads down and continuing to follow orders. And their reward to date? 
Well, just look at the facts. Look at the numbers.
  Approximately 40 percent of our Border Patrol agents are babysitting 
and processing, not patrolling, not securing, and certainly not 
defending the homeland because that is not their mission today.
  Eleven agents are currently in the hospital fighting COVID from 
contact with untested migrants, three of whom are in the ICU today; two 
are intubated.
  Just last month, the month of June, Border Patrol agents apprehended 
188,829 migrants. Let me repeat that: 188,829 migrants. That is the 
highest number in over 21 years. It is staggering. It is shocking. And 
it should frighten every single American today.
  And that doesn't even include the got-aways. The got-aways are the 
people actively seeking to avoid detection by Border Patrol or National 
Guard or Texas DPS or any number of resources and assets that we have 
on the border.
  The got-aways right now are about 200,000. And these are just the 
folks that have been seen by an agent or caught on camera running away. 
These are the people who are criminals, registered sex offenders, gang 
members, cartel members. These are people who are now in our country 
and we don't know where, doing God knows what.
  And, of course, let's not forget the drugs, the narcotics that have 
been seized at the border but also the ones that have made it across. 
You know, just in the month of June the fentanyl seized--keep in mind, 
only 20 percent is what they estimate is caught coming across the 
border--the amount of fentanyl in pounds, over a thousand, is enough to 
kill every man, woman, and child in the State of Florida 10 times over. 
And that was just in the month of June. And that was just fentanyl. 
That doesn't include the cocaine, the heroin, the meth, the weed, and 
any other narcotics that come.
  When you talk about the money that is being made by the cartels every 
single month, last month, based on the number of apprehensions, that 
188,829 that were apprehended, on average, each one of those paid the 
cartels $6,000. You do the math. That is over $1 billion in human 
smuggling. Human smuggling. That doesn't include the narcotics. And 
believe me, as those narcotics get across the border and into our 
communities, they get more expensive and more valuable, and the crime 
and violence that comes along with them gets bigger and tougher and 
scarier.
  The numbers are pretty staggering, and as we stand here, I mentioned 
the agents that are currently in the hospital fighting for their lives 
because they came into contact with people who come from countries that 
don't test, don't vaccinate, and now today we have a 900 percent 
increase in COVID cases along the southwest border. 900 percent.
  And you know what happens?
  These people are not tested. They are checked for lice and scabies, 
and then on our taxpayer dime they are released into our country.
  For all of our Border Patrol agents, I want to say, I am sorry. I am 
sorry that this administration does not have your back. I am sorry that 
those on the left don't have your back. But please know that my 
colleagues and I, we always will.

  Let me be clear: This is not about legal immigration. This is about 
fighting against illegal immigration and the criminals who are 
profiting off of it.
  Now, as we stand here laying down the facts of this crisis--and it 
is, in fact, a crisis, despite the fact that this administration cannot 
call it that--Americans around the country are probably wondering how 
this affects them. They are outraged, sure, but how are they impacted 
in their daily lives in their communities?
  I have to tell you, every town in America is a border town. The 
nearly one million individuals apprehended to date for this year are 
coming to our hometowns.
  In Florida, they estimate that 70 percent of the migrants that are 
coming across are coming to Florida. Seventy percent are bound for my 
home State of Florida. Yes, every town in America is a border town.
  And you ask, how are they getting to our hometowns? On our dime.
  The NGOs have government contracts. They buy plane tickets and bus 
tickets, and then they submit reimbursement from FEMA on our dime in 
our hometowns unchecked, unvetted, and coming to a town near you. Every 
town in America is a border town.
  And as they are on these planes, do they have to show ID? No. No, 
they do not, because TSA has special guidance that these people are not 
subject to the same requirements that every other American is when they 
board an airplane.

                              {time}  1245

  They do not have to show photo ID. They do not have to prove who they 
say they are. Yes, every town in America is a border town now.
  And you wonder what happens when these folks get to our hometowns? 
They use taxpayer-funded schools, taxpayer-funded medical facilities, 
public safety resources. The list goes on and on. It is about enough to 
make you sick.
  Now when the left decides that taking care of unvetted, untested, and 
totally dependent illegals is totally more important than taking care 
of our veterans and some of our homeless veterans, I think that is when 
we, as

[[Page H3829]]

Americans, and particularly, ``us,'' my colleagues, Republicans and 
Democrats, need to stand up and say enough. Enough is enough. The 
left's agenda is dangerous.
  Clearly, they have turned every town in America into a border town 
and defunded our police along the way. The very people who are fighting 
to protect our hometowns. Drugs, crime--bring it on, they say. Never 
mind the 93,000 Americans that lost their lives to drugs just last 
year.
  Mr. Speaker, I recently took about six sheriffs from my home State to 
the border. I wanted my sheriffs in my area, to see exactly what they 
were up against, because when there is a leak, you can mop all day 
long, but until you fix the leak, the water will just keep coming. And 
they saw firsthand really what is at stake. Our country is at stake. 
And they said, right out the gate, every town now I see is a border 
town. And let me be exceptionally clear, that you cannot protect your 
hometown if you cannot defend the homeland, and that starts with 
securing the damn border.
  Yes, stopping this influx of crime and drugs and illegal activity 
starts with securing our border. But if the crime and the drugs, the 
negative impacts to our hometowns, our country, our society, our 
culture, our kids, if the lack of support for our agents isn't enough 
to convince every single one of my colleagues to take action, then 
perhaps the horrific humanitarian crisis unfolding is; the trafficking 
of children, maybe that is what it takes to inspire action from those 
on the left.
  Next here to me today you see this photo. This is a photo of a 3-
year-old little girl. I took this photo on April 11 at 1:46 p.m., 
standing just outside McAllen at the border. The man holding her told 
us--standing right there as he was being processed in the field--that 
that was his little girl. He couldn't tell me her name, and she was so 
scared, she couldn't even tell me her name, or anyone else with us. The 
man told me and my colleagues that he and his daughter had been 
traveling for 2 months.
  Mr. Speaker, 12 hours later while standing in the Donna processing 
facilities, Border Patrol agents who had processed and conducted an 
interview with this man, told us that when they had threatened a rapid 
DNA test on him because red flags kept popping up in his story, that he 
admitted that that little girl--this little girl--was not his daughter.
  She was someone else's daughter; someone who was willing to let their 
child be used, trafficked--and in this case, it is called recycling. 
Because this administration has policies that encourage children under 
the age of six to be recycled, where they get matched up with criminals 
so that they can be escorted across the border. That man--this man--was 
turned back.
  This little girl today is somewhere in the United States in the 
custody of HHS away from her family, future unknown. Her story is not 
unique. This is a regular occurring event; the recycling of children.
  Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues: Are you okay with the recycling of 
children? Is this administration okay with the recycling and 
trafficking of children?
  It is disgusting.
  As I said, there are stories like this that go on for days. I, 
myself, met a 9-year-old little girl who couldn't barely get the words 
out to tell me her name and where she was from, because her vocal cords 
had given out from screaming so loud, because she was being gang-raped 
by the cartels. If that doesn't make your stomach turn, I don't know 
what will.
  President Biden, your administration has proven that while your words 
are dangerous, your actions are deadly. Your administration has turned 
every single town in America into a border town, and every American 
should be outraged at their carelessness, the lack of regard for public 
health, public safety, national security, and basic human decency.
  Mr. Speaker, securing the border is not a Republican or a Democrat 
issue. This is an American issue, and it should be our top priority. We 
need to extend title 42. We need to reinstate the MPP policies. Put the 
politics and the egos aside and do what is best for our country for the 
first time in this administration.
  Until then, for myself and my colleagues, who actually give a damn, 
we will continue to craft legislation and put the words into action, 
and do the thing that the majority and President Biden won't do, secure 
the border.
  Mr. GOHMERT. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate my friend, Member of Congress, 
Kat Cammack. She has expressed so articulately what I have seen, what I 
have experienced so many times spending the night on the border, going 
down those dirt roads along the Rio Grande. It is incredible.
  And some would think, Oh, well, isn't it compassionate to encourage 
people to come to the United States. It is the most unneighborly, 
uncompassionate thing that we could do. These are people who--other 
than the gang members, those who are part of the cartels, those coming 
from groups in the Middle East and other places that don't have U.S. 
interests at heart, but so many of them, they are looking for a better 
way of life.
  Why do they not have a better way of life where they are, including, 
especially, Mexico? Well, it is because of the unsecured border we have 
that allows the Mexican drug cartels to make tens of billions of 
dollars every year coming from America for the drugs, for the fentanyl 
that kills, for the sex trafficking, for the human trafficking. We are 
funding the corruption in Mexico.
  Mr. Speaker, when my wife and I had our honeymoon, we didn't have 
much money at all; $300 got us 5 nights, 6 days in a fabulous place in 
Mexico. But we don't go back because the drug cartels no longer say 
hands off of the tourism.
  Mexico is being devastated by the drug cartels. And it is America and 
administrations like this that are allowing them--actually making it 
possible--not just allowing, making it possible. Some might say they 
are truly accessories to the corruption, to the criminality that is 
going on.
  And in fact, evidence of that comes from the fact that as border 
patrol had told me before, before this administration when they used to 
talk to me and never ever tried to prevent me from getting to the 
border and seeing exactly what is going on--that has all changed now. 
This administration did not allow me, two nights in a row, trying to 
get to the border, as I have done countless times before--wouldn't let 
me get there. In fact, used the place where normally you get down from 
the embankment, go through the wall that is being constructed by the 
Trump administration, go down through the flat area, and then you come 
up to the levee road, and then that allows you to get miles and miles 
down the dirt roads along the Rio Grande where thousands of people are 
coming across.
  And they didn't allow it this time. They used the wall, not to keep 
out illegal aliens, but to keep me from seeing the outrageous 
travesties and tragedies that are going along our border, because 
people are being lured to their detriment. In tort law, it would be 
called an attractive nuisance; like having a swimming pool and having 
no fence so that a child is drawn in and then drowns.
  Well, this administration is luring people to their detriment. And I 
have been there many nights, it is not on the list of questions that is 
required to be asked, but so often the border patrol asks, How much did 
you pay, basically, to drug cartels to bring you into the United 
States? And it was usually between $5,000 and $8,000.
  And then often they would say, You don't have that kind of money. 
Where did you get that money? And they would indicate, Here and there; 
get this much here, this much there. Friends in the U.S. sent this 
much.
  So what about the rest of the money? The drug cartels, they are going 
to let them work it off when they get where they are going.
  How do they get where they are going? Well, at that point, it is 
either Health and Human Services or ICE. Border Patrol, their job is 
along the border. They don't, once they transport to a facility, that 
is usually the end of their transporting. But ICE, Health and Human 
Services, and now we have the military that is also providing 
transportation. But as the Border Patrol officer said, cartels call us 
here in the U.S.--Federal Government. There are logistics. They get 
them across the border, and then--they don't use UPS or FedEx or even 
the U.S. Post Office--

[[Page H3830]]

they use the Federal Government and taxpayer money to ship these 
indentured servants of the drug cartels all over the country to cities 
all over the country wherever the drug cartel want them to be selling 
drugs, sex trafficking, human trafficking. The U.S. Government actually 
makes that happen. They facilitate that.
  We have had so many Border Patrol--again, before this last visit to 
the border when this administration wants to hide what they are doing 
at the border--they say, Oh, well, if you give us enough notice, then 
we will put somebody--and this is effectively what--they want to put 
somebody--I am suppose to supervise--over me to watch what I am doing, 
prevent me from doing proper oversight down where they are supposed to 
be doing their job, prevent that from happening so that America does 
not see how absolutely tragic this invasion is.

                              {time}  1300

  Yes, they are gang members, but so many people are coming in, and the 
cartels know taxpayers in the U.S., who are funding the drug cartels, 
are also going to pay for the education, all the needs of those coming 
in.
  This administration doesn't care. What they are looking at are future 
Democratic voters. But they have to act quickly because the longer the 
people are here, the more they realize, ``You know what? I am for hard 
work, and I am for making my own way. I don't want to see babies killed 
in the womb. I believe in working a full day. I do believe in marriage 
and strong family, devotion to family. I believe in God,'' and they 
start thinking, wait a minute, that sounds more like a Republican than 
a Democrat. They don't believe in abortion, most of the folks, and they 
do have faith in God and devotion to families.
  If you read what BLM said they believed in, destruction of what they 
call Western-style marriage is one of their biggest tenets. Why? 
Because they are Marxist.
  To get to Marxism, you have to create chaos. As Paul Harvey used to 
talk about, one of the best ways, and a critically important way, to 
create enough chaos so that you can move toward Marxism is to destroy 
the family, the nuclear family.
  Of course, BLM has it wrong. It is not Western-style marriage. It is 
not something that North America or South America or Central America 
came up with, what is typically called the West. It didn't come from 
this side of the planet or this hemisphere, except in the Middle East.
  A man named Moses had a revelation from God and let people know here 
is what God says: A man shall leave his father and mother, a woman 
shall leave her home, and the two will become one. That would be 
marriage, not Western-style. I guess Middle Eastern-style.
  It didn't originate here. It has been found throughout history to be 
the best building block of a very strong society.
  That is why surveys continue to find that although, of course, there 
are people that excel coming from broken homes and other avenues, the 
best chance a child has of succeeding in life is coming from a two-
parent home and a strong nuclear family.
  I have seen firsthand what Marxism does. I have heard the director of 
what we would now call daycare in the old Soviet Union bragging that 
these children don't belong to their parents: They are just temporary 
caretakers. We monitor what parents tell their children. If they ever 
say anything negative about the government, we immediately take the 
child away and give them to a more deserving caretaker.
  I thought, at the time, thank God I didn't grow up in the Soviet 
Union. Thank God I grew up in east Texas, and I had a mother and 
father, and they cared deeply about me. I was so grateful for the 
blessings that I had had.
  Wow, the Soviet Union. It failed because it was destined to fail. 
Marxism is always going to fail. People think: Oh, but it sounds so 
wonderful, share and share alike.
  Now, you have a very small ruling class, and then you have everybody 
else.
  I have been in those stores. Toilet paper so often, no, it was not 
available. But I learned, and I saw. Real luxuries, like real toilet 
paper, the store would get those in and put those in the back. If you 
were a government official, then when you came in, they would get you 
some toilet paper.
  If it is a shoe store, when they got good shoes in, they kept those 
in the back for government officials. Why? Because they were sucking up 
to the government officials.
  In Russia, it was called blat, political pull. You wanted to have 
some, so you kept the best of whatever you got in to sell for people 
that had power. You would do favors for them so that you might have a 
little power.
  As one Soviet told me, a college student: In your country, you can 
get ahead. No matter who you are, you can get ahead by hard work, 
making more money, and then money will help you make your way up in 
society. Here, there are only two ways to move up in society. One is to 
suck up to people who have political power, and I guess maybe it is a 
subheading of that, but it is also by ratting out other people.
  As he told me: You can get ahead by working hard and making more 
money here. The best way to move up is to step on other people. If you 
see them do something inappropriate, then you rat them out and that 
will allow you to move up.
  Except for the very top people that have everything they want, the 
other people mostly get the same amount of income. That was also tried 
in Venezuela; it failed. It will always fail.
  Anybody that was so stupid that they could not foresee what was 
emerging, and that is a very strong, powerful middle class in the 
United States and part of Europe, Marx couldn't see that coming. He was 
too blind. He couldn't foresee the formation of labor unions that could 
stand up to greedy Democrats, billionaires, such as we have here, the 
billionaires that, by the way, paid hundreds of millions of dollars to 
affect the election, who was able to vote, and how ballots were 
gathered.
  Well, over in the Soviet Union, you don't have to worry about that. 
As Stalin pointed out, he didn't care who voted. He just cared about 
who counted the votes.
  We will be seeing evidence continue to emerge from Arizona and 
Georgia, and, I think, eventually Pennsylvania. But to hear anybody say 
that there was absolutely no evidence of fraud, it is like John Fund 
said when he wrote the book about fraud in elections some years back: 
The biggest fraud about elections is the statement there is no fraud in 
elections. There has always been.
  Lyndon Johnson certainly knew about that, as did people who tried to 
research allegations of voting impropriety, and the courthouse burned 
down, destroying evidence. These things have gone on.
  Cook County, Chicago, you think there has not been fraud in Chicago? 
You would have to be either crazy or dishonest to say there has never 
been fraud in elections in Chicago.

  It goes on. The trick is to try to minimize the fraud so you don't 
disenfranchise so many people.
  But there is evidence of fraud. There are hundreds, maybe thousands 
of affidavits, sworn testimony, about fraud in the last election.
  I know there is plenty in the media to say it didn't happen. Because 
they are saying that, out of either ignorance or dishonesty, others 
feel comfortable, including people right here on the floor, saying that 
it is totally debunked, that there was no fraud in the last election. 
That is a statement out of ignorance or out of being deceptive.
  But we have to clean up the elections. We have to quit being a joke 
in the eyes of foreigners who have paper ballots.
  Even as bad as things have gotten in Iraq, there for a while, they 
had free and fair elections. In 2005, having been over there right 
after the first election, talking to one of the chiefs of police there, 
he was telling about how--of course, the voters, when they voted, to 
avoid fraud, you dipped your finger into purple ink that would last for 
a couple of weeks so you couldn't vote a second time. If you didn't dip 
your finger in there and have proof of who you were, you didn't vote 
the first time.
  He was telling me that a policeman who was monitoring the election 
saw someone suspicious. Upon checking, he saw that he had a bomb, a 
suicide vest. He threw the man down, jumped on top of him. Both of them 
were killed. I said, wow, I guess that sent all the voters scurrying, 
fleeing. He looked surprised and said, no, that they knew if

[[Page H3831]]

they got out of line, the policeman would have died for nothing.
  The policeman died trying to secure the fair opportunity to vote. 
Yet, nowadays, that is being belittled: We shouldn't even utilize voter 
IDs. You shouldn't have to have an ID.
  Well, that is the best way to ensure that there is not fraud in the 
election, just like it is the best way to ensure that someone is not 
illegally getting a gun or getting a cigarette or getting alcohol. 
People produce those all the time. Let's quit disenfranchising so many 
people that are voting lawfully by creating the ability to have people 
vote illegally.
  We keep hearing about: Oh, gee, that is not true. We need to censor 
people and not allow them to speak or submit things online if they are 
not in conformance with what the liberal Democrat high-tech industry or 
the liberal Democrat media say is true or not true.
  We listened to 4 years of lies about the Russian dossier when it was 
produced by a former MI6 agent in England, who even admitted: Yes, my 
sources, they could have been working for Putin.
  It was a manipulation paid for by the Hillary Clinton campaign and 
the Democratic National Committee. The FBI was in cahoots and, in fact, 
even lied to the FISA court.
  It really got my attention, having been a judge, to see that FISA 
court judges had so little regard for their own status, their own 
courts, that they would not take action to hold in contempt people who 
held the court in contempt by lying, by defrauding the court, in order 
to spy on a Presidential political campaign. My goodness, there has 
never been a Presidential campaign treated as the Trump campaign was.

                              {time}  1315

  It even had a Democrat official on tape admitting: We are the ones 
who paid for violence to get started at Trump campaign events so that 
we could claim that Trump was stirring up violence.
  That was in 2016.
  For heaven's sake, we needed a Justice Department that would be just, 
and we don't have it right now. For heaven's sake, I heard from a 
constituent 2 days ago who that day was shocked to have two FBI agents 
show up at her place of work in east Texas. She had not come to 
Washington on January 6. She was at work in east Texas.
  The only reason those FBI agents could have showed up at her place of 
work was because her nephew texted her a picture of someone who was 
here on January 6 in Washington and asked: Do you see anybody you 
recognize? Because it looked like his aunt.
  She said: Wow, I thought that was me.
  Then jokingly she said: Don't turn me in.
  Unless the FBI were monitoring these text messages which was either 
by the grant of a warrant from a FISA court that, in my opinion, was 
breaking the PATRIOT Act and was breaking the law to grant such a 
warrant, or they were committing a crime and spying on people's text 
messages without authority.
  This is getting out of control here. Of course, we don't hear any 
stories about the people who were looting and creating insurrections in 
cities around America last summer. We don't hear about them being 
arrested or having their homes wrongfully broken into by police or 
Federal officials. No. But we are hearing about it, and the illegality 
and the brownshirt tactics of the Federal Government needs to stop.
  Mr. Hoyer says he was shocked 8 months was all somebody got for 
disrupting an official proceeding. Well, that also happened on June 22, 
2016 for 26 hours on this floor, and I am surprised that Mr. Hoyer 
wants to see his fellow Democrats going to prison for more than 8 
months for obstructing an official proceeding.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Members are reminded to address their 
remarks to the Chair and not to a perceived viewing audience.

                          ____________________