[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 103 (Tuesday, June 13, 2023)]
[House]
[Pages H2879-H2882]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           ENGAGING IN DEBATE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 9, 2023, the Chair recognizes the gentleman from Texas (Mr. 
Roy) for 30 minutes.
  Mr. ROY. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend from Wisconsin who frequently 
comes down to the floor and engages and uses the Special Orders, as we 
call them. It is great to see him down here.
  I often state I wish we would have more engaged debate on the floor 
of the House, actual debate, not just the kind of fake debate where we 
go back and forth for an hour equally divided over a bill that we 
pretty much predetermined will be passed on a partisan basis but 
actually pick an issue and engage in thoughtful debate back and forth 
about a topic.
  I would encourage any of my colleagues who are willing to do so on, 
frankly, either side of the aisle where we have reasonable 
disagreements that we could engage and try to deal with.
  The fact is for too long, in this country, in the House of 
Representatives, we have been dealing with a uniparty.
  We have been dealing with essentially not a lot of difference in 
terms of the total output of what this town does.
  We have strong disagreement here on the floor. We pass bills. We get 
them passed that nobody on that side of the aisle is going to vote for 
and vice versa, knowing they are going to go to the Senate and die or 
knowing they are going to get to the White House and not be signed or 
knowing they are not going to have 60 votes in the Senate.
  When push comes to shove on the things that matter, when we come to a 
spending bill, it is all the same. It ends up being effectively the 
same. It is the only explanation for being $32 trillion in debt.
  Now, by virtue of the bipartisan effort of this body, the bipartisan 
effort of the Senate, the signature of the President, we now know we 
will be roughly $36 trillion in debt in January of 2025.
  We know this, and we did it. We embraced it, but we didn't materially 
change the trajectory. Yeah, we dented it a tiny fraction.
  We had a spending freeze for 2 years that is a part of a deal that 
isn't even yet consummated because we haven't done the appropriations 
process.
  We patted ourselves on the back--some of us did--for oh, well, we had 
to get this done because we might default.
  Every time we talk about this effort, it is that we must raise the 
debt ceiling, or we are going to get to a place where we are going to 
default on the debt.
  The fact is, it is just simply not true. We were never going to 
default on the debt. The President of the United States was never going 
to choose in terms of the prioritization of payments to end up in a 
place where we were not going to make the payments on the interest on 
the bonds. That is just a fact.

                              {time}  2130

  We play this game. To raise the debt ceiling and increase the 
borrowing level, we say, wait, maybe we should get some changes for 
that.
  We get up to the date, and what happens? People say we are going to 
default. All of Wall Street calls all the folks and say, well, you are 
going to do that, aren't you? Everybody hops, both sides of the aisle.
  Here we sit, yet again, going from $32 trillion to now, predictably, 
$36 trillion in January 2025. As sure as the Sun coming up, the House 
of Representatives, the Senate, and the President just agreed to 
mortgage your children's future again because that is what we do. That 
is what the House of Representatives does.
  The point here is, as I said, we were never going to default on our 
debt. What we are going to do with almost the same amount of certainty 
as what I just described is default on the American Dream. That is 
where we are headed, a full-scale, unequivocal default on the American 
Dream.
  This is all led by the people who are supposed to be representing the 
American people in this great Republic but who are barreling us right 
down the path, if we are not there already, to default on the American 
Dream.
  The hardworking American family right now, today, is sitting out 
there in this country unable to afford groceries, unable to afford gas, 
unable to afford housing, and unable to afford healthcare.
  I talked to staffers in this building in their twenties, and they 
looked at me and asked: How am I ever going to afford to buy a house?
  They genuinely mean it. They don't know.
  The hardworking plumber in the district I represent in central Texas 
who never took out a student loan is now being forced to pay for his 
neighbor's master's degree.
  The veteran is paying for some liberal arts major to get the same 
student loan benefits he earned by risking his life for America.
  The nurse wants to save lives without a Federal bureaucrat telling 
her she needs to take a needle in her arm to keep her job.
  The blue-collar workers are watching their way of life sacrificed to 
the climate cult and billions of corporate crony tax subsidies in the 
so-called Inflation Reduction Act, enriching elite, wealthy investors--
true--and corporations--true--all while empowering the Chinese 
Communist Party, weakening our own grid, and undermining our own 
national security--all true.
  The rancher right now in Texas who is putting diesel in his truck is 
forced to subsidize a tech worker making six figures to buy a Tesla 
hundreds of miles away. This body just encouraged it.
  Minority and poor taxpayers are trying to make ends meet but have 
expanded IRS audits, three to five times more than other Americans.
  The fact is, we are on the verge of defaulting on the American Dream.
  It is not enough to play politics and just pass something and then 
try to point the finger at the other party. Well, we just got this, and 
it is better. That ain't working. It is simply not working.
  We had a rather raucous meeting in our Republican Conference this 
morning. I make it a practice not to talk

[[Page H2880]]

about what we do in private meetings. Some of my colleagues do not 
adhere to that same standard or rule. It tends to leak like a sieve. A 
lot of the conversations we had in that private meeting are not fully 
private now.
  To my colleagues on both sides of the aisle, but particularly my 
colleagues on this side of the aisle, my Republican colleagues, let me 
be very clear: I will be happy to engage personally anytime, anywhere, 
on any of these issues. We can have disagreements, and we can 
reasonably disagree. I am going to say emphatically right here in front 
of God, in front of all the people I represent in this hallowed 
Chamber, I don't give a rat's rear end what you think compared to what 
my constituents think. I don't.
  My job is to care what my constituents think. My job is to care about 
people on the airplane or down the street who pull me aside every day 
and thank me and thank a few of my colleagues for daring to stand up 
against the uniparty and an institution that is trampling their way of 
life. I will stand with them.
  I will stand with the American people sick of having the American 
Dream pulled out from under them. I will stand with them.
  I will be happy to work with my colleagues. I love and respect many 
of my colleagues. I do not answer to my colleagues. I answer to the 
people I represent, and I am going to darn well stand up and defend 
them.
  I am going to fight to stop spending money we don't have. I am going 
to fight to secure the border of the United States. I am going to fight 
for all the people I just described who are losing their ability to 
afford a home, afford groceries, to be able to carry out 
their livelihood, their job, without being forced to take a needle.

  I am going to fight for the guy trying to put diesel in his truck and 
not have to subsidize a Tesla. I am going to fight for people to have a 
stable grid. I am going to fight for the national security of this 
country. I am going to fight to stop China from encroaching on this 
country.
  I am not going to give lip service for ads to go win political 
campaigns when you did nothing. I am not going to do that. I am not 
going to try to sell the American people on something that didn't 
occur.
  That is what we do in this body all the time. It is time that stops. 
We have a duty--yes, a bipartisan duty.
  If any one of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle would 
actually like to join the party of standing up for the American people 
and standing up in defense of this country instead of a radical leftist 
ideology that results in a pride flag being hung at the same level as 
the United States flag on the front of the White House and people 
parading around topless in front of the White House, the people's house 
for their President--have we no respect? Does the flag of the United 
States mean nothing?
  It is the flag of the United States. Men and women have died for that 
flag, and they put that flag up to the side, flanking a pride flag on 
the front of the United States President's house. It is despicable. 
They did that right on the eve of Flag Day.
  Tomorrow is Flag Day. The flag of the United States stands for 
something so much bigger than any of these people running around 
pretending like they are standing up for, oh, we can't have established 
religion, and we are for the separation of church and state. Yet, their 
religion is represented by that pride flag on the front of the White 
House. It is a religion, just like the cult of climate fetishism is a 
religion every bit as much as any religion.
  How many lives have been lost with that flag on a patch on the arm of 
one of our men and women who have fought for this country, and that is 
what they do? I am at a loss for words. I really am.

                              {time}  2140

  Mr. Speaker, I am going to read one thing here, and then I am going 
to yield to my friend from Pennsylvania. It is going to take me a 
couple of minutes.
  One of my favorite songs is ``The Ragged Old Flag'' by Johnny Cash. I 
will not do this nearly as cool as Johnny Cash does.
  It goes like this:

     I walked through a county courthouse square.
     On a park bench, an old man was sitting there.
     I said, ``Your old courthouse is kinda rundown.''
     He said, ``Naw, it'll do for our little town.''
     I said, ``Your old flagpole has leaned a little bit,
     and that's a Ragged Old Flag you got hanging on it.''
     He said, ``Have a seat,'' and I sat down.
     ``Is this the first time you've been to our little town?''
     I said, ``I think it is.''
     He said, ``I don't like to brag, but we're kinda proud of
     that Ragged Old Flag.''
     ``You see, we got a little hole in that flag there
     when Washington took it across the Delaware.
     And it got powder-burned the night Francis Scott Key sat
     watching it writing `Oh, Say Can You See.'
     And it got a rip in New Orleans with Packingham and
     Jackson tuggin' at its seams.''
     ``And it almost fell at the Alamo beside the Texas flag,
     but she waved on through.
     She got cut with a sword at Chancellorsville
     and she got cut again at Shiloh Hill.
     There was Robert E. Lee, Beauregard and Bragg,
     and the south wind blew hard on that Ragged Old Flag.''
     ``On Flanders Field in World War I
     she got a big hole from a Bertha gun.
     She turned blood red in World War II.
     She hung limp and low by the time it was through.
     She was in Korea and Vietnam.
     she went where she was sent by her Uncle Sam.''
     ``She waved from our ships upon the briny foam,
     and now they've about quit waving her back here at home.
     In her own good land here she's been abused--she's been 
           burned,
     dishonored, denied and refused.''
     ``And the government for which she stands is scandalized
     throughout the land.
     And she's getting threadbare and wearing thin,
     but she's in good shape, for the shape she's in.
     `Cause she's been through the fire before
     and I believe she can take a whole lot more.''
     ``So we raise her up every morning
     take her down every night.
     We don't let her touch the ground and we fold her up right.
     On second thought, I do like to brag,
     'cause I'm mighty proud of that Ragged Old Flag.''

  On tomorrow, Flag Day, I hope we will honor the American flag. I know 
that my friend from Pennsylvania is proud to be a Member of Congress, 
but certainly I would think more proud to have worn the uniform of the 
United States military and devote his life in service to his country.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Perry).
  Mr. PERRY. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend, the gentleman from Texas, 
for bringing up this subject.
  Each one of us feels maybe differently. I don't know whether people 
know this or not, but there is actually a United States Flag Code. 
There is a decorum that we are supposed to follow when displaying the 
flag: how you wear it, if you wear it. The flag is not supposed to be 
festooned. The flag is not clothing.
  The flag, the standard of America, the standard of freedom, and the 
standard of liberty recognized around the globe, is second to no other 
flag at all. To have it fly flanking the Pride flag on the White 
House--my friend said he was at a loss for words. I too am.
  I communicate home every day. Just this morning, I talked to my wife. 
I let her know I love her. We get on with our day, and we reconnect in 
the evening.
  This morning, I reminded my children--not thinking about what was 
going to happen at the White House, having no clue--but I reminded my 
children that tomorrow is Flag Day, make sure you get up early, get the 
flag, and fly the flag in the front of our House because it is 
important that America and my community know that their Representative 
respects what our country is about and its standard.
  It is a new low every single day. My friend from Texas has talked 
about it as appropriately and as particularly as anybody can, the 
destruction of this country, evidenced in so many different ways. Every 
day you wake up, you turn on the TV, you open a newspaper, you listen 
to the radio, or you talk to somebody, and you say to yourself: I can't 
believe this is happening in America.
  Every day you think we have reached the apex of the nadir, the lowest 
of the low. Every day the left takes us to a

[[Page H2881]]

new place of a new low of a new disrespect of a new destruction of the 
country that we love.
  So I am very, very proud to stand with my friend, the gentleman from 
Texas, to say that there is an urgency to saving and to restoring this 
Republic.
  We always stand up speaking of the flag and pledge allegiance to the 
flag, and we say: ``to the Republic for which it stands.''
  Most people, I would guarantee you, Mr. Speaker, don't know what a 
republic is. I am going to school you really quickly here: A republic 
is a place where the individual citizen is supreme and is sovereign, 
and their views, represented by the people they elect, are supreme and 
sovereign.
  I ask you, Mr. Speaker, in a country where there is some agency--
where no one was elected and there is no accountability--that says: You 
are not going to be able to drive the car you choose and you are not 
going to be able to buy a stove to cook your family meal unless the 
government approves, is that a republic?
  I would argue that it is not. I would argue that it is not, 
unfortunately.
  So I am proud, I am happy, and I am gratified to stand here in the 
people's House with my good friend from Texas and say that I, too, 
understand the urgency. I too, will not accept any more. I, too, will 
withstand the ire of some of my colleagues here if it means defending 
the people at home who sent me here to defend them from the tyranny 
that emanates from this town, this building, and this institution by 
the uniparty or by the establishment or whatever you want to call them 
that feathers their nest with the hard-earned dollars of the people 
whom I represent at home who can't afford their groceries, a new house, 
a new car, or to send their kids to school.

  I am sick of it. I'm going to do everything I can with the moments 
that I have every single time I have a moment so that I don't have to 
look back and say: I wish I would have.
  I am not going to do that.
  Every single moment of every day where there is fight in me and there 
is a fight to be had, I am going to be in it supporting those folks and 
defending those folks back home from Pennsylvania's 10th district and, 
quite honestly and quite literally, across the great United States of 
America.
  I will stand by.
  Mr. ROY. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend from Pennsylvania.
  Again, I want to reiterate on this eve of Flag Day my appreciation 
for his service to this country wearing the uniform and in Congress. He 
understands what citizenship means.
  I am deeply appreciative of him for that. I am deeply appreciative of 
his friendship. I am deeply appreciative of the friendships I have here 
in this Congress, my colleagues whom I am proud to serve with across 
the spectrum, but particularly those colleagues who are willing to 
stand in the fire when it is needed.
  We don't have much time left, Mr. Speaker. I don't say that lightly. 
You cannot look at this country with objective and clear eyes and 
believe that we are on the right path. We are not. We are so far off 
the right path that it is going to take a massive course correction and 
trajectory change to save this great Republic for our kids and 
grandkids.
  That is not hyperbole. Our children and our grandchildren are on the 
precipice inheriting now--booked, as I said before--$36 trillion of 
debt guaranteed, give or take a few billion, in January of 2025.
  I am just going to be honest. To be lectured by some of my colleagues 
this morning, to be lectured about my motivations for why I am here on 
the floor of the House and standing up and speaking right now and for 
it to be alleged that it is for clicks or for money, the only thing 
that would have made it more ironic is if that meeting had occurred in 
the NRCC.
  The fact is it is our job right now to stand up and defend the 
country and not wait for some time in the future.
  I don't want to hear another thing about, Well, we will do it when. 
We will do it when we have the Senate. We will do it when we have 60 in 
the Senate. We will do it when we have a bigger majority. We will do it 
when we have someone in the White House.
  Why don't we do it right now? Right now?
  Let's have these debates. Let's have these fights out on the floor of 
the House right now, because I can promise you, the debt deal that we 
just passed ain't going to get the job done. It is not, and everybody 
here knows it.

                              {time}  2150

  Yet, they are going to go out and sell it as if it is something that 
it isn't; thinks, well, that is water under the bridge. Well, that is a 
hell of a lot of water under the bridge. There is $4 trillion worth of 
water under that bridge.
  Now we have got to go to work to pass appropriations bills. Will 
those appropriations bills turn the trajectory of this country away 
from the iceberg? That is my question for my colleagues.
  We should appropriate to the FY22 levels that we have been talking 
about since last December, that we told the American people we were 
going to do.
  We should appropriate the Federal bureaucracy back to pre-COVID 
levels because nobody in America thinks we should continue to spend at 
post-COVID levels. I am going to stand on that. I am going to keep 
fighting for that. I believe the American people want us to do that. I 
believe they want the bureaucracy to be shrunk. I believe they want 
their country back. I believe they want their lives back. I believe 
they don't want any more bureaucrats interfering with their freedoms, 
and I think we should stand united, yes, united in defense of the 
American people in fighting for their freedom. That is what I believe 
we should do.
  Does my friend from Pennsylvania have anything else he wishes to add?
  Mr. PERRY. Well, as you know, I am in the same position as you with 
the bill. We never thought--look, we got together, this House, 
Republicans stood united, passed the Limit, Save, Grow Act. We stood 
united, and it was supposed to get us in the room.
  We knew it wasn't going to be perfect. We always knew that. We never 
expected to get everything we wanted. We understand that President 
Biden didn't want any of it. We understand that Chuck Schumer couldn't 
pass any bills over there and wasn't going to agree with any of it, but 
we thought we would get something from it, something.
  It was $1.5 trillion for a date certain, a number certain for said 
policy. We lost on both ends of the deal. It is $4 trillion, uncapped 
spending, and none of the policies. The REINS Act, to stop the 
unbridled regulatory state, that is not there. Work requirements that 
would actually save us money, not saving us money. Rescissions, where 
we took money and were going to send it back to the Treasury, that 
didn't happen. We rescinded it, but we are going to spend it. That is 
not saving money.
  Mr. ROY. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend from Pennsylvania. I am going 
to close with this: An opinion in the United States District Court for 
the Northern District of Texas, Fort Worth Division.
  ``Defendants, illegal aliens, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to 
transport and harbor illegal aliens. The sentencing information shows 
that on behalf of the Juarez cartel, defendants participated in an 
alien smuggling conspiracy. Their participation included operating an 
illegal alien stash house in Fort Worth, Texas, and transporting those 
who had been smuggled into the United States to their desired 
destination upon full payment. The smuggling organization charged 
$10,000 to smuggle an adult illegal alien into the United States and 
between $12,000-$14,000 to smuggle a child illegal alien.''
  I am going to stop there. More money to smuggle a child illegal 
alien.
  ``Law enforcement discovered the Fort Worth portion of this smuggling 
operation after a man in Baltimore, Maryland (the husband) paid the 
organization to have his wife and 2-year-old daughter smuggled into the 
United States after they arrived in Mexico from Honduras. The husband 
contends that he paid the smuggling organization $1,000 to smuggle his 
wife and child into the United States. They were then transported to 
the stash house in Fort Worth, where the husband contends a member of 
the smuggling organization demanded he pay an additional $23,000 before 
his family would be released. The member also told the husband, `they 
would do things to his daughter he [would] not like' if he did not make 
the payment.''

[[Page H2882]]

  It goes on to describe the absurdities of cartels in active 
engagement in this Republic, in this country, and we are doing nothing 
about it. The judge closes out: ``The guidelines--the sentencing 
guidelines--do not adequately take into account these facts when 
recommending an appropriate prison range. The current prison guideline 
calculation of 51-63 months fails to meet the requirement that any 
sentence provide adequate deterrence and just punishment. Accordingly, 
the parties are provided notice that the court intends to vary upward 
from the applicable guideline range so that they may address this at 
the time of sentencing.''
  My point is, a Federal judge is having to step in to do the work that 
we are supposed to do here, to stand up and defend this country, not 
just for ourselves, but for the people being abused in our name. These 
are human beings.
  Texans are getting absolutely ravaged in south Texas, ranches getting 
overrun, people dying from fentanyl, and here, migrants getting abused 
in the false name of compassion. Literally, thousands of dollars to 
have to pay to get out from a stash house.
  As we head into Flag Day tomorrow, and we think about what that flag 
represents for people around the world seeking to come here, is that 
what it is?
  Is it to be in a stash house where a little girl is being threatened?
  Why won't we do anything about it?
  Why should we appropriate money to a Department of Homeland Security 
that refuses to secure the homeland?
  We have a job. We have a job to represent the people of the United 
States and to actually do what we are supposed to do to defend the 
United States and ensure that we have a sovereign nation. We should 
think about that tomorrow as we head into Flag Day.
  While the White House flouts the United States flag, we should honor 
it. We should honor it right here, and we should honor it, remembering 
that the flag consists of 13 horizontal stripes, 7 red alternating with 
6 white. We know that the stripes represent the original 13 Colonies; 
the stars, the 50 States of the Union.

  A lot of people don't know, though, that the colors of the flag are 
symbolic as well. Red symbolizes hardiness and valor, white symbolizes 
purity and innocence, and blue represents vigilance, perseverance, and 
justice.
  Are we going to stand up for those tomorrow?
  Are we going to stand up those for the rest of this Congress or are 
we going to continue to punt for some future date when everything 
magically works out politically so that you can finally stand up and do 
what you know is right today?
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

                          ____________________