[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 69 (Wednesday, April 27, 2022)]
[House]
[Pages H4563-H4568]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                INFLATION, IMMIGRATION, AND INCOMPETENCE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Auchincloss). 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 may have 5 legislative days in which 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, according to The Washington 
Post, Washington Democrats have diagnosed their messaging as the source 
of their current political problems. My colleagues and I are here 
tonight to offer a second opinion.
  Mr. Speaker, the Washington Democrats certainly do have a problem, 
but it is not caused by their messaging; it is being caused by their 
policies. That is clear for everybody to see.
  You see, the phrase ``messaging problem'' is a phrase that is 
familiar to us on Capitol Hill. It presumes that the American people 
would support your agenda; they just haven't heard it yet, or they 
don't quite understand it. But that is certainly not the problem for 
these Washington Democrats.

  It is not their policies, and it is not that their policies are too 
sophisticated for the rest of us to understand, nor is it that the 
American people

[[Page H4564]]

don't know what is good for them. It is exactly the opposite.
  The American people know what is best for them and their families, 
and they can see very plainly the results of Washington Democrats' one-
party rule. They do not like it.
  The plain result of the Washington Democrat agenda can be summed up 
in what I have been calling back home the three i's. You might narrow 
it down to, currently: inflation, immigration, and incompetence.
  We can talk about the crippling inflation, the sky-high illegal 
immigration, and the unprecedented incompetence of the Democrats in 
charge in the White House, too.
  Let's talk about inflation. When President Biden and Washington 
Democrats assumed control of the Federal Government, inflation was at 
1.4 percent. Now, here we are 1 year and trillions of dollars in 
government spending later, and inflation has reached 8.5 percent. It is 
at a 41-year high, and it is still climbing.
  For Americans doing the math at their kitchen table, let's put that 
in real terms. That means these price increases will cost you two 
paychecks this year and probably two more next year.
  Rather than accepting responsibility, what are they doing? President 
Biden and Washington Democrats have told us all that it is Russia's 
fault, and they advise that we should buy an electric car.
  Let's talk about illegal immigration. With regard to that, the 
policies of President Biden and these Democrats have resulted in record 
levels of illegal immigration, record levels of illicit drugs flowing 
into our country, and a humanitarian catastrophe at the southern 
border.
  Today, the Biden administration is actually planning to lift the 
public health restrictions of title 42 that were really the last 
remaining tool in the toolbox to control illegal immigration. Believe 
it or not--get this--this is happening at the very time that they are 
suing in Federal court to keep Americans masked up.
  According to the Biden administration, if you are an illegal 
immigrant, COVID restrictions are over. But if you are an American 
citizen, hey, you better buckle up because these COVID restrictions are 
going to be around for a while.
  Incompetence, I don't think we need to elaborate too much. Everyone 
can see this with their own eyes. It wasn't so long ago that Washington 
Democrats tried to cast themselves as the party of competence. Remember 
that, in the election cycle?
  But many congressional Democrats still can't be bothered to show up 
here at work. Many haven't voted in person in a long, long time. Some 
phone into committee hearings from bed, literally.
  The story at President Biden's agencies isn't much better. Another 
tax season has come and gone, yet Biden's Treasury Department is still 
working on getting last year's tax refunds out to the American people.
  Remember the fatal troop withdrawal, the debacle from Afghanistan. No 
one at Biden's Defense Department has been fired or held accountable 
for the chaos that left 13 American soldiers dead.
  The President himself continues to confuse basic policies from the 
White House podium on a near-daily basis.
  The American people deserve competence in government. But they have 
received, by far, with this administration, the most incompetent 
government of our lifetimes.
  Mr. Speaker, again, there is a reason that politicians like to blame 
their problems on messaging. It implies that if only the American 
people heard our message, they would support it. In this case, it is 
the American people who are hearing very clearly the Democrat message, 
and they reject it.
  I thank my colleagues for joining me on the floor this evening, where 
we will be talking about the broad array, the panoply, of crises 
created by this administration.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Grothman).
  Mr. GROTHMAN. Mr. Speaker, I don't like to consider myself an overly 
partisan Congressman, so I will lead off my speech by quoting two 
Democrats kind of as a background for the rest of this speech.
  In Politico--so you know it is true--an unnamed Democrat quotes 
Barack Obama as saying don't underestimate Joe's ability to blank 
things up. Former Obama Defense Secretary Robert Gates says that Joe 
Biden has been wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national 
security issue over the last four decades. I want my Democrat friends 
to think about that.
  Now, I am not an expert on foreign policy, but it seems the goal in 
the Ukrainian-Russian war should be to end hostilities. On the 
internet, you can find numbers from 2,000 to 20,000 civilians that have 
died so far. Of course, it appears as though tens of thousands of 
military personnel have passed away as well. Every day, the number of 
Ukrainian and military deaths continues to go up.
  I will point out that Ukraine has the second-lowest birth rate of the 
100 largest countries in the world, and Russia also has a low birth 
rate. When I happened to be in San Diego about a year ago, in that 
sector at that time--just that sector and that time--the second most 
common nationality to enter the United States was Russian. In other 
words, both Russia and Ukraine should be desperate to hold onto the 
young people that they have.

                              {time}  1830

  We have helped Ukraine, and fortunately Ukraine has staved off this 
inexcusable aggression. Every day that there are good reports from 
Ukraine, we should be glad for the successes that Ukraine has had.
  However, obviously, a goal should be to end this war, and we should 
be working towards the end of the war to save the lives and to save the 
economic devastation that we will leave behind in Ukraine.
  President Biden and Defense Secretary Austin should stop and think 
whether their statements are more or less likely to bring Russia to the 
negotiating table. I encourage my Democrat friends to give a little bit 
of guidance to this administration as to how to end this war.
  Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend. Some wise 
counsel there. I wish they would heed it.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield next to the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. 
Burchett).
  Mr. BURCHETT. Mr. Speaker, folks on the left have accused us good 
Republicans of complaining about inflation. They say we have no plan 
for lowering the cost of food, clothes, or gasoline.
  Of course, the Democrats have controlled Congress for the last 15 
months, Mr. Speaker, as you well know. During that time, they have 
successfully rammed through trillions in unnecessary Federal spending.
  Let's look at where that has gotten us. Prices for goods and services 
Americans rely on rose by 8.5 percent in March 2022 compared to March 
2021. That is unacceptable for working Americans, especially for east 
Tennesseeans.
  That is not even the worst of it all. Even after all this spending 
raised costs for American families, the Democrats still don't think it 
was enough. They still think the multitrillion-dollar high tax Build 
Back Better Act--which we have called build back broke, you can call it 
whatever you want--is a good idea. That bill will be catastrophic for 
price stability.
  Right now our country is dealing with the consequences of reckless 
government spending. All we seem to be doing is saddling more debt on 
the shoulders of future generations. We used to say we are piling it on 
our kids. Now it is our grandchildren and great-grandchildren, which 
some of the folks in this body, I am sure, have multiples of those. And 
that is not right.
  So to the critics on the left who complain that Republicans don't 
have a plan to address inflation, I ask you this: What is wrong with a 
plan to spend fewer taxpayer dollars and to be smarter about the money 
we do spend? This kind of fiscal responsibility is a legitimate 
solution to fixing the unstable prices that are worrying families in 
east Tennessee and across the country. Republicans should not be afraid 
to say that fiscal responsibility is our plan.
  My folks instilled in me a lot of values, and one of those is, 
``Don't spend it if you don't have it,'' and ``Just because you have it 
doesn't mean you have got to spend it, dadgummit.''
  Mr. Speaker, I thank Vice Chairman Johnson, as always, for his 
lackluster leadership.

[[Page H4565]]

  

  Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Mr. Speaker, I told my friend that I would 
be faithful to him because he has been faithful to participate in all 
the Special Order hours if I kept the trains running on time.
  I yield now to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Keller), who I 
slighted earlier. I would invite him to talk more about all these 
crises we are facing.
  Mr. KELLER. Mr. Speaker, as a member of the Congressional Western 
Caucus, we were hosted by Congressmen August Pfluger and Jodey 
Arrington recently in west Texas. We went there to explore, as they say 
it, food, fiber, and fuel.
  I am going to talk a little bit about the fuel part of that trip and 
how west Texas is poised to really contribute to America's energy 
dominance. Just like northeastern Pennsylvania, west Texas' energy is 
world class. We toured oil and gas drilling sites on the Permian Basin 
and heard from producers about some of the cutting-edge solutions they 
are implementing to reduce carbon emissions and get American energy to 
market more cleanly and efficiently.
  From Midland, Texas, to Montrose, Pennsylvania, and much of the land 
in between, America is blessed with an abundance of natural resources. 
American energy--oil and natural gas--is right beneath our feet, ready 
to power our Nation and the world.
  Instead of embracing this fact, President Biden has thrust our Nation 
into an energy crisis by tying the hands of America's energy producers. 
This administration has made it very clear where it stands on the 
future of American energy.
  Make no mistake: American oil and natural gas is the key to lowering 
prices at the pump, stopping inflation, and building a stronger 
workforce. It all starts with harnessing American energy, from west 
Texas to northeast Pennsylvania, but that is only possible if this 
administration gets out of the way and allows American producers to 
take the lead.
  Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend for bringing 
that up. Coming from an energy State like Louisiana, just like 
Pennsylvania, we know how important this is to us. Under the Trump 
administration, we had achieved energy dominance. We could get back to 
that if they would just simply do the opposite of what they are doing.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield next to the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Rose).
  Mr. ROSE. Mr. Speaker, inflation is an invisible tax that Americans 
pay every day. Everywhere you look, inflation is wreaking havoc. At the 
gas station, gas is up 48 percent; at the grocery store, beef is up 20 
percent; chicken, up 15 percent; butter, up 14 percent; fruits and 
vegetables, up 7 percent; coffee, up 12 percent.
  At home, electricity is up 11 percent; furniture is up 15 percent; 
and even the rent is up 5 percent.
  What about a vacation? You still won't be able to escape inflation, 
as hotels are up 29 percent and airplane flights are up 23 percent.

  Recent graduates entering the workforce will be forced to pay record-
high rent and other expenses as they enter adulthood. New mothers and 
fathers will pay 10 percent higher prices for baby food. Many Americans 
who saved their entire lives to retire comfortably are now faced with 
the brutal realization that they may not have saved enough.
  Even the Nashville airport, which is renovating and expanding, was 
hit hard by inflation when the price of a new satellite concourse 
jumped from $92 million just last March to over $134 million today.
  As you can see, inflation affects every aspect of our lives. It is 
costing the average American family an extra $433 per month, and it is 
expected to cost each household over $5,000 extra just this year alone.
  Inflation isn't something you can easily turn off, but President 
Biden and congressional Democrats proved that their reckless, 
progressive policies can certainly turn it on. Since President Biden 
took office and Democrats gained control of both Chambers of Congress, 
inflation has increased every single month.
  They borrowed from future generations and spent trillions of hard-
earned taxpayer dollars on wasteful government programs and assured us 
that it wouldn't cause inflation, even though we all knew it would. 
That is why it is so disingenuous that the President, his 
administration and Democratic allies in Congress, and the mainstream 
media are blaming inflation on the invasion of Ukraine. To use one of 
the President's favorite words, that is pure malarkey.
  Meanwhile, as my constituents feel more pain each day from the 
growing inflation disaster, the President and his administration hardly 
even mention it, much less offer solutions except to propose spending 
trillions of dollars more that we don't have, which will, of course, 
only make things worse. Just look at President Biden's budget proposal, 
where inflation is not mentioned even one time. Instead, it calls for 
spending a whopping $75 trillion over the next decade.
  There is no denying that the massive deficit spending got us into 
this harmful mess, and doing more of the same certainly won't get us 
out of it. I and my fellow conservatives have pushed back as hard as we 
can against the reckless approach to governing that our Democratic 
friends have taken, but we have been outnumbered and outvoted.
  Even though we are outgunned for now, I will nevertheless continue to 
work hard with my fellow Republicans to do all we can to fight back on 
every wasteful spending bill the Democrats bring until our commonsense 
conservative reinforcements are elected in the fall and arrive in 
January.
  Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Mr. Speaker, the gentleman from Tennessee 
(Mr. Rose) has articulated so well what is on the hearts and minds of 
so many of our constituents. Inflation is a very real problem for the 
American people.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield next to the gentleman from California (Mr. 
LaMalfa).
  Mr. LaMALFA. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. 
Johnson) for helping us get these important messages out.
  It has been about 2 months since Russia invaded our ally, Ukraine. 
Russia has spent nearly a year amassing hundreds of thousands of troops 
and military weaponry along Ukraine's borders, with the backing of 
their northern neighbor, Belarus. Most people were doubtful that 
Ukraine would be able to successfully fight off these attacks for more 
than a few days.
  Amazingly, being surrounded the way they are, outnumbered and 
outgunned, they have been able to heroically hold off their Russian 
invaders. President Putin has justified his attack as a peacekeeping 
mission or a liberating one. In reality, it is really a thinly veiled 
attempt to frighten NATO against further expansion and, of course, 
muscle Ukraine's neighbors into submission.
  Both NATO and the United States have a longstanding tradition of 
standing with sovereign nations who face adversarial oppression, and 
that is exactly what we are seeing in Eastern Europe as Putin attempts 
to forcefully reunite the Soviet Union.
  After 2 months of fighting and billions of dollars in aid sent to 
Ukraine, I have heard concerns of many people wondering why are we 
focusing so much money and attention on a conflict thousands of miles 
away?
  We have our own problems domestically, of course, which are self-
inflicted, with rising inflation, the border crisis, crime, and food 
and energy shortages.
  Ultimately, this is a matter of freedom and self-sovereignty versus 
concession. We could actually extinguish another Cold War from 
happening before it has a chance to grow, if we had taken action 
sooner. We could still take positive action now.
  The world all knew this conflict was coming. It has been brewing for 
a year before the invasion actually occurred. We shouldn't have waited 
for blood to be shed before acting.
  If President Biden hadn't shut down domestic energy production on his 
first day in office, the U.S. would have been more economically 
empowered to enact harsh financial sanctions at Russia's first minor 
incursion.
  We could have been producing enough oil to export LNG overseas to our 
allies instead of watching Poland being cut off from natural gas. Wow, 
is that a surprise or not? We can't dare have anybody speak up; 
otherwise, they will get their gas cut off. Why in the world are we 
claiming Nord Stream pipeline,

[[Page H4566]]

et cetera? The U.S. should be the one intervening, helping with energy 
independence for us and our European allies.
  So what is the focus of the Biden administration? Yeah, we are 
starting up on Ukraine more, but what we are really looking at is that 
our military isn't as ready as it should be. Instead of military 
readiness, President Biden wants to put the focus on turning us into a 
green Army, a green military, because we are chasing around .04 percent 
of the atmosphere of carbon dioxide. That is the priority, not military 
readiness. Chasing carbon dioxide instead of helping our allies chase 
invaders out of their countries. That is not military readiness.
  The Stinger missiles we are sending, we need to be producing more of 
them. The Javelin missiles, same thing. We are still caught up probably 
in chip shortage problems. We need to be focused on military readiness 
for us and being able to be a good neighbor, as is sort of our 
obligation when we helped Ukraine become nuclear free back during the 
Clinton era.
  Let's not let down our ally. Let's focus on what is going to help the 
American people work, not chasing CO2, but instead 
strengthening our military and looking out for our neighbors and our 
allies, such as Ukraine. Taiwan is going to need our help, as well as 
the rest of our NATO obligations, as NATO membership seeks to increase, 
which will be a good thing for all of us.
  We can't let this tyrant Putin keep getting away with this stuff. We 
must be strong and not quiver every time he decides to make another 
move.
  I appreciate this opportunity for all of us here to stand with 
Ukraine, stand with our allies around the world, and not just think 
that CO2 is going to be the biggest problem we face. Indeed, 
it is aggression by dictators that is the greatest threat.

                              {time}  1845

  Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for that reminder about the 
importance of peace through strength; that weakness invites aggression 
and that is the only thing holding terrorists and tyrants at bay so 
many times in so many places over these 245 years of our existence. 
Certainly, after World War II it was the perception of a strong 
America. And if we project weakness like we are, we are all in danger.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Baird), who 
knows about the theater of war.
  Mr. BAIRD. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from Louisiana for this 
opportunity to speak about title 42.
  Mr. Speaker, in the last 14 months, this administration and its open-
door policies have created the worst border crisis we have seen in 
decades, leaving our southern border very vulnerable to the dangerous 
cartels and our communities are vulnerable to the lethal drugs that 
they bring in.
  Every day, 2,000 migrants evade capture and illegally enter our 
country. That is over 300,000 illegal immigrants evading capture in the 
last 6 months alone. Unfortunately, our Border Patrol warns us that 
this is only the known gotaways, and that the real number is likely 
much higher.
  By the President's own admission, rolling back title 42 would cause a 
mass migration event and would certainly overwhelm our already 
overworked and undersupported Border Patrol. Not only are Americans 
still held to a higher COVID protocol standard than the migrants at our 
southern border, but title 42 remains one of the only tools our overrun 
agents can use to get this swelling crisis under control.
  Ending title 42 won't help President Biden fulfill his State of the 
Union promise to secure the southern border, it will only make this 
crisis that the administration has created more unsustainable.
  Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend so much for 
that and for his service to our country.
  Having defended our Nation you know that if we don't have a border, 
we not only don't have safety and security, but we also don't even have 
sovereignty. We don't even have a country. We have to have a border, 
and this administration has given us none.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Arkansas, (Mr. Hill).
  Mr. HILL. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Louisiana for 
yielding. And unlike my friend from Knox County, Tennessee, I have the 
utmost respect for his ability to manage a Special Order with great 
aplomb, style, and skill.
  Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the time to talk tonight about something 
that I have reflected on now for the 7 years that I have served in the 
House. Over those 7 years, I have been to our southwest border 7 times, 
and I am in preparation right now to go back next week.
  So I rise tonight to bring attention to what is a growing crisis at 
our southwest border and share the fear and the frustration that are 
experienced there by those communities, their law enforcement officers, 
their schools, their churches, and to reflect on the Biden 
administration's just continued neglect there.
  Mr. Speaker, this is shocking to us because the first order of good 
governance by the executive is to protect the homeland, secure it, 
protect the people. Public safety is such a critical element in each of 
our communities so it makes no sense to any of us, whether we served 
for a brief period of time or for decades here, that our executive 
would leave our borders so open, so vulnerable.
  Over the last 6 months, we have had over a million migrant encounters 
at our southern border, with over 221,000 last month alone. That is a 
high for the Biden administration; 221,000 encounters. As my friend who 
just spoke suggested, that doesn't count the ones we don't catch, the 
so-called getaways.
  Mr. Speaker, this overwhelming number of migrants swarming our 
southwest border, though, should come as no surprise based on the 
actions of the administration. So shocked, yes, because the executive 
has abandoned its primary mission. But surprise, no. And let me explain 
why, Mr. Speaker.
  In the earliest days of his Presidency, President Biden repealed the 
Trump-era policies that discouraged illegal immigrants from flooding 
our borders and kept our communities safe. And this was after a lot of 
trial and error. I think Mr. Trump went through possibly three 
Secretaries of Homeland Security and had a lot of frustration at this 
very tough challenge.
  But in President Biden's decision to do away with those Trump 
policies that were ultimately working so effectively, he replaced them 
with nothing. Now here again, I have to express shock--perhaps not 
surprise, as this is a crisis-oriented administration--but certainly 
shock because no successful manager ends a working policy and replaces 
it with nothing.
  If you buy a business and you want to change the HR policy, you don't 
just say: Hey, starting tomorrow, there is no HR policy. I will let you 
know what it is in a few months. It is nuts.
  President Biden's efforts to suspend and terminate the border wall 
construction are costing taxpayers between $1.8 and $2 billion because 
we are still paying those contractors to build the wall that is not 
being built due to contract penalties. Of course, the State of Texas 
has stepped in, and perhaps they are going to take on some of that and 
build it themselves using Texas' taxpayer dollars for a national/
international border.
  Now, as my friend said a few minutes ago, the administration is 
moving forward to end what is called title 42. Title 42 has proven to 
be an effective effort at contributing to border security. And while 
the Biden administration continues to use it less and less--in fact, 
last month, Mr. Speaker, 50 percent of all the migrant encounters were 
processed for expulsion under title 42. So it is a critical element of 
both public health and public safety at the border.
  President Biden proposes to have that policy end here in just a few 
weeks, in the middle of May. Yet, he has proposed no policy to replace 
it. Again, we can expect a surge at our border. In fact, the Customs 
and Border Patrol, the executive branch agency responsible for guarding 
our border, securing our border, expects that to surge to 18,000 
migrant encounters per day.

  Now, whoa, let's do the math because that sounds unbelievable, but 
you are talking 18,000. That is a half a million people per month. We 
are running right now annualized--I just reported it to you--at about 2 
million encounters. And this is a half million per month; six million 
people.

[[Page H4567]]

  Really? We really think that is border security? We think that is an 
appropriate policy for this great Nation?
  It is insane. We will see the impact of this crisis throughout our 
communities. And as many of my colleagues have said, every State is a 
border State now as a result of this irresponsible approach.
  Mr. Speaker, the truth is the Biden administration has made it clear 
they have no plan, apparently, to secure our border. They certainly had 
a year and a half to demonstrate that they have one, and it is the 
American people that are suffering.
  So in summary, what are the ramifications?
  Millions coming into our country illegally without proper 
documentation and without the right public health concerns.
  Every State now is a border State. As reported a few minutes ago, 
there were 42 people caught by CBP that are on the terrorist watch 
list.
  Now, let me say, I was at the Chula Vista Station years ago. And it 
was common practice that people would come in, they would throw their 
legal documents away--a passport, an ID of some kind--put them in the 
trash, sew them in their clothing, not disclosed, and say they are from 
whatever country they said they were from. And that basically creates a 
new identity for them in our system.
  Mr. Speaker, so if 42 people have been caught, how many have come in 
that are on that terrorist watch list that have a mal-intent on our 
country? Ramifications; record human trafficking. And the cartels--our 
great friends in Mexico, virtually a cartel-driven border--making 
$5,000, $6,000 on Venmo, or in a promise to pay for each person 
trafficked, they are at millions, hundreds of millions--$400 million a 
month, some estimate--of making cash off this effort.
  Crime along the border is rampant, fentanyl and drugs on our streets. 
We lost 100,000 people last year to an opioid overdose. The fastest 
rising cause of death for young people across this country, 25 to 50 
years old; 100,000 dead, double what we lost in the Vietnam war, and 
fentanyl is pouring across that border.
  In fact, we have interdicted--again, what we have caught--we have 
interdicted enough fentanyl, this vitally poisonous drug, to kill 7.4 
billion people, and this is spiraling costs to our counties and our 
border States.
  Mr. Speaker, there is no plan. There is no policy. There are national 
security ramifications with an open border. It is irresponsible. It is 
incompetent. And I call on Secretary Mayorkas to resign his job as a 
failure. This administration has failed the American people and the 
border.
  Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend from Louisiana for his leadership.
  Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend. And I will 
tell him that he is not going to resign.
  The gentleman from Arkansas may not know this, but just a few hours 
ago in the Homeland Security Committee, one of our Republican 
colleagues from Mississippi, Congressman Guest, asked the Secretary 
under oath, he said: Are you testifying, as you sit here today, that 
the southwest border is secure?
  ``Yes, I am.''
  The Secretary of Homeland Security actually said under oath that that 
border is secure. So we must just be imagining all of this. It is 
really unbelievable, as we said.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Joyce).
  Mr. JOYCE of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from 
Louisiana for holding this Special Order and for his leadership, for 
having these discussions at such an important time.
  Mr. Speaker, right now, millions of refugees have been displaced from 
their homes. Children are being forced to go without food, clothing, 
and shelter, and thousands of civilians are being murdered in the 
streets.
  These are the effects of the Russian Federation's war against the 
free and sovereign people of Ukraine. The human cost of this war is 
devastating. We need to bring an end to the hostilities. The United 
States must stand ready to support the people of Ukraine with the tools 
and the weapons necessary to fight against and defeat the Russian Army.
  There is another component to our mission that cannot be overstated. 
As our NATO allies continue to support President Zelenskyy in Ukraine, 
they will face economic retaliation from Russia.
  Just this morning, Russia announced that it would halt the sale of 
natural gas to Poland and Bulgaria. While this decision will create 
difficulties for the people living and working in these NATO countries, 
it also provides the United States an opportunity to stand with our 
allies and show Putin that his cheap and dirty gas is not needed to 
power this war.
  President Ronald Reagan once said, ``We know only too well that war 
comes not when the forces of freedom are strong, but when they are 
weak. It is then that tyrants are tempted.''
  Unfortunately, President Biden's energy policies have so far not 
shown the strength that this moment requires. It is time to approve the 
permits needed to bring more American energy, like coal, oil, natural 
gas, and Marcellus shale to the market. We need to supply our neighbors 
and our allies with affordable American energy. It is time to promote 
American energy dominance and show Russia that its energy reserves do 
not give Putin a blank check to attack his neighbors.
  America can provide the energy that our friends and allies need. It 
is time to come to the aid of Poland and Bulgaria, and it is time to 
produce and supply American energy.
  Again, I thank Mr. Johnson for his leadership.

                              {time}  1900

  Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Mr. Speaker, the gentleman is exactly 
right. It is time to shift back to American energy dominance, which we 
had under the previous administration.
  Mr. Speaker, I am happy to yield next to another doctor, the 
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Babin).
  Mr. BABIN. Mr. Speaker, I thank my good friend and neighbor from 
Louisiana. I represent the 36th District in East Texas. I thank the 
gentleman for having this.
  Mr. Speaker, President Biden and his followers here in Congress seem 
to believe that their policies cannot cause inflation, or cause 
shortages of food, or even shortages of baby formula now.
  Instead of accepting their well-deserved blame and providing a 
sensible path forward for the American people, they deflect; they blame 
President Trump, who has been out of office for more than 15 months 
now; or they blame Russia or Ukraine, even though gas and grocery 
prices were skyrocketing well before that conflict even began.
  As polling shows, the majority of Americans are well aware of the 
President's mishandling of our economy. And while I believe that in 
November in those elections, they will show President Biden exactly 
what the American people are thinking about his policies, I don't 
believe that he will actually change course.
  As long as he occupies the Oval Office, it is his duty to serve the 
American people, and I call on President Biden to immediately get with 
the program, Mr. President.
  President Biden, please worry less about who is in charge of Twitter, 
or whether schoolchildren are wearing masks, and stop trying to force 
socialist woke policies on to a public that does not want them. Uphold 
your oath of office, the rule of law, and do your job.
  Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Mr. Speaker, we have been calling on this 
President to do his job since he entered that office, and he hasn't 
done it. I appreciate the gentleman's leadership on all these issues.
  Mr. Speaker, I am happy to yield next to the gentleman from Georgia 
(Mr. Clyde), another good friend.
  Mr. CLYDE. Mr. Speaker, it is no secret that Biden's self-inflicted 
border crisis continues to spiral out of control, and it is only 
getting worse.
  President Biden's reckless immigration agenda may be easy for the 
left to dismiss, because it is what they want, but the heartbreaking 
and illegal consequences of his failed policies are impossible to 
ignore.
  Last week, at just 22 years old, Texas Army National Guard Specialist 
Bishop Evans made the ultimate sacrifice while trying to save two 
illegals from drowning. And you know, those two illegals turned out to 
be alleged drug smugglers. This young man served his country and his 
State honorably

[[Page H4568]]

while fighting on the front lines of President Biden's border crisis.
  To my knowledge, the President still hasn't said one word about this 
young soldier's tragic death. The President's silence is deafening and 
disappointing.
  Keep in mind, it only took the President a matter of hours to accuse 
Border Patrol agents on horseback of misconduct when dealing with a 
rush of Haitian illegals just a few months ago.
  Simply put, the President's lack of interest and empathy reveals the 
sinister, but undeniable, fact that the chaos at our southern border is 
intentional. Since stepping foot into the White House, Joe Biden has 
eagerly destroyed our border security, putting Border Patrol agents at 
risk and threatening every community across the country with an 
invasion of illegal aliens.
  From illegally defying a Federal court order to reinstate the remain 
in Mexico policy, to fighting to terminate title 42 next month, the 
Biden administration has egregiously worked to undermine President 
Trump's successful solutions that protected our southern border.
  Biden's border crisis also represents a significant economic burden 
on the American people.
  According to a recent study written by the Federation for American 
Immigration Reform, or FAIR, the number of illegal aliens living in the 
United States increased by one million in President Biden's first year 
in office, bringing the estimated total of illegal aliens in the 
country to 15.5 million.
  Additionally, FAIR's fiscal analysis finds that the millions of 
illegal aliens currently residing in our great Nation are imposing a 
net fiscal burden of at least $143 billion, an increase of almost $10 
billion since Joe Biden took office.
  Keep in mind, this comes at a time when American taxpayers are 
footing the bill for Democrats' senseless spending and battling the 
consequences of 40-year high inflation.
  The bottom line is that President Biden's radical open-border agenda 
is illegal, intentional, and disastrous for our economy. It is no 
wonder over 60 percent of Americans disapprove of Biden's handling of 
immigration. Americans simply know the truth: President Biden puts 
illegal aliens first and Americans last, and the Biden administration 
is actively working to cover up that truth.
  Today, we learned that Biden's Department of Homeland Security is 
creating a Disinformation Governance Board which will be led by 
political hack Nina Jankowicz. This is nothing more than a blatant 
attempt to install a ministry of truth in order to push Biden's 
propaganda, lies, and radical agenda while concealing and censoring the 
truth about what is really happening at the southern border.
  Mr. Speaker, this is seriously dangerous and wholly unconstitutional, 
which is why I am demanding that Congress immediately investigate 
President Biden and Secretary Mayorkas' Disinformation Governance 
Board.
  We need answers now, Mr. Speaker.
  Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend for his 
clear voice and clarion call for competence and common sense.
  Mr. Speaker, what my colleagues have articulated tonight is our view, 
the American people's view on the debacle that is the unified 
government by the Democrats of the Congress and the White House.
  We have crippling inflation. We have sky high, illegal immigration. 
We have unprecedented incompetence at every level. It has yielded us, 
as you heard tonight, an energy crisis, a crime crisis, a foreign 
policy crisis, and an agenda that seems almost intentional in its 
design to put the American people last instead of first.
  This is the opposite of what was pursued under the previous 
administration, the opposite of the strides, the incredible 
achievements that we had accomplished in the first 2 years of the Trump 
administration with Republicans in charge of this House and the Senate.
  Mr. Speaker, I think the American people have had enough of this 
wildly progressive America last agenda. I think that they are going to 
let their voices be heard in this upcoming election. And it is our 
prayer that we can survive between now and November, and in January 
when we take control again.
  Mr. Speaker, I am grateful to my colleagues for participating and 
joining me on the floor this evening, and I yield back the balance of 
my time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Members are reminded to refrain from 
engaging in personalities toward the President and to address their 
remarks to the Chair.

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