[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 40 (Wednesday, March 6, 2024)]
[House]
[Pages H993-H996]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            FAILED POLICIES

  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 Utah for his time down 
here on the floor pointing out some of the things that we most 
assuredly will not hear from the President of the United States and 
those that we wish we would hear from him.
  I can tell you one thing we are not going to hear from the President 
of the United States tomorrow night in this Chamber is any specific 
actions that he would take or should have taken or apologies for his 
policies that led to the unfortunate passing 2 weeks ago of Laken 
Riley.
  We know we will not hear that because our Democrat colleagues refuse 
to take ownership of the policies that the President of the United 
States has adopted and that Secretary Mayorkas has implemented on his 
behalf in direct violation of their oaths to the Constitution and under 
the laws of the United States. As a result, there are Americans who 
have died.
  We know that the President of the United States is not going to take 
ownership over the high inflation that is decimating families, the 
regulatory state they put in place that has made the automobiles that 
the American people need to drive too expensive, allowing EVs to pile 
up on the lots of dealers while we put mandates in place, the extent to 
which we have now been banning liquefied natural gas exports by 
shutting down the ability to get them out of terminals, which is making 
us more beholden to the special interests and the corporate cronyism

[[Page H994]]

that was all funded by subsidies under the Inflation Reduction Act, all 
policies led by the radical progressive Democrats that have complete 
control of the Democratic Party and that are the puppet masters, 
pulling the strings to which the President of the United States dances.
  Tomorrow, he won't talk about those things. He will give a lot of 
excuses, hiding behind Senate bills and things that allegedly the House 
of Representatives are not doing.
  I think it is a really important day. I need to say something as a 
Texan. Today is Alamo Day, the day that marks the end of the 13 days of 
assiegement and fighting and the final sacrifice of almost 200 brave 
men in the name of freedom at the Alamo.
  I am proud to represent San Antonio. The Alamo means a lot to those 
of us in central Texas, particularly in and around San Antonio.
  I think it is really important to note what that meant. I asked a 
year ago today when I spoke on this issue, or on this commemoration, I 
should say: What did they declare independence for? What did Travis and 
the men at the Alamo sacrifice for? A Federal Government that opens our 
borders to cartels? A group of Republicans who campaign on securing the 
border yet run away in abject surrender, refusing to actually do it?
  That is the question before us right now. That is the question I 
asked a year ago.

                              {time}  1900

  I might remind everybody of the letter from William Barret Travis, 
commander at the Alamo, February 24, 1836: ``Fellow citizens and 
compatriots, I am besieged by a thousand or more of the Mexicans under 
Santa Anna. I have sustained a continual bombardment and cannonade for 
24 hours and have not lost a man. The enemy has demanded a surrender at 
discretion, otherwise, the garrison are to be put to the sword, if the 
fort is taken. I have answered the demand with a cannon shot, and our 
flag still waves proudly from the walls. I shall never surrender or 
retreat. Then, I call on you in the name of liberty, of patriotism, and 
everything dear to the American character, to come to our aid, with all 
dispatch. The enemy is receiving reinforcements daily and will no doubt 
increase to 3 or 4,000 in 4 or 5 days. If this call is neglected, I am 
determined to sustain myself as long as possible and die like a soldier 
who never forgets what is due to his own honor and that of his country. 
Victory or death. William Barret Travis, Lieutenant Colonel 
Commandant.''
  Now, that was nearly 200 men standing on the wall at the Alamo 
knowing almost certain death--knowing almost certain death is what they 
faced. It is notable that on this date, today, 188 years ago William 
Barret Travis who wrote that letter died.
  Davey Crockett, who was fairly well known in the history of our 
country, who served in this Chamber--although not in this building but 
back behind us in the original House Chamber--Davey Crockett, a Member 
of Congress from the State of Tennessee, who like a number of 
Tennesseans came to the aid of Texas at the Alamo, Davey Crockett died 
that day, today, 188 years ago.
  We Americans love to have our parades. We love to commemorate these 
kinds of events. Ask a Texan about the Alamo, and they will fill their 
chest and stick it out, and they will talk about how great Texas is.
  Ask an American about D-Day or about our history and what George 
Washington did crossing the Delaware or talking about any of the great 
battles that our men and women in uniform have carried out on behalf of 
this great country, and they will well up with pride, they will stick 
their chest out, and they will talk about how great this country is.
  But the question that I think needs to be asked sitting here on the 
floor of the House of Representatives in, yet again, another empty 
Chamber: What are we willing to do? What are we willing to do? What are 
the people of this body willing to do? What are my colleagues on both 
sides of the aisle willing to do in the face of the massive assault on 
our country that we are experiencing as we speak? What are we actually 
willing to do?
  I have heard lots of speeches, even tonight, speeches about how much 
our debt is piling up around us and how we need to cut spending. Every 
single Member of this body, but particularly my Republican colleagues, 
talk about the debt. $34.4 trillion. Well, tomorrow it is going to be 
$34.5 trillion. We are racking up a trillion dollars of debt every 100 
days, and yet, we give lip service to it.
  So again, I go back to this point about these men standing on the 
wall at the Alamo facing certain death if these reinforcements didn't 
get there. They probably knew full well they weren't going to get them. 
Yet, they were willing to stand there and die.
  For what? To be enslaved to $34.4 trillion of debt? To be told that 
you can't get the automobile of your choice? To be told that there is 
going to be a kill switch that will cut your car off if your eyes dart 
a certain way? To be told that you must accept untold numbers of 
illegal aliens coming into your country getting free services, free 
education, free healthcare while bankrupting your country?
  Is that what those men died for?
  Did those men die for criminals to be let out on the streets? Did 
they die so that one of these men's great-great-granddaughters could 
get murdered as a student in Georgia, or for example, in Texas a young 
woman that was found dead in a bathtub? A young cheerleader's mom 
wanted to go see her, expected to go see her at a cheerleading event, 
comes home, and she is dead in the bathtub.
  Is that what these men sacrificed for? Is that what they put it all 
on the line for?
  When we all talk about the men that sat in the foxholes of Bastogne 
freezing at Christmas so we could live in this country, did they fight 
for those things?
  I have to be really blunt here. Did they fight so that Republicans 
could campaign on cutting spending and today on the floor of this 
Chamber vote to pass a bill that without question, undebatably, 
unquestionably increases spending significantly in the form of tens of 
billions of dollars over that of Nancy Pelosi's omnibus spending bill, 
despite the fact that we had bipartisan spending caps put in place last 
year, passed in this Chamber with majorities of both Republicans and 
Democrats and the Senate and signed by the President of the United 
States?
  We ignored those caps, we spent more than those caps, and then we had 
the audacity to try to claim to the American people publicly that we 
cut spending. This is what the American people are sick of.
  Let me be perfectly clear standing here. My colleagues on the other 
side of the aisle are, in fact, radical, progressive Democrats, period. 
They are pushing policies, along with the President of the United 
States, that is flooding this country with people from all over the 
world into Texas, into Arizona, into California, stacking our schools, 
stacking our jails, overwhelming our system, giving out benefits, 
paying money, all so that people like Marc Elias can challenge in court 
to stop Arizona from having a law that says only citizens can vote.
  Now why might that be?
  It is purposeful. It is happening every second, even as we pile up 
debt around our ears to the tune of $34.4 trillion and counting--a 
trillion dollars of interest in 2026; more interest than our defense 
this year.
  It is astounding.
  And my colleagues on this side of the aisle and that side of the 
aisle will hide behind either--from my radical, progressive, Democratic 
colleagues, they will hide behind taxes. They will say, oh, we have had 
too many tax cuts. Even though 2 years ago we had more revenue in the 
Treasury than we ever had.
  My colleagues on this side of the aisle will hide behind mandatory 
spending. They will scratch their beards, look at you and say, oh, but, 
Chip, you're getting hung up on 17 percent of the budget. Can't you do 
math? Really.
  Like they look at you like somehow you are insane because you are 
focused on the discretionary budgets sitting in front of you that you 
think maybe, just maybe, we should take the discretionary budget that 
we have total control of every year and demonstrate an ounce--an ounce 
of actual responsibility and fiscal sanity by saying maybe, just maybe, 
we shouldn't give

[[Page H995]]

$12.5 billion to the United Nations. I am just throwing that out 
there--$12.5 billion to the United Nations to undermine our country, to 
work with NGOs to move people into the United States purposely. That is 
what the United Nations is doing. They worked with Hamas to attack 
Israel. We funded it. We did that. And they want to say, oh, well, who 
cares about that?
  Well, what about the $12.7 billion in earmarks that we passed today 
on the floor of the House filled with all sorts of pet projects so our 
colleagues can go back home and say: Look what I brought home to you.
  Why do I pick those two numbers? Why do I pick those two things, 
$12.5 billion in the United Nations and $12.7 billion in earmarks 
passed here?
  They are massive numbers for both Democrats and Republicans. You know 
how much Texas has had to spend over the last 3 years to secure the 
border of the United States in Texas, which is the job of the Federal 
Government? $12.5 billion.
  Do you know how much Texas has been paid back? Not a red cent.
  All I can tell you is those boys that stood at that wall at the Alamo 
didn't do it for that. March 2, is Texas' Independence Day. I have got 
to tell you, read about the history of our independence. In 1836, Texas 
became a sovereign nation for a brief 9 years before we joined the 
Union. It has got a nice ring to it. But Texas joined that Union, and 
that Union and that Constitution says this country is supposed to 
protect its border, and it is leaving Texas exposed.
  So with all due respect to Republican leadership and with all due 
respect to my colleagues on this side of the aisle, when I hear these 
excuses about we only have a two-vote majority, and sometimes you guys 
are taking down rules, that is swamp speak for I don't want to make the 
tough choice and say that we are going to go stand up on that wall like 
those boys did.
  That is what it means.
  It means Republican leadership is more concerned about defense 
spending for the defense establishment in this town. It means that 
Republican leadership is more concerned about ensuring that warrantless 
surveillance of Americans under FISA can continue without changing it.
  It means that Republican leadership is more concerned about ensuring 
that we have money for Ukraine's borders rather than our borders.
  That is the kind of thing we are talking about.
  We are heading into the state of the Union tomorrow with the 
President of the United States who is in charge of a party of 
progressive, radical Democrats who want to remake our country, leave 
our borders open, spend us into oblivion, conduct endless wars, remake 
us with radical woke policies, DEI, and all the things that are 
destroying our country and dividing us up by race.
  I want a Republican Party that is shoving it right back down and 
saying, you know what, we are going to pass a bill that funds this 
government at the caps we passed last year. We are going to send it 
over to the Senate. We are going to send it over with H.R. 2. It will 
secure the border of the United States. We are going to go around this 
country, and we are going to sell it to every single American. Like 
those boys on the wall of the Alamo, we are fighting for them. Like 
those boys sitting in the foxholes in Bastogne or walking into a wall 
of bullets in Normandy, we are fighting for them.
  Instead, what always happens in this Chamber is that we find Members 
of Congress fighting for themselves--earmarks, political patronage, and 
power.
  When are we going to lay it all on the line for the people we came 
here to represent? That is my question.
  I didn't wear the uniform. I represent a hell of a lot of people who 
do and did, and it is an honor to do so. I feel like I owe every last 
ounce of devotion to this country and this Constitution and to them for 
laying it all out on the field there.
  So when my colleagues say, why are you so pointed or so emotional 
about a particular topic or why are you down here animated? It is 
because of all of those people that sacrificed. It is those 400,000 
tombstones on the other side of the Potomac River, many of whom gave 
the last full measure of devotion so that we could live free.
  I have to tell you, we have an obligation to fight for this country, 
and I will call out President Biden and my radical Democratic 
colleagues for all they are doing to destroy this country, and I will 
work to do my best to make sure we have a Republican majority because 
my Republican colleagues want to preserve and fight for this country. I 
know it.
  We are not going to do it by doing what we did today. We are not 
going to do it by continuing to spend money we don't have, bankrupting 
our kids, not securing our border, not getting the policies in place 
that we said we would fight for and cowering in the corner under 
accusations of a potential shut down of government.
  Can you imagine the boys standing on the walls of the Alamo saying, 
oh, my gosh, do you know what they are going to do? They are going to 
tweet something mean about you and say, oh, my gosh, you are going to 
shut down the government.
  Those guys were saying they are going to respond with a cannon shot 
with an Army of a thousand coming at them in San Antonio.

  All those boys who were jumping out into stormy waters in Normandy 
going up cliffs, climbing and scaling the cliffs so your prize at that 
point is to try to march to Berlin.
  Again, I did not wear the uniform. I have many colleagues who did. 
One of my colleagues, one of the men for whom I have such enormous 
respect for his service to this country and his service as a Member of 
Congress but, in particular, wearing the uniform of our United States 
military is my friend from Pennsylvania, Mr. Scott Perry.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Perry).
  Mr. PERRY. Mr. Speaker, I thank my good friend from Texas for 
yielding.
  I had the honor of visiting the Alamo just about a month ago when I 
went to the border. Again, I went to the border and I wondered about 
William Barret Travis. And I have got to tell you, when you are 
standing there and you are reading that, and you know that you are 
standing on the ground where giants stood, where things in the world 
meant something and were worth fighting for, it is invigorating, and it 
is inspiring to you to do your part.
  I wonder, would William Barret Travis and the folks that lost their 
lives, the guys that lost their lives defending America at the Alamo 
and Davey Crockett, would they do it for $20 million for a State route 
in Alabama? How about $4.1 million for a bike path in San Diego or $6.4 
million for a greenway trail in Chattanooga or $1 million for an 
electric vehicle car share for public housing residents or $5 million 
for a Newport, Rhode Island, walking path?

                              {time}  1915

  I am sure that all of those are very important things to the people 
that live in those communities. I believe that. The question is: Why is 
the Federal Government paying for them when the Federal Government 
doesn't have any money?
  From December to January, we went over $34 trillion in debt and by 
May we will be at $35 trillion. Did the folks at the Alamo, including 
William Barret Travis, risk his life and ultimately give his life to 
watch his country be swallowed up in debt?
  To that end, the invasion coming from south of the border, we didn't 
stop in this bill that was just passed, using taxpayer dollars to 
represent illegal aliens, to get their attorneys for them. They have 
come illegally, and the people that gave their lives at the Alamo, I 
guess we would ask them: Hey, you don't mind paying with your life so 
that we can represent the people who are attacking you right now? You 
wouldn't mind that, would you?
  I bet they would mind. I have got to tell you, my good friend from 
Texas talked about the folks at Bastogne. I served in the 28th Infantry 
Division who held Bastogne underequipped, undermanned, surrounded by 
the Germans, taking the losses, taking the unbelievable losses, being 
told to hold the line, stay here, and hold the Germans off until Patton 
gets here. Everybody remembers Patton came and saved the Bulge and all 
that stuff. Nobody cares about all of those guys in the 28th Division 
who lost their lives fighting for the idea of the greatest country on 
the planet, the greatest country on the planet where we just agreed to 
fund firearm registries so that we can take

[[Page H996]]

rights away from Americans, where we agreed to fund vaccine mandates at 
the Veterans Administration.
  I don't think they fought for that. I don't think they fought so that 
we could have another report about China buying up farmland and 
sensitive land around military installations. We didn't stop them from 
doing it, but we are sure going to have a report, so that is awesome.
  How about this: They fought and lost their lives so that we can 
continue to fund the Wuhan Institute of Virology, and we also continue 
to fund sanctuary cities.
  It is breathtaking to me what is happening in this Chamber. The 
individuals that founded this Nation, that pledged their lives, their 
fortunes, and their sacred honor, they meant it. They knew how serious 
it was. They pledged their lives, Mr. Speaker, and we can't even honor 
their sacrifice by saying we are going to hold the line here and do 
what we said we were going to do last May.
  Mr. ROY. Mr. Speaker, that is right, like literally a year ago.
  I might just add on this chart, the gentleman refers to House 
Republicans last year, when we were trying to restore regular order and 
conservatives were working hard to do that and conservatives voted for 
a debt ceiling increase, even though we said we wouldn't and we 
shouldn't, we did. We voted for appropriations bills. Even though the 
caps were not honored, we did.
  We have got colleagues saying we wouldn't work with them when we did 
everything we knew how to do, and by the way, by passing seven 
appropriations bills. Moving seven over to the Senate and ten down to 
the floor, we were able to enact policies to fight the radical Biden 
regime.
  We defunded sanctuary cities refusing to report criminal illegals. We 
did that. This bill doesn't.
  We prohibited the Department of Justice from giving lawyers to 
illegals, like you just mentioned. We did that. This bill doesn't.
  We prohibited the Department of Justice from fast tracking asylum. We 
did that. This bill doesn't.
  We defunded Biden's electric vehicle mandate, anti-power plant rules, 
and climate executive orders that are killing our economy. We did that. 
This bill doesn't.
  We defunded ATF's pistol brace ban to save and protect Second 
Amendment rights. This bill doesn't.
  We broadly defunded critical race theory and DEI executive orders. 
This bill doesn't.
  We prohibited the FBI from using old construction funds for a new 
headquarters here. This bill doesn't.
  We prohibited the Department of Justice from censuring unlawful 
speech, requiring the Department of Justice to create a better process 
for politically sensitive investigations, defunded the DOJ staff 
refusing to comply with subpoenas, and more.
  We defunded the COVID vaccine mandates. We ended Biden's WOTUS rule. 
We prohibited pride flags from frying over Federal buildings. We 
prohibited funds for the Wuhan lab. We did all of those things. This 
bill does none of those and busted the caps.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Perry), 
for the purposes of a colloquy.
  Mr. PERRY. Mr. Speaker, we will have colleagues starting today--
starting just moments ago, on both sides of the aisle, that will tell 
you we can't afford this government; it is spending too much. Our 
citizens can't afford their groceries. They can't afford housing. They 
can't afford their credit card bills. How did it happen?
  It happened in here a couple hours ago.
  Mr. ROY. Mr. Speaker, it happened right here when all but 83 
Republicans voted for it. I think 132 Republicans voted for it. On the 
Democratic side of the aisle, I think it was 207 to 2 voted to continue 
to spend at higher levels, racking up more debt and more interest on 
our children and grandchildren.
  Mr. PERRY. Mr. Speaker, did Davy Crockett and William Barret Travis--
not that they had them back then--but if they had, did they lose their 
lives so that a Federal Government could tell them you must buy this 
car; you cannot buy this gas stove; you will power your home this way 
or maybe you won't power it at all because we are going to shut off the 
generation that America invented? Is that what they died for?
  These people and the battered bastards of Bastogne died because they 
wanted us to be free. They wanted the privilege and the honor to run 
their own lives, to make decisions for themselves. They didn't want a 
government that decided everything for them. They wanted a government 
that laid out the framework where each one of them could determine 
their destiny.

  Now, we just voted for the government to determine the destiny right 
here and in so many other places. It is our duty, Mr. Speaker, and the 
duty of every Representative who takes the oath, to fight to ensure 
that the rights to determine your destiny reside with the individual 
and not an overbearing, out-of-control Federal Government. Today, we 
failed at that mission.
  Mr. ROY. Mr. Speaker, those gentlemen at the Alamo, who gave their 
last full measure of devotion, did it for an idea. Remember what they 
were doing, right? They were seeking separation from the federal 
government of Mexico and ultimately did so. A few weeks later, at the 
battle of San Jacinto, Texas wins, Texas becomes free, becomes its own 
nation. They are living freely. They were throwing off the shackles of 
a burdensome federal government which was, by the way, far less 
burdensome than this one.
  Then they joined a union, the United States of America, under the 
idea that America would be amenable to Texas joining the Union to be 
free, to live free in a republican form of government, in a federalist 
system, where the people of Texas could live free under a limited 
government of enumerated powers that wasn't indebting its children and 
grandchildren into oblivion.
  That is what we just did. In addition to all of those policies that 
we punted to the ground, Republicans in this body just voted to support 
a shattering $1.66 trillion bill, forsaking every other option we spent 
a year exploring.
  We punted here. We had caps in place that would have spent right 
there, but we punted. Republicans punted in favor of that because it 
was the easy path in an election year, and that is what our children 
inherit.
  That is not why they joined the Union. That is not why Texas fought 
at the Alamo to be free from Mexico and join the Union. They fought so 
that we could live free.
  Mr. PERRY. Mr. Speaker, free from the bondage of economic slavery. 
Slavery is in many forms, but when you can't make the choices that you 
should be able to make as a free person because you can't afford to 
make the choices because your government is taking from you that which 
you have earned, that is tyranny, Mr. Speaker. That is tyranny.
  With all due respect to many colleagues on both sides of the aisle, 
we have one set of Members that are seeking the fundamental 
transformation of America, which used to look like a free country, and 
we have another side that is doing nothing to stop it.
  Mr. ROY. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate my friend for joining me. We came 
here tonight to celebrate what those men sacrificed for the State of 
Texas but for our country and the men like them and the women like them 
over our history. I hope we will do better. We owe it to the American 
people to do better.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

                          ____________________