[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 133 (Thursday, July 29, 2021)]
[House]
[Pages H4255-H4256]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        BLOATEDBUS SPENDING BILL

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Virginia (Mr. Cline) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. CLINE. Madam Speaker, I rise in opposition today to the 
bloatedbus spending bill that is being jammed through the House this 
week by the majority.
  Instead of working to craft bipartisan legislation, Democrats have 
put forward appropriations bills that are based on unrealistic and 
irresponsible spending levels and include partisan policy provisions 
that will only delay its final passage.
  Further, rather than holding a vote on each individual appropriations 
bill, the Speaker has lumped together seven separate spending bills 
that include nearly $600 billion in discretionary spending, a 21 
percent increase over just last year.
  Twenty-one percent. That is almost as high as some of the price 
increases families in my district are seeing in their daily lives, 
thanks to the flood of deficit spending President Biden and Speaker 
Pelosi have forced through this Congress already.

[[Page H4256]]

  This is not how the legislative process should work. And with 
inflation rates at a 13-year high, Madam Speaker, we simply cannot 
afford it.
  And while this bill provides unprecedented increases for Democrats' 
domestic spending priorities, the left has decided to underfund two 
appropriations bills that are required by the Constitution: Homeland 
Security and National Defense. Worse yet, it reverses decades of 
historically bipartisan pro-life policies like the Hyde and Weldon 
amendments which have been bipartisan since 1976.
  Further, it increases our dependence on China. It fails to keep us 
safe by hindering the work of Customs and Border Protection, and it 
abandons an all-of-the-above energy strategy. This is truly 
unacceptable.
  Madam Speaker, this minibus needs to be sent back to the scrap yard, 
and if not, I urge my colleagues to vote ``no.''


                       Honoring Chief Joe Simmons

  Mr. CLINE. Madam Speaker, I rise today in recognition of the 30-year 
career of one of Virginia's finest, Bridgewater Police Chief Joe 
Simmons.
  Interestingly, this law enforcement veteran originally had 
aspirations of being a firefighter, but after being a dispatcher, 
jailer, and then a road deputy in the Rockingham County Sheriff's 
office, the SWAT team recruited him in 1996. By 1997, he joined the 
elite RUSH Drug Task Force, a mix of local and State officers, who I 
was proud to work with as an assistant Commonwealth's attorney, as well 
as Federal drug agents.
  Simmons brought all this experience to the town of Bridgewater in the 
late 1990s, eventually rising to chief in 2011. Mayor Ted Flory said of 
Simmons: ``He's done an amazing job. . . . The model of community 
policing . . . serves the citizens very well.''
  Chief Simmons says most police officers are good people who care 
about the citizens in their community. ``You have to have empathy. It's 
not us against them,'' Simmons said, ``You have to police with an open 
mind. It's customer service.''
  In the end, while Simmons never became the firefighter he once wanted 
to be, he had a successful career in public service, risking his life 
to protect and serve his fellow citizens.
  I thank Chief Simmons for his service.

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