[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 125 (Wednesday, July 27, 2022)]
[House]
[Pages H7240-H7245]
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 Louisiana (Mr. Johnson) is 
recognized for the remainder of the hour as the designee of the 
minority leader.
  Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Madam Speaker, for the remainder of this 
Special Order we will have a number of Republican Members from around 
the country who will come up and address the big issues of the day, the 
continued crises, not the least of which is our economic crisis here on 
the eve of the latest GDP numbers that we all anticipate will confirm 
that we have a recession, even though the administration apparently 
can't even define what ``recession'' is. Instead of trying to fix the 
problems, they are trying to work on the definition of words.
  Madam Speaker, I yield first to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. 
Keller).
  Mr. KELLER. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Louisiana.
  Madam Speaker, I am Fred Keller. My pronouns are he and him, and I am 
a man standing at the podium wearing a blue suit, demanding that border 
czar, Kamala Harris, get serious about securing our southern border, 
rather than playing identity politics.
  The number of illegal aliens crossing at our southern border has 
already surpassed last year's record of 1.7 million encounters. The 
U.S. Border Patrol confirmed in its latest report that there were over 
200,000 encounters in June alone, the fourth consecutive month that 
encounters have been this high.
  Border Patrol's report also revealed that 15,000 unaccompanied 
children were apprehended and released to sponsors without verification 
or documentation to ensure those sponsors are legal residents or U.S. 
citizens.
  This loophole in the Biden administration's sponsor assessment 
process puts these children in danger by exposing them to illegal 
activity, human trafficking, and other dangers.
  Yet, in the same month that this report was released, Secretary 
Mayorkas said that the border was secure. Meanwhile in Congress, 
Democrats refuse to hold a hearing on securing the southern border. In 
fact, Republicans on the Oversight Committee have requested a hearing 
on this issue, not just once, not just twice, but six times. Every 
request has been ignored by the Democrat majority on the committee.
  Beyond their blatant detachment from reality, the Biden 
administration and House Democrats have made it clear they are 
unwilling to take action to secure our border and protect Americans.
  With a new majority after the November elections, Republicans in 
Congress will tackle this issue head-on.
  Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Madam Speaker, I thank my friend; that was 
so well said. As we told Secretary Mayorkas in a Judiciary Committee 
hearing just a few months ago, clearly what he is doing is intentional, 
and I believe that he needs to dust off his resume because we are going 
to have the majority soon, and there will be a reckoning for that.
  Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Tiffany).
  Mr. TIFFANY. Madam Speaker, I live in northern Wisconsin over 1,000 
miles away from the southern border. Yet, the impacts of President 
Biden's open border are being felt right in our backyard.
  A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to meet with the Sawyer County 
Sheriff's Office where they shared the local impacts that they are 
feeling from the Biden administration's open border, especially from 
illegal drugs.

[[Page H7241]]

  Madam Speaker, 1.5 pounds of meth with a cartel stamp was recovered 
in Radisson, Wisconsin, a tiny little burg. Madam Speaker, \1/4\ pound 
of heroin with a cartel stamp was recovered in Sawyer County, and 
fentanyl drug busts have become a regular occurrence. There they are. 
Cartel stamps there. In many respects, they are running America at this 
point.
  Madam Speaker, I agree with Mayor Adams of New York City and Mayor 
Bowser right here in Washington, D.C., that every State is now a border 
State.
  Just look at those images. This is now all over the country poisoning 
Americans. These aren't overdoses, they are poisonings. They are 
deliberate at this point. While you in the mainstream media keep 
deflecting from the Biden-orchestrated crisis at the southern border, 
cartels are getting richer, and Americans are losing loved ones.
  Last year, the U.S. saw a tsunami of overdose deaths, over 100,000 
now dying annually. Fentanyl is now the leading cause of death of 
Americans from 18 to 45. In fact, in my home county of Oneida County 
way up in northern Wisconsin, the sheriff's office noted more people 
died from fentanyl overdoses than anything else for the first time in 
the history of the county.
  Yet, despite the reality of these heartbreaking overdose facts, soft-
on-crime States like California are releasing drug traffickers busted 
with 150,000 fentanyl pills on cashless bail. And to no one's surprise, 
they aren't showing up in court.
  I stand before you today to plead for this body to do something, 
anything, to secure our southern border.
  President Biden, Secretary Mayorkas, and this Democrat-controlled 
Congress has shattered the peace and quiet of too many American 
neighborhoods for far too long, leaving countless families who have 
lost a son or daughter as collateral damage.
  What President Biden is doing on the border--or more accurately what 
he isn't doing--is not working. We do not have operational control of 
our southern border. Look at these images. Look at those images. The 
only people who have operational control are cartels.
  It is time to finish the border wall and the failed policy of catch 
and release and designate the drug cartels as the terrorist 
organizations that they are.
  This shouldn't be a political issue. This is a life-or-death 
situation for many Americans.
  Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Louisiana for this Special 
Order, as we continue to view the degradation of society and the 
horrible images that we continue to see across America.

  Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Madam Speaker, the news is so staggering, 
and it is an incalculable amount of loss that Americans are 
experiencing. I love what the gentleman said: It is not overdoses now, 
it is poisoning. That is exactly right. It is the leading cause of 
death of Americans aged 18 to 49.
  Overdoses, these poisonings, are killing more people than cancer, car 
wrecks, and COVID, all of it. What are we going to do about it?
  Mr. TIFFANY. Will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. I yield to the gentleman from Wisconsin.
  Mr. TIFFANY. Madam Speaker, Secretary Mayorkas has now been called a 
``liar'' by the Border Patrol. The Border Patrol has said: You are not 
telling the American people the truth. We have seen it in the Judiciary 
Committee.
  Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Absolutely. I cannot wait for us to get 
control of the gavel again.
  Madam Speaker, I yield next to the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. 
Rose).
  Mr. ROSE. Madam Speaker, I thank the vice chairman for yielding time 
in this Special Order tonight.
  Madam Speaker, June was the fourth consecutive month, as we have 
already heard, with more than 200,000 migrant encounters along our 
southern border. The total number of illegal immigrant apprehensions 
since this President took office now sits at more than 3.1 million. 
That is on top of more than 800,000 known got-aways.
  It is costing lives. More than 100,000 Americans--many of them young 
Americans--died last year of drug overdoses. Those deaths were fueled 
by fentanyl that illegally came across our border.
  Since last October, Border Patrol has seized more than 8,400 pounds 
of fentanyl. These are not just statistics. They are people, our fellow 
Americans. Their families are forever shattered. Yet, this 
administration continues to fight to end policies like title 42 and 
remain in Mexico, sending a clear message that our borders are open.
  This administration is putting our economic security at risk, our 
national security at risk, and exacerbating a humanitarian crisis. A 
large and growing number of children with limited resources are being 
exploited by the cartels to dangerously run the streets or forced into 
prostitution.
  Additionally, over 1,000 people have died along our border since 
President Biden took office--many while trying to enter our country 
illegally--attracted by the policies of this administration. Instead of 
taking bold action to combat this problem, the Department of Homeland 
Security Secretary Mayorkas continues to claim our border is secure.
  Texas Department of Public Safety Sergeant Marc Couch sees the 
humanitarian crisis every day along the Rio Grande Valley. He recently 
told Fox News that to say the border is secure is: ``a misnomer of a 
statement that has no truth in it.''
  I agree. But I would like to put it a different way. Secretary 
Mayorkas' claim is grossly misleading. In fact, it is just flat wrong, 
so much so that it is difficult to understand how he could in good 
faith believe what he is saying to the American people.
  Madam Speaker, I usually end these speeches by urging the President 
to do better with regard to our border, but the reality is we know this 
administration has little or no appetite for securing our border and 
instead prefers to appeal to its far-left base.
  It falls on Congress to hold the executive branch accountable when it 
fails to uphold our laws. So, I will close today by urging 
congressional Democrats to do their job, and as the House majority at 
least until January, join Republicans to hold this administration 
accountable.
  Let's take a break from voting on messaging bills that have no chance 
of passing in the Senate. Let's find ways to come together and finally 
secure our border. This should be a top priority for both parties 
because open borders make every State a border State and put America at 
risk.
  Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Madam Speaker, that was so well said. The 
gentleman is right; every single State is a border State, and I know 
the good people of Tennessee are just as concerned as my friends in 
Louisiana and also in the State of Georgia.
  Madam Speaker, I yield next to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. 
Allen).
  Mr. ALLEN. Madam Speaker, I appreciate Mr. Johnson's leadership here 
during this Special Order hour.
  Madam Speaker, since President Biden took office, his administration 
has purposely and without remorse started a war on fossil fuels and 
American energy independence. This is destroying our economy, and it is 
creating a tremendous burden on the American people.
  Biden's failed energy policies have led him to beg, of all places, 
Saudi Arabia to increase their global energy supply instead of 
unleashing our domestic oil and gas production.
  This is insanity.
  Let me tell you, when I am in my district, nobody asks me about 
climate change. But let me tell you, when I am filling up my car with 
gas, people come over to me who know me, and they say: ``What are you 
going to do about this?'' That is when I remind them that when 
Republicans held the majority, we unleashed the American economy and 
the power of the American energy and energy independence, and we did 
this for the first time since 1957.
  And what happened? Gas was under $3 a gallon, and we actually 
exceeded the Paris Climate Agreement targets for reducing emissions 
without even being subject to that agreement.
  America wasn't just energy independent; we were energy dominant. We 
did it once; we can do it again. We don't need to beg other countries 
to produce more oil. We should be doing it right here in the United 
States where we produce energy more cleanly and efficiently than any 
place else in the world.

[[Page H7242]]

  American oil and gas emits 30 percent fewer greenhouse gas emissions 
than other countries, especially Russia. Here is the bottom line: Oil 
and natural gas remain essential in delivering the baseload power 
necessary to sustain American homes, businesses, and livelihoods.

  Madam Speaker, if we are serious about bringing energy prices down 
and delivering real relief to the American people, we must invest in 
American energy and reclaim our energy independence.
  Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for 
his comments, and he is right. The energy crisis is a direct result of 
policy choices. It could be reversed if Democrats would simply 
acknowledge their error, but I am afraid they won't.
  Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. 
Grothman).
  Mr. GROTHMAN. Madam Speaker, I think we need a little more talk about 
inflation. I know when we get home it is always the number one issue 
that is out there. I don't think there has been enough talk about how 
the inflation came about.
  The inflation came about because of excessive spending. Every middle 
school student should know that if the Federal Government spends wildly 
more on the amount going out than the amount going in, the Federal 
Reserve has to, in essence, print the dollars to make those payments, 
and when the Federal Reserve prints more dollars, the value of the 
dollar drops, which is why we have these huge spending increases.

                              {time}  1900

  Now, I will make a couple of comments on them.
  First of all, I think the numbers that we are supposed to talk about, 
the 9.1 increase in inflation, are woefully underrated. Here is the 
graph that all of us politicos are supposed to talk about.
  Does anybody believe that the cost of shelter in the last 12 months 
has only gone up 5.6 percent? Where is the press? They ought to be 
making fun of that number.
  When I talk to my landlords, when I talk to my builders, nobody 
thinks things have gone up only 5.6 percent in the last year. I think 
the cost of a new house has gone up 20 to 25 percent. I think the cost 
of rentals has gone up by 10 or 15 percent. It is way more than the 5.6 
percent on this chart.
  The same thing is true of automobiles. They tell us used automobiles 
have gone up by about 11.4 percent in the last year. Talk to your car 
dealers. They will laugh at the idea that used cars have only gone up 
by 11.4 percent in the last year.
  Things are much worse than the numbers that are put out there by the 
Biden administration. Therefore, the American public is suffering a lot 
more than even this so-called record inflation increase of 9.1. It is 
much more than that.
  But once we get done looking at that, let's look at the new spending 
bills that are coming out. Have people learned their lesson? All of a 
sudden, we are going to produce even on the relatively small part of 
the budget, this discretionary spending, which is the part we vote on 
around here? Are we going to do something to maybe have no increase 
there or 2 or 3 percent increase there? No.
  When we look at the bills, some of which we passed last week, and 
they break up what I think the people at home would call the budget 
into a variety of different bills, military construction and veterans 
affairs, people want an 18 percent increase for the year beginning 
October 1; financial services and general government, 17 percent 
increase; the Department of the Interior and the environment, up 18 
percent.
  In other words, even after the horrific inflation, when we come back 
to the regular budget, this place has the pedal to the metal, trying to 
spend another huge amount.
  I think the press ought to wake up and pay attention to both of these 
issues. I beg the press to talk to your local car dealers, to talk to 
your local landlords and see: Have we only had a 5.6 percent increase 
in shelter? Have we only had a 7.1 percent increase in used cars? No 
way. They are giving us numbers that are much lower than the reality.
  The press ought to look at this, and rather than just sleepwalk 
through these budgets that get passed around here, we ought to be 
paying a little bit more attention to the sizable increases in these 
budgets, line by line, or the amount of inflation we have seen so far 
would be a drop in the bucket. Wake up, American press corps.
  Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Madam Speaker, I have never seen my friend 
so animated.
  It is time for that because it is an existential crisis to the 
country. Truly, when we asked the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff 
what the greatest threat to America is, they don't say China first. 
They say the national debt. It is just out of control.
  Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Sessions).
  Mr. SESSIONS. Madam Speaker, Congressman Johnson comes down here week 
in and week out and talks about not just the problems that face our 
great Nation but really the discussions that I want to bring tonight 
about families who sit at home, families who sit around before they 
perhaps watch TV or when they come home from church. They are talking 
about their lives, the lives of their children, and the things which 
concern them most.
  I remember well just a few years ago when America had the greatest of 
times that it has perhaps ever had: a stock market reaching the highest 
levels; employment in America that was the highest level we had ever 
had; more African Americans, more Hispanic, more women, more people at 
work with a growing economy; housing aplenty.
  It was full of opportunity from an economic perspective that came as 
a result from what I think was discipline, discipline from Republicans 
who had been in the majority. Yes, I was one of those Republicans, and 
I had an opportunity to serve as chairman of the Committee on Rules for 
6 years.
  During those 6 years, 2013 to 2019, we held a disciplined view of the 
budget and of spending. We held a disciplined view that meant that we 
did not spend one penny more in discretionary spending than we did in 
2008, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018.
  It allowed the free enterprise system to grow. It allowed Americans 
the opportunity to not have government grabbing at them or 
overburdening their jobs. It meant that the free enterprise system with 
gasoline, with cars being built, with opportunity, with economic 
success was on the rise.
  Madam Speaker, tonight, we will say to you that that changed. That 
changed on January 20, a year ago. This Trump boost that we had, this 
opportunity where Republicans were growing our economy, it all of a 
sudden changed on January 20, a full year and a half ago when President 
Biden came in and immediately did exactly what had been done by 
President Clinton, what had been done by President Obama, and that is a 
massive spending bill. None that was talked about during the election, 
but as soon as they got control, a massive spending bill.
  This is virtually the same kind of policy that President Biden's 
favorite President, Jimmy Carter, had when I was in college that led to 
18 percent interest rates. A whole generation of people that had to dig 
themselves out of paying too much for the day-to-day products that they 
needed.
  We are back to that. We are back to that because of excessive 
government spending that started here in the House of Representatives. 
The Democratic Party tonight was on record asking us to please come and 
vote with them on more Big Government, more spending.
  Well, the word is out that we are close to entering a recession. This 
is something that comes because Democrats have made inflation their 
friend. They have done the things for inflation that would have it 
roaring back to rob the American people not only of any gains they made 
under President Trump, but to rob them as they face their future, as 
our children are attempting to go to college, as they are planning for 
their future of retirement, but, more importantly, as they go to simply 
try to fill up their cars with gasoline, as they move forward to try to 
live their lives and make their families more successful.

  Madam Speaker, this comes as a result of politics. It is politics, 
pure and simple. On the one hand, you had Republicans and President 
Trump working diligently to give people an opportunity for not just a 
job but a career,

[[Page H7243]]

not just to fill up their gas tank but to prepare them and their 
children for getting out and getting their own career.
  No wonder almost three in five children are back living in their 
homes with their parents. They get through with college, and they come 
back. This is exactly, Congressman Johnson, what we saw when President 
Obama was President.
  Our message tonight is one of hope and opportunity. Republicans will 
offer a vision, as we do on the floor here every day, about spending 
and the opportunity to balance out what the American people want and 
need. They want and need to do away with inflation. They want to go 
back to work. They don't want to be incented by this administration to 
get money but stay at home. They recognize that the President pushing 
the Fed to dump $110 billion into the economy every single month simply 
means that we have more that we have to pay on interest.
  Madam Speaker, I want you to know that Republicans are on the floor 
tonight to offer opportunity, and the most important thing we would say 
is this: Don't make friends with inflation. Don't do the things that 
this administration and this Secretary of the Treasury have done. Don't 
have Big Government programs. Don't incent people to come and break the 
law. By golly, don't spend the $10 million on fake IDs that the 
Democratic Party calls secure IDs for people who come to this country 
so they could travel around.
  Madam Speaker, people are weary. They are around their tables and 
talking, and they know that November is around the corner.
  Congressman Johnson, I thank you for taking the time to come gather 
together every week with a message of hope and opportunity. Tonight, it 
is not just that. It is reality.
  Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Great words, my friend. I am so thankful 
that you summarized again how ideas have consequences.
  Madam Speaker, that is our concern. These are policy choices that 
have led to all this pain for families and individuals in all of our 
communities, and it just seems like madness to us. But our message is 
hopeful because we are going to turn the corner. We are going to lead 
this country in a new direction, and we are excited to relay that to 
people.
  Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. 
Meuser).
  Mr. MEUSER. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. 
Johnson), my good friend, the vice chair, for his leadership.
  Madam Speaker, my constituents tend to say this phrase very often 
lately. They have had enough.
  Madam Speaker, American families, seniors, and small business owners 
are struggling to keep up with skyrocketing inflation. That is not news 
to anyone. Families are contending with high prices at the grocery 
store just to put food on their table and canceling summer vacations 
due to record-high gas prices. Small business owners are being squeezed 
with the increased prices of supplies, shipping costs, wages, you name 
it, while they are seeing reduced revenues from customers who are 
reducing their own spending, of course.
  Our seniors, many living on fixed incomes, are struggling to maintain 
their basic quality of life, afford necessities, and the gasoline it 
takes to travel to their doctor appointments. But, Madam Speaker, you 
don't have to take my word for it.
  This week, I asked my constituents how inflation has impacted their 
daily lives. In less than 24 hours, I received over 1,400 responses 
from seniors, from small business owners, from mothers and fathers from 
every corner of my district who are struggling to keep up with 
inflation.
  A few examples: Michelle from Schuylkill County had to cancel 
necessary doctor appointments because she cannot afford the current 
price of gasoline.
  Karl and his family from Carbon County had to cancel their vacation 
due to astronomical gas prices.
  William from Carbon County has informed me that inflation has gotten 
so bad that he must choose between eating or whether to fill up a gas 
tank to attend his needed doctor appointments.
  Rick, a small business owner from Luzerne County, has had to slow 
down his business expansion and is unable to hire new employees while 
also having to raise prices just to keep his business afloat.
  Scott from Lebanon County has been unable to visit his elderly father 
due to inflation slashing into his savings.
  These are actual responses from my constituents.
  Today, Madam Speaker, I had small business owners and constituents 
from my district in for a small business roundtable. Some of their 
feedback on inflation included fighting the headwinds rather than 
extending any of their resources to grow their business, delaying 
growth and delaying projects and hiring.
  One constituent who does construction stated that the recent T&I bill 
that was passed in this House will now create 30 percent less projects 
in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania because of the high level of 
inflation. That really hits home, to say the least.
  Madam Speaker, I have to say that in only 18 months, my constituents 
are right. They have had enough.
  Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Madam Speaker, this is a great reminder 
that this is real pain for real people. This is not a game here. What 
we do affects the lives of all of our constituents, all Americans, and 
we have a responsibility to fix it.
  Mr. MEUSER. We do. We can.
  Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Thank you for highlighting that.
  Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from the State of California 
(Mr. LaMalfa), a good friend of mine.

                              {time}  1915

  Mr. LaMALFA. Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague from Louisiana again 
for leading us here tonight and getting the message out to the American 
people that this doesn't have to be this way. What we are going 
through--what we are all going through--together, with the increased 
costs and with shortages is unnecessary.
  This isn't caused by nature with a hurricane or a tornado or a fire 
or an earthquake or even a war, though some are trying to point to the 
actions by Putin and Russia and Ukraine being responsible for 
everything. This is a government-caused situation we are seeing with 
inflation in fuel and energy. It doesn't have to be this way.
  So what is really disheartening as a Representative of folks is that 
we know our constituents, good people, are suffering from inflation. It 
is impacting everyday Americans and northern Californians in my 
district, everybody.
  I have firsthand accounts from people in my district who are 
struggling financially due to these rising prices and inflation. 
Inflation is a tax on every American, as my colleagues have been 
saying. And we are hoping people will hear.
  Rural Americans are feeling additional financial struggles even more 
so probably than the urban dwellers, but maybe it is the same. Maybe it 
is just different.
  Rural residents tend to drive more. They have to drive farther 
distances to do what they do if they work on a ranch or live on a 
ranch, a timber operation or a mining operation, or they just live out. 
Maybe they are a park ranger. Maybe they take care of the parks. There 
are many reasons why you would live in a rural part of the State of 
California or any part of America, Madam Speaker.
  That puts more mileage on your vehicle and uses more gas. You may 
tend to have a four-wheel drive vehicle in those areas, Madam Speaker, 
because you might have snow. There are other reasons that you might 
have to have a vehicle that has a little more oomph, a little more 
ability to get around than perhaps one in southern California. So it is 
likely they are going to use a little more gasoline to go where they 
need to go, and getting gasoline delivered to areas like that costs a 
little more. It is a little higher.
  In my northern California district it is not uncommon to see $6 on 
the sign for diesel or even premium gasoline--$6. It is routinely $6 
for diesel. A lot of people drive diesel vehicles.
  They have less retail options nearby. Their stores ship from farther 
distances, so the trucks that brought it--``if you got it, a truck 
brought it'' is the saying--have to ship it farther to get there. So 
that store might need to

[[Page H7244]]

have just a little higher price to cover shipment. So further shipping, 
all these things just add up, especially for rural residents, on that. 
But they have a reason why they are rural residents, and we need them 
to be for producing what they produce in rural areas that we all use.
  So a couple of residents in northern California, I would like to 
share what their issue is and what their struggle is.
  The first story is about an elderly woman from Redding in northern 
California, which is one of the large cities in my district. She has 
had a tough life and grew up in an abusive household. She is very smart 
and very artistically talented, actually. But as she aged she began 
dealing with mental illness and confided she has begun to think of 
death as an alternative to her struggling. What a cheery situation for 
her.
  After her mental health struggles became too much, it forced her out 
of the workforce. She began living on a fixed income of $900 a month. 
With $900--money is already tight--and she has had even more setbacks. 
Now, like most people, she has a family pet. She has a dog. Well, that 
dog happened to get sick, like it happens, and the bill for that was 
$500.
  Where is she going to get $500 on a $900 monthly income?
  Maybe she can spread it out over time if the veterinarian works with 
her. So she ended up having to sell her truck for $180 because she 
could no longer afford the gasoline and needed the money to pay 
utilities and other bills. Recently she ran out of food completely and 
went without food for several days. Even the local food bank--God bless 
them, they are doing really good work and they are becoming even more 
stretched and more tapped--the food bank had run out.
  She ended up calling a friend who bought some groceries for her. She 
said that the cost of everything is so expensive now that even cutting 
out spending any personal money on personal things or elective things 
or maybe luxuries by having maybe a little meat on your plate, she is 
still unable to pay her bills.
  She doesn't have cable or TV. She listens to the free books on tape 
from the Library of Congress. She said that she holds President Biden 
directly responsible for what is happening, the President and the 
policies of the majority here in Congress and even in Sacramento, in my 
home State of California. She does hope that President Biden can hear 
how the economy doesn't work for low-income people.
  I think she understands that trillions and trillions of dollars of 
debt, and spending money you don't have and printing more money--
inflation-causing money--isn't going to get her out of it either. We 
have to have an economy that works for normal people, productive 
people, and so folks like her can be helped.
  Even after all this, though, you have to admire her. She said she 
considers herself lucky because she still has a roof over her head.
  Another story in a different sector is about a family who lives just 
south of the Oregon border in what is known as the Klamath Basin, the 
Klamath River area. There are a lot of farmers up there. There are 
issues with the dams that are in place that help make low-cost 
hydroelectric power.
  So one day after the public comment period closed on the Klamath Dam 
destruction that is being put in place with the help of the Federal 
Government and a lot of lawsuits--this was in April--the family 
patriarch suffered a stroke and was found by his children unconscious 
and unresponsive.

  Madam Speaker, if you don't think the stress of being put out of 
business by a government that has taken away your water, your 
electricity, and driving your costs through the roof wouldn't have a 
part in that stroke for that family member, the family patriarch, you 
are not paying attention.
  He was airlifted to Klamath Falls in Oregon which is only a 15-minute 
flight but a 2\1/2\ hour drive. You are getting the picture, I think, 
of what rural issues we are dealing with, the challenges of people 
trying to farm so the country has food in this case.
  Now, every week the entire family has to make the trek back up to 
Klamath Falls since it is the closest specialist in occupational 
therapy. So they schlep that trip back and forth with expensive fuel 
and long distance, but they need to do it in order to do what they do. 
They need to stay the night in a hotel since the drive over and back is 
a little too much to do in 1 day given the appointment schedule.
  So the husband is only getting a little less than $500 a month from 
disability for the family to live on, and each week they must make that 
5-hour trip, gas, hotels, meals, et cetera. Of course, these costs are 
devastating to them. Inflation is driving much of this cost.
  Things are going to happen to people--that we know. But at least 
making them a little more affordable by having an economy that works 
for the American people, especially lower- and middle-income folks who 
are suffering firsthand from the high cost of everything driven by a 
government policy that is hurting us.
  This green new deal stuff is not an answer for low-and middle-income 
people. Forcing them to be in an electric car--let them eat cake is 
what it practically sounds like when the Transportation Secretary says 
that we can just replace it with electric cars.
  No, we have to endure some pain. Nobody in Washington is enduring any 
pain, not in the Cabinet and not in Congress. No one would feel sorry 
for us anyway, and they shouldn't. It is the American public who is 
enduring the pain while people just callously say: Well, these high 
prices on fuel are just part of the transition to an electric future.
  Well, in my home State, electricity barely stays on as it is now 
because they are pulling out the hydroelectric dams, as I just 
mentioned, on the Klamath. The water they are running out of Lake 
Oroville and Lake Shasta down through the river and out through the 
delta, that doesn't make hydroelectric power during part of the year.
  Lake Oroville, for example, ran out of the ability to make hydropower 
because the lake reached historic lows in its entire history. We are 
seeing that getting ready to happen in Nevada on Lake Mead, dead pools 
soon.
  These are government policies that drive inflation, the cost of food, 
the cost of electricity, and everything that is harming the American 
public.
  So I have to ask the question, once again, to President Biden, his 
Cabinet, and even the majority in these two Houses here: Whose side are 
you on? A green new deal, a la-di-da agenda, or the struggles of the 
American people?
  I hope the American public asks that question of themselves: Who is 
trying to help and who is causing the harm?
  Think about that really hard I ask you. We are not here just for 
kicks. I am not here because I love to wear a suit. We are fighting for 
you. We are fighting for what is right. So please pay attention and 
decide for yourself who is trying to help and who is causing the harm.
  I know Mr. Johnson is doing great work by helping us with this 
message. If people aren't going to pay attention to what is really 
causing it, then I don't know how we can help them. But please take 
this message away with you and we will do what we can. We are fighting 
here in Congress. We are fighting to get the message out and put policy 
reforms in place that indeed are going to help.
  So I thank the gentleman for the time tonight and for his faithful 
efforts here.
  Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Madam Speaker, I thank my friend for his 
faithful efforts and being such a clarion call and a voice of reason.
  One of the things that is necessary to maintain a constitutional 
Republic as the Founders warned us is that you have to have an informed 
and engaged electorate. I think people are paying attention now. I 
think they are feeling the pain, and it is drawing awareness to our 
situation. I think they are going to evaluate.
  I am hopeful and optimistic, so we can turn some of this around. I 
thank my friend for his efforts.
  Madam Speaker, you heard a recurring theme here tonight, whether we 
focus tonight on the economic crisis, the border crisis, the energy 
crisis--all the many crises--the common theme is this: If you review 
the facts objectively, Madam Speaker, then the evidence shows that all 
of these are intentional. They are intentional. These are the 
foreseeable and obvious results of the Democrats' policy choices of the

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Biden administration and the Democrats that run both Houses of 
Congress.
  House Republicans, on the other hand--as all my colleagues tonight 
have pointed out--are optimistic. We are so looking forward to the 
upcoming August district work period so that we can take our vision for 
a new direction for this country directly to the American people.
  I believe that message is going to be well-received. I think people 
are desperate for the answers, and we have solutions to all the great 
challenges facing this country.
  Madam Speaker, I thank all my colleagues, once again, for being 
faithful and being here tonight for this Special Order.
  Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

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