[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 40 (Wednesday, March 6, 2024)]
[House]
[Pages H988-H993]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            SOUTHERN BORDER

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. LaLota). Under the Speaker's announced 
policy of January 9, 2023, the gentleman from Utah (Mr. Moore) is 
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.


                             General Leave

  Mr. MOORE of Utah. 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 topic of this Special 
Order.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from Utah?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. MOORE of Utah. Mr. Speaker, we have several Members who are going 
to have a chance to speak here tonight. Tonight, of course, ahead of 
tomorrow's State of the Union Address, Members will share about ways 
the Biden administration has failed their constituents, from the border 
crisis, to the spike in violent crime, to out-of-control inflation, and 
also a need to protect the most vulnerable among us, the unborn.
  I am grateful to host tonight's Special Order and provide the 
opportunity to highlight important issues facing families in every 
district.
  I have said this for the last few years. As I have watched--and of 
course it is a political metric--I have seen the approval rating 
continue to decline and to decline and to decline from what we have 
seen from President Biden. It shows you that the American people are 
watching, and this is affecting their everyday lives.
  For the most part--I would hope this to be the case--most Americans 
aren't necessarily paying attention to a lot of what we are doing here, 
and I hope they are happier and better off for it. A lot of the stuff 
that we do here doesn't necessarily resonate with them. They get 
frustrated with a lot of what we do here.
  However, when you see that type of reaction from the American people, 
it is showing that the policies from the Biden administration are 
directly impacting and hurting their everyday lives. They are seeing it 
in so many different ways in their communities, in their families.

[[Page H989]]

  I am hopeful that, in my role as vice chair of the Republican 
Conference, I am committed to doing it and helping other Members 
credibly communicate how this is affecting their constituents' lives.
  Additionally, today, we use that opportunity to be able to share a 
little bit about what is going on and hopefully offer some solutions, 
as well, to how we can better address this and how we can counteract so 
many of President Biden's failed policies.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Burchett), 
to kick things off tonight.
  Mr. BURCHETT. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.
  Mr. Speaker, the Biden administration took a bad situation at our 
southern border and turned it into a complete and utter disaster that 
puts Americans in danger every day. It is often said that every State 
is a border State, and that is very much the case, as we see now.
  There is no way on God's green Earth that President Biden can spin 
this any other way. The President can blame it on Trump, blame it on 
the Republicans, but, for the last 3 years, Mr. Speaker, dadgummit, he 
has been in control of this.
  We recently learned that, in 2023, the Biden administration flew 
320,000 illegal aliens into 43 airports across the United States. Let 
me say that again--320,000 illegals into 43 airports across the United 
States. Mr. Speaker, that is in your backyard. That is in my backyard. 
That is all across our great country. They pay for these flights with 
the American people's tax dollars.
  Unfortunately, this latest stunt is not nearly as surprising as it 
should be. Since Joe Biden took office, over 10 million illegal 
immigrants have crossed into the United States. What is most troubling 
to me in all of that, Mr. Speaker, 100,000 children are in the system 
somewhere.
  Additionally, these cartels, they are evil, and they are from the 
pits of hell, and it would be my desire to send them back as soon as 
possible. Mr. Speaker, 100,000 children are somewhere in this system, 
possibly sold into labor, possibly victims of sex crimes, possibly 
victims of many other horrendous acts.
  There have also been 8.7 million illegal alien encounters, plus 1.7 
million got-aways. Every day, we are hearing about Americans who are 
hurt or killed at the hands of illegal immigrants. These are people who 
were released into the United States without being properly checked, 
and Americans are suffering because of it. A dear family that is very 
close to me back in Knoxville, they lost their son because of this.
  This week, the House is voting on the Laken Riley Act, which was 
named after a young woman who was brutally murdered by an illegal 
immigrant. He had been arrested three times before and, yet, he was 
still released back into the United States each time. He was a criminal 
in his homeland. He is a criminal up here. He should have been deported 
the first time, Mr. Speaker. If he had, that young girl would be alive 
today.
  The Biden administration is inviting illegal immigrants into this 
country with its open-border policies. We have magnetized this country. 
We allow the giving of credit cards, free healthcare. We put them ahead 
of our veterans. We put them ahead of our citizens, and that is 
disgusting.
  The Biden Administration has been actively fighting the border States 
that are trying to fix the problem. It has gone as far as filing 
lawsuits. They are using your tax dollars to fly immigrants into every 
State, including Tennessee, without telling the American people what 
they are doing.
  Mr. Speaker, it is unacceptable, and we need to close the dadgum 
border.

                              {time}  1815

  Mr. MOORE of Utah. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Tennessee 
for his comments. Of course, when they become personal stories is when 
they become the most tragic.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Raskin).
  Mr. RASKIN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the distinguished gentleman from 
Utah for yielding. I appreciate it.
  It is just on a small bit of housekeeping business. I will be 
removing my name as cosponsor on H. Res. 902. My name was added to this 
as a cosponsor without my knowledge, without my consent.
  I knew nothing about it, and that was at 6:18:38 yesterday and 1 
second before another Member was also falsely added as a cosponsor to 
this legislation.
  So I am going to work with the Clerk's office and the majority and 
the minority leader to just figure out how this is happening. 
Apparently, it has happened to some other people. I hope this can be 
removed immediately and that we can prevent this from happening to 
anyone else.
  Mr. Speaker, I thank the distinguished gentleman for yielding.
  Mr. MOORE of Utah. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Maryland 
for his remarks. It has happened to me before as well, so he is 
welcomed for being able to clear that up.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Payne).
  Mr. PAYNE. Mr. Speaker, let me first thank Mr. Moore for being 
gracious and allowing me this time. We need to see more of that between 
both sides of the aisle, and I thank him very much, sir.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor a great man, my father, 
Congressman Donald Payne, Sr.
  Today is the 12th anniversary of his passing from colorectal cancer, 
and his life was filled with tremendous accomplishments. He was New 
Jersey's first Black Congressman and served as the Chair of the 
Congressional Black Caucus. He helped decide House Committee 
representation as a member of the Democratic Steering Committee, and 
also fought to restore democracy and human rights worldwide as a member 
of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.
  President George W. Bush made him the first two-time member of the 
congressional delegation to the United Nations, and he earned an ``A'' 
for his work to protect and strengthen the middle class. He was an 
outstanding Congressman, mentor, and role model, but he was ten times a 
better father.
  My heart is heavy today as I mourn my father. I do miss him so, and I 
thank the gentleman, once again, for yielding.
  Mr. MOORE of Utah. Mr. Speaker, I say to the gentleman from New 
Jersey that that was the easiest request I have had all year. I 
appreciate hearing the stories of his father and I, of course, offer my 
condolences to him. It is an honor to be able to hear stories of his 
father's extraordinary life and service. I thank him, sir.
  Mr. Speaker, I thank you for this time and opportunity to be able to 
share more of what we are trying to highlight this week.
  It is a very important week as is any State of the Union and every 
State of the Union should be important. Regardless of your party 
affiliation, this is a moment to hear from our President and to compare 
and contrast in a lot of cases policy differences, but also highlight 
where it is that we do agree.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Rose), the 
current gold medal standard bearer in our competition. I am having a 
Tennessee heavy day today.
  Mr. ROSE. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Utah, Vice Chairman 
Moore, for yielding and for claiming this time this evening to discuss 
these important issues facing our Nation.
  Mr. Speaker, tomorrow, the President of the United States will appear 
in this Chamber to deliver his annual State of the Union Address and, 
hopefully, his last.
  I say this because since the President has taken office, prices have 
risen by 17.9 percent, according to the Consumer Price Index. If you 
ask the folks I represent in Tennessee, they have gone up far more than 
that.
  Compared to just 3 years ago, Americans are spending an extra $1,019 
a month and real wages are down by more than 2 percent thanks to the 
Biden administration's economic policies. I believe the President calls 
it Bidenomics.
  Since taking the majority, House Republicans have fought tirelessly 
to rein in the Biden administration's reckless spending that has caused 
record-high inflation, the highest inflation since I was just a junior 
in high school back in the early 1980s.
  A lot of left-leaning political pundits will criticize this Congress 
for not following in the footsteps of the last Congress, which was led 
entirely by Democrats that passed multiple spending

[[Page H990]]

monstrosities, but I will argue that it is a job well done by 
Republicans to hold the line and not give in to the Democrats' 
insatiable desire to recklessly borrow money from future generations of 
Americans and spend it on projects like Green New Deal initiatives and 
an army of new IRS agents.
  These economic policies pursued by the Biden administration have made 
it harder than ever before for new home buyers to purchase a home. Even 
one out of eight retirees plan to return to work in 2024, according to 
a recent survey. They largely cite inflation as the main reason for 
doing so.
  Mr. Speaker, Americans should not be subjected to the constant threat 
of rising prices wreaking havoc on their paychecks and pocketbooks. As 
our national deficit and debts exponentially increase due to rising 
interest rates, our country has no choice other than to restore fiscal 
common sense in Washington. That is why House Republicans are leading 
the way to do exactly that.
  Mr. MOORE of Utah. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Tennessee 
and I appreciate his message and his involvement as we try to use this 
medium to communicate with the American people. Oftentimes, a cable 
news interview here or there gets a lot more hits than social media, 
but we need to be speaking to the American people from the House floor 
and this is a great opportunity to do so.

  I am going to share in buckets a message that I hope that I can 
really drive home. My whole entire objective for being back here, 
personally, not necessarily in my role as vice chair of the Conference, 
but my personal objective to be back here is to rein in wasteful 
spending and to deal with our debt and deficit crisis that we are 
facing.
  I will get a chance this evening to share more context for that.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Washington (Mrs. 
Rodgers), the Chairwoman of the Energy and Commerce Committee from the 
greatest half of the country out West with me. We get overlooked quite 
a bit. I hear some scoffing going on in the Chamber, but we all know 
that it is very important and the entire Nation is reliant on the West 
for things that matter, second only to tourism, but all the other 
critical things that we need.
  Mrs. RODGERS of Washington. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman very 
much for yielding and I appreciate him bringing us together here 
tonight.
  We are all in anticipation of the State of the Union, and for the 
Republicans in the House, certainly, you have outlined some priorities, 
we also are a party of life and celebrating life.
  Tonight, I wanted to highlight the importance of really honoring the 
lives of everyone, that every life has value. Our son, Cole McMorris 
Rodgers, was born with an extra 21st chromosome. Now most of the world 
knows that as Down syndrome. I can honestly say that seeing the world 
through Cole's eyes has made me a better mom, but also a better 
legislator. I am reminded every day whenever I meet with anyone 
connected to the Down syndrome community as to the full potential that 
is just waiting to be unleashed.
  Unfortunately, in the Biden administration, we have seen them leading 
on a pretty radical pro-abortion agenda that bolsters a culture which 
fails to protect the most innocent among us. It does not affirm that 
every life is worth living, lives like Cole's.
  That is why I am leading alongside my Republican colleagues to 
champion legislation that supports women and children at every stage of 
their lives. That is what we are committed to. We have led on 
legislation this Congress like the Preventing Maternal Deaths 
Reauthorization Act, the PREEMIE Reauthorization Act, and the SUPPORT 
for Patients and Communities Reauthorization Act.
  Just recently, the House passed a bill that I had worked on, the 
QALYs bill, that would prohibit QALYs within the Federal Government and 
it would ensure that those with disabilities with chronic diseases have 
lifesaving cures and access to prevent discrimination against these 
individuals when it comes to their healthcare.
  We still have work to do in our Nation, all across this country to 
ensure that women feel like an abortion is never their only option and 
we can do that by making sure that we are providing care, hope, and 
support for mothers and children at every stage of their lives. Every 
life is worth living.
  Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for the time tonight in leading us 
this week in the Special Order.
  Mr. MOORE of Utah. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from 
Washington for her remarks.
  As Members of this body know, we began this year, the U.S. national 
debt, surpassing $34 trillion. We have seen Members from both sides of 
the aisle talk about this extensively. We have had debates on this 
growing national debt for decades now and as I mentioned moments ago, 
it is the reason I am back here.
  It is the reason that I missed my son's little league playoffs last 
night, which they made it to the championship and suffered a tough 
loss, but they played their hearts out. The only way that I can go back 
home and tell my 11-year-old, hey, son, sorry for missing your little 
league game here and there and the many games that I have to miss is 
because I can also counter that with I am doing everything I possibly 
can to make sure that your future mimics what my future looked like.
  Candidly, mine is even going to be in a position of very heavy debt 
in my major working years, but we have to recognize that this will 
limit our next generation more than any other factor. The fact that 
interest alone will be the second largest budget line item in our 
Federal outlays within a year or two is the most concerning thing that 
keeps me up at night.
  Yes, I will continue to talk about this. I will continue to debate 
this. I sit on the Ways and Means and Budget Committees, which I 
believe is where the vast majority of the work can be done here.
  Ways and Means because it covers the programs, the large government 
programs that get established and never voted on again. In Budget we 
can set the tone, we can set the stage for what we all try to coalesce 
around as the people's House.
  This debt puts a strain on not only the country's finances, but 
American families' pocketbooks. It goes particularly to what we saw 
with inflation. As I entered into Congress in 2021, January 2021, just 
a few months after President Biden or maybe a month or two after 
President Biden took office, and the Senate had just switched to 
Democrat controlled, so Senator Schumer took over as majority leader in 
the Senate and Republicans had a very strong November few months prior 
to that, but didn't quite take over the majority, what took place in 
Congress, in Washington is what you call one-party rule.
  During one-party rule, what you are allowed to do is every budget 
cycle--and it is a little bit of a gray area, but once a budget cycle, 
you can pass a bill on party-line votes. You don't need the filibuster 
in the Senate anymore. You can bypass that and you can go big with your 
legislation.
  Republicans and Democrats have used this over time. President Biden 
decided to use this for what is called the American Rescue Plan. The 
American Rescue Plan in its entirety was basically a $2 trillion bill 
that had no offset spending and was directly related to the 
inflationary pressures that our Nation experienced after that.

                              {time}  1830

  Inflation happens because of the monetary supply issue, with too much 
money chasing too few goods. That is what that bill was. It was a 
massively inflationary bill.
  It wasn't the only cause. We were coming out of COVID. We were having 
supply chain issues. Those were all factors. We saw 40-year high 
inflation, and it was just months after the congressional Democrats and 
President Biden, on party-line votes, passed the American Rescue Plan. 
It wasn't much of a rescue. We saw 17-plus percent inflation, and that 
varied among different types of goods and services, but it was insane. 
The American people bore the entire brunt of that.
  To tame this inflation, how you do this, the Fed goes through their 
process. They raise interest rates. That is a significant factor in how 
you tame inflation. However, the other piece that was not coincidental, 
Republicans took back control of the House of Representatives. With 
that, we were able to clamp down on President Biden's massive spending 
initiatives, from the Inflation Reduction Act to the American

[[Page H991]]

Rescue Plan. Those were two of the largest that went fully on party-
line votes.
  In addition were all the other things that were in the works and 
needed to be addressed. Some even earned bipartisan support, but the $5 
trillion--we were talking about over $5 trillion of new spending--
directly goes to massive inflationary pressure. Republicans clamped all 
of that down.
  Then we went through the process of the Fiscal Responsibility Act. 
Last June, Speaker McCarthy negotiated a way to take a look at our 
appropriations process, among many other things, like permitting reform 
and other things that were very positive out of that bill and actually 
find a way to do what has not been done in my time here for sure, but 
probably within the last decade when you could take a look at our 
appropriations process and say, look, let's continue to support defense 
and veterans, and let's find wasteful spending in the other 10 or so 
bills that go through the appropriations process.
  We did part of that today where we were actually able to break that 
trend of maintaining parity between those two things. That has been 
something that has been important to my Democratic colleagues: If we 
are going to support defense and veterans, you need to also make sure 
that you support all these other bills.
  We were able to break that parity between the two and find real 
wasteful spending that was going on, and we came together. We came 
together today in an overwhelmingly positive vote to finish a portion 
of the appropriations process and find more wasteful spending. We are 
going to put that on a lower trajectory.
  With House Republicans being in the majority, our plan is to clamp 
down on the massive spending proposals that you saw from President 
Biden in his first term; and then as a secondary approach, we are going 
to take the normal things that we do back here, the things that are a 
part of the standard of what we do need to accomplish with an annual 
budget and find areas of waste, and we have been able to successfully 
do that.
  I love being a part of that. I came back here, like I mentioned, to 
deal with our growing debt and our deficit, find wasteful spending and 
create policies that don't do what happened in 2021 and 2022. President 
Biden took over with inflation in the range of less than 2 percent, and 
it climbed more rapid than anything. We are still feeling the struggles 
with that. Homeowners who are trying to purchase a home are paying 
mortgage rates that they shouldn't have to be paying that are so 
incredibly high. That was the reaction to that massive inflation, and 
that comes directly from Washington and from bad policy.
  House Republicans effectively forced President Biden to recognize it 
and kind of put that on hold. We did our part with respect to inflation 
by controlling the monetary supply. You have to raise interest rates 
and you have to control the monetary supply because massive government 
spending always leads to inflation. Every economist will agree on that. 
They don't usually agree on much. Our job the last year and change has 
been to be able to show the American people how we are being 
responsible on a fiscal footing.
  Some other ways the Republicans are working to lower costs for 
families and taxpayers include fighting back against President Biden's 
student loan agenda. The administration has attempted to circumvent the 
rule of law and leave hardworking Americans who didn't go to college 
with a $559 billion bill to cover these unpaid student loans. In 
December, House Republicans passed legislation that would put a stop to 
this reckless and unfair proposal.
  House Republicans have also led the charge on a progrowth tax policy.
  Before I get into that, I get this question a lot when I go and do 
townhalls back home, and I love to be able to engage on this concept of 
student loans. For the most part, particularly in Utah, people are 
categorically frustrated with President Biden just forgiving loans 
years after the fact. That approach was deemed unconstitutional. Then 
he has taken another angle, and he keeps trying to do this.
  My opinion on this--and I believe it would be strongly backed by good 
research and data--is that if the government is just going to forgive 
loans, A, you obviously have more of a deficit issue because those 
loans have been given out in a government-spending approach knowing 
that some of that would ultimately come back with whatever interest is 
charged on those things.
  If we just forgive that, there is obviously a deficit issue there, 
but if you forgive that, another aspect is we are creating a culture, 
and it is going to teach my children that there are no consequences. It 
is like: You will be fine. At some point this will be forgiven, and you 
don't necessarily have to plan and be productive with this. I think 
that resonates with most people, particularly back in my home State.
  The third piece is something that I get into a lot with a lot of 
folks that they are not necessarily thinking of. The fundamental 
problem with what is going on with all of our entire student loans, 
student tuition universe is that tuition costs are rising so fast that 
students are having a tough time getting out ahead of it.

  If we, as a Federal Government, signal to those institutions, those 
educational institutions, hey, you know, we know you have been raising 
your rates a lot, but we are also just going to start forgiving a lot 
of this stuff, do you think that puts pressure on those institutions to 
actually keep their costs under control, to constrain what they are 
doing?
  No. They are feeling that they can actually continue to raise rates 
as well because people are going to be more inclined to just borrow 
more.
  Folks, that is a recipe for disaster. It is a bad cultural aspect, 
but it does not communicate to the institutions. I love representing 
the universities that I do back in Utah. I know my colleagues are so 
sick and tired of me talking about how great Utah is, when I hide 
behind numbers like first in economy and first in volunteerism, and all 
these amazing things that we are first in--I am getting some looks here 
right now--but they deep down know how amazing Utah is.
  My intent on this is not just completely boastful--that is part of 
it--but to just highlight the fact that universities across the State 
of Utah are heavily focused on ROI. You can go and speak to their 
administration and hear about what they are doing: dynamic 
credentialing, a dual-mission program.
  Before I sound so ruthless by saying we shouldn't forgive loans, the 
State legislature in Utah--a very strongly conservative State 
legislature--has provided an opportunity for juniors and seniors in 
high school to have free tuition at tech centers so they can go learn 
to be an EMT or a welder. They can go learn to have a skill or trade, a 
computer science degree, work in audiovisual. They can take that and if 
they want to create a career out of it, being an apprentice 
electrician, a plumber, they have an opportunity to go and start 
building their career. If they take that and start doing that work, 
they are actually going off to a 4-year degree where they are working 
at a higher-paying job keeping their tuition down. All of our 
universities are focused on ROI. It is not out of just sheer, oh, I 
just don't like President Biden's tuition plan. It is not going to 
accomplish what it needs to accomplish.
  I just want to continue to highlight these specific economic factors 
that we have enough information and data to prove: This is why 
inflation is caused, and this is how you get out of it. It is painful 
to get out of it, but I really do appreciate being part of the House 
Republican Conference that is controlling the monetary supply, limiting 
government spending, and signaling to the markets that we are trying to 
do something about this debt and deficit.
  We are going to use the debt ceiling opportunity to say, look, in 
order for us to increase the debt limit, we are going to have to make 
changes, and we have got to actually implement some of that today. It 
has been an awesome thing.
  I am happy to share all of this as much as I can. I will continue to 
do so, but we have the opportunity now to hear from the great State of 
Pennsylvania, Dr. Joyce will share his message. I appreciate his 
constant involvement in making sure that we can use this opportunity 
and floor speeches to

[[Page H992]]

communicate not only to his constituents but to those who are paying 
attention and willing to hear us out. We have so many things we want to 
be covering.
  I yield to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Joyce).
  Mr. JOYCE of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for 
yielding and for holding this Special Order this evening.
  Mr. Speaker, as I travel across central and southwestern 
Pennsylvania, I hear from families who are struggling to afford basic 
necessities, like gasoline and groceries. President Biden's crushing 
inflation has affected too many families in Pennsylvania's 13th 
Congressional District, has affected too many families in Pennsylvania, 
has affected too many American families throughout this great land.
  Instead of saving for retirement or for their children's education, 
parents are forced to make difficult choices about what they can afford 
to buy.
  Recently, I spoke with a mom who told me she was often forced to 
choose between filling her gasoline tank or packing lunch for her son. 
Stories like this have become all too common thanks to the rising Biden 
inflation.
  Under President Biden, prices have risen by 17 percent in the past 3 
years, and real wages are down 2 percent. This is unsustainable for 
American families who are left to pay the price for the reckless 
spending sprees of the last 3 years.
  In tomorrow's state of the Union Address, President Biden should 
outline deliberate ways to cut our national debt, a deliberate 
responsibility to be a responsible steward of the taxpayer dollar.
  Inflation is a tax on each and every American, and it is time to 
return to fiscal responsibility. It is time to have cuts in spending in 
order to address our ballooning national debt.
  I thank the gentleman for once again holding this Special Order this 
evening.
  Mr. MOORE of Utah. I thank the good doctor from Pennsylvania. Now to 
another Western State, which we have established is so important to our 
Nation, all the factors that we provide to those East Coast elitists 
and everything east of the Mississippi.
  I welcome the gentleman from California to share his message this 
evening. In tomorrow's state of the Union, we will hear from our 
President. We need to hear this message. Again, we will compare and 
contrast. We will find unity on certain things, but it is incredibly 
important for us as House Republicans to highlight the concerns that we 
have, which are many.
  I yield to the gentleman from California (Mr. LaMalfa).
  Mr. LaMALFA. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate Mr. Moore's efforts to help 
communicate the message the American people need to see, not just 
tomorrow night from one side, but as best as we can maybe looking at 
the other side of the issues.

  If you could look around the room here, you would see some of the 
special equipment for the event that is starting to be set up, extra 
cameras, lighting on the House floor so that it is illuminated in a way 
that shows up well on TV. Unfortunately, what is not illuminated well 
enough is the record of this White House in supporting the needs of our 
Nation.
  With the State of the Union tomorrow night, these 3-plus years have 
been, indeed, chaotic, and you could even say a full-fledged crisis in 
the making or being made.
  Over the last few years, President Biden has made a lot of decisions 
and implemented a lot of policies that have ultimately led to a 17.9 
percent rise in inflation since he took office. The cost of rent, 
electricity, and household goods are actually becoming out of reach for 
many Americans.
  How can these things become out of reach?
  I grow food. I am a farmer in my real life in northern California at 
home. Food has always been for many, many decades for Americans such a 
low-cost item, they didn't even have to think about it.

                              {time}  1845

  Why is it reverting to a situation where we are more like a third 
world country and food is hard to afford? Energy, driving our cars 
around, the whole works, housing--housing is becoming almost 
unaffordable. What has changed?
  Our Nation is less safe than before, with rising rates of carjackings 
and attacks on law enforcement officers. You are not safe in your home.
  Right here in this town, in D.C., is an example of a carjacking 
affecting one of our colleagues in this body, attacked in what may seem 
like a fairly safe neighborhood. What is going on here?
  Our country has been weakened on the world stage as well. President 
Biden caters to oil oligarchs in Saudi Arabia, Iran, Venezuela, and 
even Russia.
  He hastily removed U.S. troops from Afghanistan, allowing the Taliban 
to take over after all those years of our side fighting for freedom in 
those areas and to have at least a modicum of a government that would 
work for people over there. On top of that, we needlessly lost the 
lives of over a dozen soldiers on that hasty, poorly planned 
withdrawal.
  One of our other allies, one of our strongest allies in the whole 
world, Israel, he is walking back support for that great country, that 
great ally.
  His Vice President, Kamala Harris, basically threw Israel under the 
bus with her comments recently. What is this all about? What are we 
going to hear in the State of the Union that you could actually point 
to as a positive?
  I hate to be negative. I hate to be, like, oh, partisan stuff that 
you can't find agreement on this or that, but it is really difficult 
with the state of things, from what the United States was 3 years ago, 
even amidst that COVID mess, to what we have now.
  Unfortunately, the President has been chipping away even at our 
Nation's sovereignty. He has taken dozens of well-documented and 
concrete actions that have opened our borders and undermined our laws.
  Our laws aren't broken. Immigration isn't broken. The enforcement, 
the action of the executive branch, to maintain them is the part that 
is broken.
  We did pass H.R. 2 early on in this session to help fortify some of 
these laws, to help define better what asylum means, since they are 
defining it in the most loose possible ways.
  For the past 3 years, the Biden administration has ignored the 
crisis. You can't get him or Kamala Harris hardly to go to the border 
at all. When they do, it is not the part of the border that we could 
easily document that has been the problem, and he is directly 
responsible for it.
  I have to ask the question as I do occasionally: President Biden, 
whose side are you on with these actions you take?
  He canceled the remain in Mexico program, which was working fairly 
well. He revoked title 42 for health concerns. He revoked it. He 
stopped construction of the border wall.
  I had a chance to visit that most recently down in the Tucson area, 
on farther south. Stacks and stacks of the metal that would be used to 
build that fence were just laying there, dated October 2020 on some of 
that material.
  He even promised a little over a year ago, well, maybe we will start 
filling in some of the gaps. There has been no action on that.
  He has reprimanded border agents, making up bogus claims that the 
agents riding their horses with their reins were somehow whipping 
immigrants with that. That was finally dispelled, but not before the 
lie had spread all around the world from the administration and some of 
their cronies. They were just trying to do their jobs, and they are 
being impaired by this White House in doing so.
  He allowed for the release of hundreds of thousands of illegal 
immigrants into this country with no way to track them--actually, 
millions. Biden's Department of Homeland Security has now admitted that 
40 percent of catch and release migrants have disappeared.
  Last week, it was revealed that he never once spoke to his chief of 
the Border Patrol about any of this. Border security isn't even a 
priority for this administration, though they may want to put the 
dressing on it as we come down to an election here soon.
  The Secretary of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, is leading an 
effort to ban his Department from doing something politically incorrect 
by saying the words ``illegal immigrant.'' That is what they are 
focused on, not the actual immigration. That is their concern.

[[Page H993]]

  I have to ask again: President Biden, Secretary Mayorkas, whose side 
are you on? Is it the American people, or is it some other agenda? We 
can't tell.
  Tons of fentanyl are being smuggled into our country, killing our 
youth. The price of fentanyl is coming down. It is so cheap now because 
there is such a massive supply--you know, supply and demand. It is 
getting cheap because it is so frequently available coming across our 
border illegally.
  Deadly chemicals and people are being trafficked to work on the 
illegal marijuana grows, like we have so many of in northern 
California, just taking over the land.
  Criminal aliens repeatedly broke the law, like the Venezuelan 
national who recently killed Laken Riley in broad daylight.
  House Republicans know that border security is, indeed, national 
security for our whole country. Every State, as we have said time and 
again, is now feeling like a border State.
  We did pass the strongest border security bill in history in H.R. 2. 
Now, about a hundred yards that direction, Senator Schumer and the gang 
over there have refused to bring it up for a vote. Instead, they 
proposed a watered-down immigration bill that would allow--get this--
1.8 illegal immigrants a year in our country. It codifies that.
  Go ahead, 1.8 million, come on in. Once we reach that threshold, then 
we will start enforcing something.
  How can you take a law or a bill idea like that even seriously?

  They would be rewarded with immediate work permits and an ability to 
stay longer once they are identified. I mean, calling that a border 
security package is an unfunny joke.
  President Biden's open border policies are putting Americans in true 
danger. This border crisis is responsible for the deaths of countless 
Americans and the destruction of countless American families.
  I just saw a video back from 1995 when President Clinton stood right 
up there and gave a State of the Union Address and outlined the problem 
that illegal immigration is in displacing jobs and providing more 
danger for the American public. That was in 1995 when President 
Clinton, a Democrat, said that.
  What has changed politically in that timeframe that now the Democrats 
are all for what is happening on our border or, at the very least, 
doing nothing about it?
  They had a period of time when they controlled both Houses and the 
White House with President Biden just a little over a year ago. They 
had a 2-year window to do something about that. They had all the 
ability to line up the votes and the signatures they needed to do that. 
They did nothing.
  Instead, they are saying it is Republicans that are blocking it. We 
have been for solid border policy since day one.
  President Trump led the charge for 4 years on that, and they pushed 
back. They thwarted him. They thwarted funding for the border.
  They want to send billions and billions overseas for other things 
when a fraction of that would secure our own southern border. Come on.
  One more time: The President will be here tomorrow night, and that 
side of the room is going to be applauding everything. Our side? Some 
good, maybe some bad. It will be a mixed bag on this side of the room.
  I have to ask the President: As you address us, remember, ask 
yourself, whose side are you on?
  Mr. MOORE of Utah. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from 
California, and I think he summed up every State of the Union that has 
ever existed quite well.
  There will be areas and opportunities of unity and things that we can 
be focused on together. I am hopeful that we can use this as a case to 
talk about the real issues that we are having and the fundamental 
problems but also solutions.
  We know them. We can talk energy policy. We can talk immigration 
policy. We can talk economic policy. I can do that all day long.
  I will wrap up here as to not belabor it but to just point out: Rise 
above it, President Biden. Rise above it. Look back to the previous 
administration's policies with things regarding the remain in Mexico 
policy, the Migrant Protection Protocols.
  It is a simple concept. You cannot just say Mexico won't do it. 
President Trump and Vice President Pence forced the issue with our 
Mexican neighbors, and they got them to agree this was good for both 
countries. Whatever limits cartel activity is good for both nations.
  Don't hide behind the fact that there is a partnership with Mexico, 
and you can't do it because of that. It is simple data that shows we 
can be effective, create these relationships, and improve our situation 
at the border dramatically with just that one change.
  That is just one of many different types of executive actions that 
you can take. We have already passed it. You can't say we are not 
willing to legislate on this issue because we have already passed it. 
The Senate refuses to take it up. The House passed it. The Senate 
refuses to take it up.
  Take some action, President Biden. Talk to your Senators and to 
Senate Leader Schumer and convince them that there are opportunities 
there. There are things we can do to reverse some of your bad policies.
  Don't just look at the previous administration and say, all right, I 
have to do everything different from them, and then all of a sudden, it 
leads to these catastrophic events.
  Take a look at data, see what works, and implement it. It is as 
simple as that. It is what the American people recognize, and we have 
to be willing to follow it.
  I highlighted a lot of things about economic policy, from inflation 
to everything. Those are things that affect every single American. If 
we just focused on energy policy, economic policy, and immigration 
policy, we could really make an improvement for Americans across this 
great Nation and set ourselves up for success.
  I hope I will be able to hear some of that. I am not hopeful that we 
will hear productive solutions. There might be plenty of rhetoric 
spewed, but we have to be able to find a way to get those three things 
that matter most and that affect my constituents and those from every 
single district across the Nation the most.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Members are reminded to direct their remarks 
to the Chair.

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