[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 50 (Thursday, March 21, 2024)]
[House]
[Pages H1344-H1348]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             SWAMP BUS PART 2: MORE ILLEGALS, LESS FREEDOM

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 9, 2023, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Roy) is recognized for 
60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.
  Mr. ROY. Mr. Speaker, I come here to the floor recognizing the state 
of affairs that we find ourselves in, given the extent to which the 
President of the United States and his radical progressive Democrat 
allies on the other side of the aisle here and in the Senate, are 
continuing an assault on the well-being of the American people with 
open borders, with inflationary spending, with radical environmental 
agenda policies that are regulating the economy to death, driving up 
the cost of goods sold, and overall diminishing America and the world. 
There is no other way to view it than intentional.
  That kind of an assault on the well-being of the American people 
ought to be and deserves to be met with the kind of resistance that the 
American people who sent us here to represent them expect.
  The American people, who sent at least Republicans here to be in the 
majority to stand athwart the radical policies of the Biden 
administration, supported by our radical progressive Democrats here in 
this House and in the Senate, they sent us here to stand athwart those 
policies. Therefore, it is our duty, it is incumbent upon us to 
actually do so.
  Last year, when given the majority, a number of us set out to change 
the way the House of Representatives works, or should I say, was not 
working.
  We set out to make sure that bills could be read, that you have 72 
hours to review a bill.
  We set out to ensure that you would have adequate and varied 
representation on the various committees.
  We set out to ensure that there would be a process by which we could 
move appropriations bills out of committee on to the floor, from the 
floor to the Senate, so that we could pass individual bills, try to 
restore what we might call regular order.
  We set out to do that last year. We passed seven appropriations bills 
out of the House, three more from the committees down to the floor, two 
others were ready to go. We passed H.R. 2, the strongest border 
security bill that has ever been moved off of the House floor. We 
passed the Limit, Save, Grow Act, which would elevate the debt 
responsibly while making policy changes to try to drive down the amount 
of debt that we are racking up on a daily and weekly basis.
  Those are the things we are able to accomplish as Republicans when we 
were honoring the commitments that we made to our constituents, and we 
were not hiding.
  Unfortunately, today, Republicans are hiding. They are hiding behind 
the fear of a so-called shutdown and hiding behind the so-called razor 
thin majority to pass a massive omnibus spending bill--the second part 
of a two-part omnibus spending bill that blows past the spending caps 
passed on a bipartisan basis, increases the spending over the very 
levels perpetuated by Nancy Pelosi that virtually every Republican in 
this Chamber opposed not 15 months ago.
  They are about to pass legislation that will blow past those caps and 
spend more money, and they are going to do so knowing full well that we 
are not achieving the vast majority--barely any--of the policy changes 
that we fought for all last year in the appropriations process. That is 
the actual truth.
  We are going to abandon the efforts that we set out to change this 
Chamber last year, and we are doing it violently.
  We got a bill this morning that is over 1,000 pages long, $1.2 
trillion, and we are expected to pore over it in 1 day, in 24 hours. We 
are still uncovering ridiculous uses of taxpayer funds. The American 
people are about to learn what some of those are.
  Not only are we abandoning what we accomplished last year to try to 
take the House back, make the House work again, but we are abandoning 
the people of this country, the hardworking American people, right now, 
today, who are looking at their Congress and saying: What are you 
doing?
  The hardworking Americans who sent us here are seeing their country 
being taken away from them right before their very eyes and seeing 
their way of life being eviscerated.
  This isn't about holding on to power. We are not sent here to 
accumulate power. We are not sent here to run for re-election. We are 
sent here to do something. We are sent here to fight for the people who 
sent us here.
  What we are doing right now is looking at a country that we love, a 
country that is being destroyed, throwing up our hands as Republicans, 
and saying that apparently it is just not worth the fight because we 
might have a poll that looks bad because of a shut down. That is what 
we are telling the American people.
  Instead of using the power of the purse, the power of the purse to 
force change as was stated by James Madison in Federalist Paper 58: 
``The House of Representatives cannot only refuse, but they alone can 
propose the supplies requisite for the support of government. They, in 
a word, hold the purse, that powerful instrument . . . all the 
overgrown prerogatives of the other branches of government. This power 
over the purse may, in fact, be regarded as the most complete and 
effectual weapon with which any Constitution can arm the immediate 
representatives of the people, for obtaining a redress of every 
grievance, and for carrying into effect every just and salutary 
measure.''
  Those were the words of James Madison, the father of the United 
States Constitution. When he was arguing for the adoption of the 
Constitution, he was saying that this body, the one that I am standing 
in right now, the House of Representatives through the power of the 
purse is the only body in the world that can restrain the power of the 
executive branch, the President of the United States. We, this body, in 
concert with the Senate, of course, hold the power to check an out-of-
control President.
  Are the President of the United States and the people who work for 
him in this administration out of control? Yes.

  How do we know this? Because the President of the United States goes 
to the microphone and says he is going to ignore the United States 
Supreme Court when the Supreme Court says you cannot do what you are 
doing, it is against the law, with respect to student loan bailouts.
  The President of the United States is ignoring his duty and his oath 
of the Constitution to defend the border of the United States, using 
policies meant for very narrow exceptions for asylum and parole to blow 
open the border and endanger the American people.
  That is tyrannical activity, an abuse of power endangering the people 
that we represent. That is what is happening. That is what the 
President is doing.
  A President who has abused his power at the FBI and in the 
intelligence agencies. That is what is happening, and what is the 
response from Republicans? Crickets. It is beyond a whimper because 
they are afraid that someone might cry shut down. They are afraid that 
they might lose their

[[Page H1345]]

precious election certificate that I think apparently is what gives 
some people in this body their worth.
  However, the election certificate is only as good as the people that 
we are here to represent, and they sent us here to do something, to 
change the place.
  Today, in Texas, more than 100 illegal aliens charged past the Texas 
National Guard. The State I represent is on fire and trying to pick up 
the pieces as the Federal Government refuses to do its job, and we saw 
it unfold today in real time.
  And what are my Republican colleagues going to do? Give the President 
and the Department of Homeland Security and the impeached Homeland 
Security Secretary more money.
  Can someone explain that to me?
  Can someone explain to me how any Republican can, over the next 6 
months, go out and campaign against Joe Biden's open borders when they 
are writing the checks? They are going to do it tomorrow, right here on 
the floor of this body. They are going to write him the check and say, 
here you go, Mr. President. ``Thank you, sir. May I have another?''
  Yes, I inserted ``Animal House.''
  This bill does not include one single policy necessary to secure the 
border. I am tired of hearing Republicans go to the microphone, whether 
they are in leadership or rank and file, and say otherwise because it 
is not true.
  I have heard Republican leadership go down and talk about ICE beds. 
Oh, don't worry, Chip, we increased the ICE beds.
  Are you telling the American people that the ICE memos--that this 
administration has in full force--basically make it impossible for ICE 
to do their job, that those beds will, therefore, not be filled?
  Oh, Chip, that is for future President Trump to use. President Trump 
can increase the ICE beds to what he had when he was President before, 
which was as many as 57,000 beds.

                              {time}  1800

  This is nonsense. It is nothing. No, it is worse than nothing. It is 
actually worse than nothing because my same Republican colleagues go up 
to the microphone and say that we are going to increase Border Patrol.
  First of all, good luck recruiting more Border Patrol agents right 
now. They can't even achieve the numbers that they are currently at, at 
17,000 or 18,000. No, in our bill we say: Oh, don't worry, we will be 
at 22,000 Border Patrol agents.
  Guess how our Democratic colleagues characterize that amazing feat of 
negotiation that Republicans carried out? They characterize it as 
expediting the processing of more illegals because, you know what, at 
least they are honest about it, that is exactly what it would do.
  You are going to give more funding for more Border Patrol agents to 
process more illegal aliens who are overrunning our border, overrunning 
our cities, overrunning our hospitals, overrunning our jails, 
overrunning our schools, driving mass crime into our communities, 
resulting in the death of Laken Riley, resulting in the death of Kayla 
Hamilton, resulting in the death of too many people for me to sit here 
and mention, and Republicans are going to go cower in the corner 
tomorrow, wring their hands, and say we can't talk about a shutdown. 
That is what is going to happen.
  Meanwhile, we are going to go out this summer and do what? It is the 
80th anniversary of D-Day, let's go give some speeches over in 
Normandy. What? You are so proud of those young men who walked into a 
wall of bullets and went up a cliff so that you could give your country 
away with billions of dollars to an administration that is going to 
allow every single thing they fought for to get winnowed away? That is 
the truth.
  Every Republican tomorrow--and Democrat--every Republican tomorrow 
who votes for this abomination of a bill will own, personally own the 
mass release of illegal aliens in violation of law because you are 
funding it, on top of 4.5 million releases so far and almost 2 million 
got-aways so far. You vote for this, you own it.
  You own the release of illegal aliens with notices to appear in court 
as far out as 2035 and growing and limited knowledge as to where they 
even are. You own it.
  You own the unlawful mass parole programs, the use of the CBP One 
app. The funding you are voting for tomorrow will fund that, the mass 
parole of over 1 million individuals, including the known member of a 
Venezuelan prison gang who violently murdered Laken Riley. You own 
that. It was not good enough to pass a bill last week named after Laken 
Riley and then come here and write the check to the very people who 
were responsible for allowing it to occur.
  You own bringing the chaos in Haiti to the shores of America via the 
Cuban, Haitian, Nicaraguan, and Venezuelan parole program. You own 
that. The Haitian migrant who raped a 15-year-old disabled girl who was 
here as a migrant in Massachusetts. You are funding that.
  The dismantling of the migrant protection protocols that were 
effective under the previous President, you are funding that.
  You are funding the halt of the wall construction.
  You are funding the legal attacks on the State of Texas for standing 
up to try to secure our border even as our National Guard gets overrun. 
You are funding that if you vote for this bill tomorrow.
  Texas has had to spend over $12 billion of its own money. I can tell 
you what you are not funding. You are not funding paying Texas back, 
and I am talking to my Texas delegation friends now. Are you literally 
going to go home to Texas when your own National Guard are getting 
overrun, your own State is not getting paid back, we are not getting 
any policy changes, you are going to increase the debt, and you are 
going to go try to sell that garbage to the people of Texas?
  Spare me when I see you campaigning this year on border security. It 
is a fraud. It is a fraud for Republicans to campaign on border 
security while you fund it. You fund the lawlessness. You fund the open 
borders. You fund the death of Laken Riley. You fund the fentanyl 
pouring into our communities and killing our kids.
  You own the DHS memos policies and rules that restrict Border 
Patrol's ability to do their job. You own it. You own the continued 
exploitation of unaccompanied minors, little girls getting sold into 
the sex trafficking trade, the 85,000 children that were lost by the 
very Office of Refugee Resettlement that you will fund tomorrow. You 
own it. Don't campaign against it and then write the check.
  You own the funding for the sanctuary cities that refuse to cooperate 
with immigration law enforcement which, by the way, are hamstrung in 
the first place by an administration that doesn't care about the law. 
You own it. Don't go complain about sanctuary cities. You are funding 
it.
  It is worse, as I said before, because DHS gets more money. They get 
an increase in funding not to change the policies, but to give Border 
Patrol the ability to process more people quickly, which means more 
people come to the border.
  The Defense Department is also attached to this total capitulation on 
our border. We continue to fund a woke Department of Defense in the 
wake of a weak National Defense Authorization Act passed in December 
which, by the way, we were promised by Republican leadership was just 
one step. Just get past that, don't worry, then we will fight on 
spending.
  Well, if this is what fighting on spending looks like, I am not sure 
why you bother flying to Normandy to go regale those who had the 
courage to walk into a wall of bullets and scale a cliff to defend 
America and go fight against Nazi Germany. Is this what we do when our 
hour is before us?
  We will be funding, and, therefore, own if you vote for this bill, 
Biden's illegal Department of Defense abortion travel fund. You own it. 
By the way, all you social conservative groups out there, all you so-
called pro-life groups, where the hell are you? Crickets. Silence, 
because you care about political power more than the very thing you say 
you are for. You know who you are.

  Transgender surgeries in the Pentagon. Where are the social 
conservative groups? Cowering in the corner.
  Woke DEI offices across the Pentagon destroying the military morale. 
You can't even recruit anybody to the Pentagon anymore. You are funding 
it. Don't complain about it while you are funding it.

[[Page H1346]]

  Biden's climate change executive orders undermining our warfighting 
capabilities. You are funding it.
  The deputy inspector general for diversity and inclusion extremism in 
the military. You are funding it. You own it.
  The Department of Defense's ability to classify Americans' 
communication as misinformation. You are funding it. You own it.
  State and Foreign Operations are part of this bill. We are going to 
export the radical, progressive Democrats' woke agenda abroad, and you 
are going to pay for it while we rack up a trillion dollars of debt 
every 100 days. You are going to take that borrowing, undermine your 
own dollar, drive up your own inflation, funding the bureaucrats who 
are carrying out this agenda. Congratulations, America, that is what 
your House of Representatives is doing, and that is precisely what you 
will have Republicans campaigning against after they funded it, after 
they own it.
  I will give credit where it is due. Republican leadership, led by the 
Speaker, negotiated to defund UNRWA. Well, it is about dang time. Some 
of us were calling for that 3 years ago when we introduced legislation 
to do it. We had eight Republicans who voted against defunding UNRWA in 
September in the appropriations package.
  Guess what? October 7 was one of the most horrific attacks on one of 
our friends in history, and we realized what many of us already knew, 
UNRWA was right there involved. UNRWA was funding it. The United 
Nations Relief and Works Agency was funding it.
  Congratulations. We defunded an entity that is funding terrorists 
against our friends in Israel. Good. Let's put one over here in the win 
column, this green check box. Congratulations, Republicans, you did it. 
You did something that you can actually go sell.
  However, sorry to say, you are still funding the World Health 
Organization, which wants to take away our American sovereignty, that 
worked to force COVID tyranny on the American people, force it down the 
throats of the American people. In the process of negotiating a new 
pandemic treaty that would massively expand its reach, you funded it. 
Congratulations, you own it. You own the World Health Organization.
  You own the dystopian United Nations Population Fund, targeted at 
basically exterminating people. Congratulations, you own it. Again, to 
all you social conservative groups out there, thanks.
  The Gender Equity and Equality Action Fund and LGBTQ envoys. Border 
security for Jordan and Pakistan, you are funding border security for 
Jordan and Pakistan, but you are not doing anything to secure the 
border of the United States. You own it.
  The climate czar office, formerly occupied by John Kerry, flitting 
around the planet in his private planes. You paid for it; you own it. 
You are funding it.
  $3.8 billion for the migration and refugee assistance programs while 
our southern border is not secure. Think about that.
  Again, to my Republican colleagues, who vote for this bill, people 
are going to follow you around, you are going to campaign against all 
of these things. I know you are. I guess you are going to go all in, 
Texas Hold'Em style, on President Trump and say: Well, it is going to 
take President Trump to save us.
  How is that separation of powers thing working out for you? Did you 
skip that part of civics, that we are a coequal branch of government? 
Oh, but Chip, we can't do that. We need a President to save us. Why the 
hell are you in Congress? We are actually supposed to be more important 
than the President of the United States. That is why we are Article I. 
However, we are too chicken to use the power, the most powerful tool 
that we have.
  These guys can't do what they are doing to the American people and to 
our country without the money to do it. Not only are we giving them the 
money, we are giving them more money, and we are borrowing to do it, at 
extraordinary rates.
  Does anybody need to be reminded that we are now spending more on our 
interest on the debt than we are on defense this year? All of the hawks 
in here who are totally happy selling out our country vote by vote so 
they can go home and say they brought home a troop pay raise, great, 
but you are now spending more on interest than you are on the Pentagon. 
In 2 years you are cracking a trillion dollars in interest.
  The President's budget that he just sent to us has us spending more 
on interest over the next decade every year than we do on defense. 
Congratulations, Republicans, you own it.
  How about the FBI headquarters? Good job, Republicans, you went out 
and campaigned when we passed the last omnibus bill and said: We got 
cuts to the FBI. You went out and sold that. First of all, it was 
bogus. The vast majority of the cuts came from one earmark from a 
building in Alabama that Richard Shelby got in the last Congress. He is 
no longer here to defend it, so you axed it and then claimed you had 
some massive cut to the FBI. That is called swamp politics.
  However, now in this omnibus spending bill, guess what? We go ahead 
and fund the new FBI headquarters. Who cares that the FBI just 
massively spied on the American people? By the way, we haven't done 
anything about that except for extend their powers through the 
continuation of FISA without actually putting in a warrant to protect 
warrantless searches. Oh, we haven't done that yet, put that over there 
as another thing Republicans own, continued spying on Americans without 
warrants to protect them. Good job. What, are you going to go check 
that campaign box this year? We are going to stop and make sure FISA is 
no longer abused by the FBI. We are going to protect you, but we are 
not going to do it when we have the power to do it.

                              {time}  1815

  $200 million to the FBI for its new headquarters.
  We don't prohibit the Treasury from establishing a central bank 
digital currency, which we did in the House bill. Somebody tell me, how 
can you not negotiate to stop the formation of a central bank digital 
currency, one of the most pernicious assaults on freedom that you could 
possibly have?
  We couldn't even stand up as Republicans to demand that that stop. We 
passed it here in the House. The Senate didn't want it, apparently, or 
the Biden administration didn't want it.
  In our grand negotiation, we didn't even do that. Do you know what a 
central bank digital currency can do? It can totally shut your life 
down, based on whatever they choose to prioritize.
  Using too much gas because you didn't get an electric vehicle? No. 
Sorry. We are shutting you down.
  Buy too much ammo this month? No. Shutting you down.
  The Chicoms do this on a regular basis. We are trying to get in front 
of that, thinking maybe the basic foundational principles in the 
Constitution matter, but no. We couldn't even negotiate that.
  Congratulations, Republicans. You own the continued ability of the 
executive branch to work up the formation and creation of a central 
bank digital currency. Congratulations. You own it.
  No prohibition on the funds to invest in so-called ESG in the Federal 
Thrift Savings Plan, which we had gotten adopted. It got punted.
  No prohibition on funds for Federal employee health insurance plans 
to cover the cost of transgender-affirming care. Guess what, 
Republicans? You own it. You are paying for it. Go home to your 
colleagues or your constituents and explain to them how excited you are 
to take their tax dollars and then add to that a bunch of borrowing to 
fund transgender-affirming care. Good job. You own that.
  No prohibition on implementing Biden's climate change EOs.
  No governmentwide prohibition on vaccine mandates. A few partial 
ones--we always want to be fair.
  There was a note in the bill that moderately defunded the COVID vax 
and mask mandates. There was some modest defunding of the Wuhan lab in 
the DOD bill, but in the vast majority of it over at HHS, all the stuff 
in there that was carried out, it is still there. Congratulations.
  We shut down the biggest economy in the history of the world--racked 
up $8 trillion in debt, put our kids behind--now to the tune of 
trillions of dollars of economic harm, all because we allowed the Wuhan 
lab to be abused, which we funded. Guess what? We are still funding it. 
Republicans own it.
  Don't go out and campaign against the China virus or the Wuhan virus 
or

[[Page H1347]]

the Wuhan lab. You own it. You are funding it. Right now, today, you 
are doing it.
  House Republicans had aggressive cuts to HHS last year, but now we 
are going to give a billion-dollar increase.
  We are still funding the student loan Ponzi scheme. You go out and 
criticize President Biden and the student loan program, ignoring the 
Supreme Court. You are funding it.
  Gender-affirming surgeries and drugs, you are funding it.
  Research with aborted fetal tissue, you are funding it.
  HHS and DOL DEI offices, you are funding it.
  President Biden's radical antiworker agenda, you are funding it.
  You are funding the Wuhan lab.
  Again, I would like to give a shout-out to the social conservative 
groups out there for being so invested in life and DEI and all the 
issues involving, say, aborted fetal tissue that you are doing nothing 
about this bill because you like power.
  We banned earmarks at one point. The previous omnibus spending bill 
had like 6,000 or something earmarks. I don't even know. It is hard to 
keep count. This one had a bunch more because it was Transportation. 
Everybody loves to get their little bridges and roads and stuff, but 
there are bike paths and all sorts of crazy stuff named after crazy 
people using your money. I am not sure where that is in Article I, 
Section 8, but whatever.
  The bill contains 1,400 earmarks--this one does--for $2 billion. My 
colleagues think: It is just an earmark. I am a Member of Congress. I 
don't want to let a bureaucrat decide this. I get to decide how this is 
spent. I get to bring home something to my district that is so 
critically important to the well-being of my constituents.
  That is what they all say. That is what they say when they bring back 
earmarks.
  Chip, we know how to do this better than the bureaucrats. Why would 
you stand in the way of these all-knowing Congressmen to make the right 
decisions for their constituents rather than turning over that power to 
the bureaucrats?
  Let's see how that is working out for you, America. $156,000 for the 
Hartford Gay and Lesbian Health Collective, an organization self-
described as champions of--I don't know how many letters I have to put 
here together--LGBTQIA+ equity and provides training on LGBTQ+ cultural 
competency and accessing healthcare for LGBTQ+ youth. Well, that is a 
good use of money.
  $1.1 million for an EV innovation hub while EVs pile up on all the 
car dealership lots around the country, while we fund the Chinese to 
make sure that they are enriched, and while we kill natural gas and 
kill energy in this country and make it harder for Americans to work, 
but I digress. We did a really cool bill today on energy, so everything 
is good.
  $2 million for an Oregon clinic that provides hormone therapy to 
kids.
  $850,000 for LGBTQ senior housing in Massachusetts. Yes, gay senior 
housing. Good job, Republicans. That is what you are funding.
  $400,000 for Briarpatch Youth Services in Wisconsin. One of their 
programs is called Teens Like Us, LGBTQIA2S, whatever that is, with a 
gender-affirming clothing program for ages 13 to 18. You are funding 
it. You own it.
  $400,000 to the Garden State Equality Education Fund in New Jersey 
that helps minors transition genders and promotes biological boys 
playing girl sports and using the same restrooms. Congratulations, 
Republicans. You own it.
  $5 million for Mary's Center for Maternal and Child Care in Maryland. 
It does transgender procedures. ``Mary's Center can serve as your `home 
base' during the transition process.'' Congratulations, Republicans. 
Again, a special shout-out to all you great social conservative groups 
out there just whistling Dixie while this is happening.
  $1 million for the Inner-City Muslim Network, which calls for the 
destruction of Israel. Guess what? We are going to go send an 
invitation for Bibi Netanyahu to come address a joint session right 
here in this body. I am sure we will get up, and everybody will wear a 
little Israel pin, and we will go, ``Yay, Israel. We love Israel.'' 
Then we will give a million dollars to the Inner-City Muslim Network, 
which calls for the destruction of Israel. Good job, Republicans. You 
own it.
  $1.6 million for Cape Cod electric buses.
  $350,000 for theater programs.
  $567,000 for an inclusive playground. What is an inclusive 
playground? When I was kid, an inclusive playground was a bunch of bars 
that basically were about 150 degrees in the summer heat that you 
scalded yourself on where you are hanging up over a bunch of asphalt 
and taking your life into your own hands. It was equal--equal stupid 
but fun. This? I don't even know what an inclusive playground is, but 
there it is, $567,000 of money printed right out of thin air. Here you 
go.
  $650,000 for Dartmouth-Hitchcock Nashua, New Hampshire, which also 
provides late-term abortions. Shout-out again to the social 
conservative groups--completely MIA.
  $740,000 for increasing diversity in State hiring for the State of 
Maryland. Maryland can't figure out how to fund its own diversity 
programs without getting a Federal grant out of printed money?
  $870,000 for a group that wants to defund the police in Connecticut. 
Republicans who get up and rant about police being defunded are going 
to fund the defunding of police in Connecticut. You can't make this 
stuff up. You can't.
  $655,000 for Massachusetts Women of Color Coalition Inc. I don't even 
know what that is.
  I could keep going.
  The American people did not send us to Washington to continue down 
the road of destruction for the greatest country in the history of the 
world for which so many men and women have died to defend and protect 
it.
  The cherry blossoms are all exploding. When we go walk down by the 
Tidal Basin, when we walk by the Jefferson Memorial, we read all those 
words. We walk by the Lincoln Memorial and go across the Memorial 
Bridge to what? 400,000 tombstones on the other side of the Potomac for 
those who either actually gave the last full measure of devotion or 
were willing to do it and survived, came back, and were buried there.
  What did those 400,000 give that last full measure of devotion for? 
It wasn't for this. Yet, Republicans campaign on it all the time and 
then fund it.
  I don't know how to go back to the people who I represent in Texas 
and tell them that while the National Guard had 100 illegal aliens bum-
rush them in El Paso, while we have young women like Laken Riley 
getting killed by somebody released on mass parole, while a 2-year-old 
right outside of the Nation's Capital gets killed by someone let out on 
mass parole by this administration ignoring the laws, endangering our 
people, undermining our sovereignty.
  I want to know, for the life of me, how a single Republican can look 
with a straight face at the people who they represent and say that 
funding is consistent with their oath to the Constitution, consistent 
with their duty to the people they represent, consistent with the 
fiscal responsibility they campaign on, consistent with the border 
security that they campaign on.
  I want to know how they do that. If any Republican votes for this 
omnibus spending bill tomorrow, he or she owns it, owns every one of 
those funding priorities, owns the open borders, owns the woke 
Pentagon, owns the recruiting chaos at the Pentagon, owns the World 
Health Organization continuing to be funded to undermine our 
sovereignty.
  This omnibus bill is the anti-American sovereignty omnibus bill, and 
Republicans should not vote for it. We didn't come here for more of the 
same while our kids have to inherit $34\1/2\ trillion of debt and 
another trillion dollars of debt every 100 days.
  There will not be a country left to stand next to Israel. There will 
not be a country left to help Ukraine. There will not be a country left 
for our kids to inherit if you are borrowing, mortgaging their future, 
all to pay for open borders undermining our sovereignty, world 
organizations designed to undermine our sovereignty, all purposeful 
while my colleagues sit back and go: Gosh, I hope President Trump wins. 
I hope President Trump comes in, and then he will save us.
  One individual was arguing with me here on the floor today. I said, 
``Why

[[Page H1348]]

are we doing this?'' Well, we can't have a shutdown. We would lose.
  Oh, boy. That is courageous, but okay. What if I accept your premise? 
What if I accept your premise that we can't do this because we have a 
thin majority in the House, don't have the Senate, and have a radical 
regime in the White House? Let me accept your premise. I have been 
around the block here in town a couple of times.
  What happens next January? Say Republicans run the trifecta. 
Republicans win the White House, and President Trump is coming back in. 
We have the Senate with, say, 52 or 53 seats. We have a 10-seat 
majority or a 15-seat majority here in the House. Then what? Someone 
tell me then what because I have been there before.

  We were there in 2017, and we didn't repeal ObamaCare and didn't pass 
healthcare reform.
  We were there in 2018, and we didn't pass border security. Goodlatte 
1, Goodlatte 2--we couldn't figure out what we were doing. We didn't do 
it.
  What I said to this individual on the floor today was: Do you know 
what the excuse will be? We don't have 60 in the Senate.
  That individual said: Well, we have to have a conversation about 
that.
  That individual knows full well that the same excuses being levied 
right now to foist this monstrosity, this abomination, on the American 
people will be the same excuse in January: We can't shut down the 
government. You need 60 votes in the Senate, Chip. Don't you 
understand?
  Yeah, I do understand. So do the American people, and they are tired 
of it.
  They are tired of having their country traded away day by day, second 
by second, while our National Guard gets stormed at the border in El 
Paso, and we don't do anything about it.
  We walk around wearing little pins, feeling good about ourselves as 
Members of Congress who refuse to stand up and defend the very 
Constitution that gave us the power to do something about it.
  Instead of deferring to the President, we are supposed to use the 
Article I power under the Constitution to stop funding an executive 
branch that is at war with its own people.

                              {time}  1830

  We came here to change it. Last year we started to. We were working 
together to change this place, to vote bills off the floor, to have 
single-subject bills, and to have 72 hours--a mere 72 hours--to read a 
bill, and in just over a year, we have tossed all of that out the 
window, and we are back to business as usual. We jam a bill through in 
24 hours. It is over a thousand pages. It is $1.2 trillion. It is 
littered with all manners of sin and earmarks and spending and programs 
that are undermining the well-being of the American people. We are 
still figuring out what is in it.
  Tomorrow, Republicans have a choice. You can choose to fund an 
executive branch at odds and at war with the American people that you 
represent or you can choose to say no. If you refuse to say no, if you 
go along to get along, you own it. You own every penny. You own every 
program. You own every American who gets harmed by open borders. Don't 
dare come looking for sympathy as you are trying to campaign all year 
trying to win votes when your constituents come up to you and say, why 
in the hell did you fund it? Because you did.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from New York (Mr. D'Esposito), 
a colleague of mine, so that he can, I think, regale a basketball team 
or talk about some good stuff back home, which is always a good thing 
to do.


Recognizing Incredible High School Basketball Players Across the Fourth 
                                District

  Mr. D'ESPOSITO. Mr. Speaker, I thank my good friend, Chip Roy from 
Texas, for yielding me the time.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise today in recognition of some incredible high 
school athletes from across the Fourth Congressional District back on 
Long Island in New York.
  I would like to congratulate both the Elmont Memorial High School 
boys' basketball team for winning the New York State championship in 
their class, as well as the Baldwin High School boys' team for being 
crowned Nassau County champions.
  The girls' teams across the district had a remarkable season, as 
well, with East Meadow High School winning its first Nassau County 
championship in its history earlier this month.
  I also must give a shoutout to the boys' basketball team from my alma 
mater, Chaminade High School, for a big win in double overtime to 
secure the CHSAA Class A New York State championship.
  I am incredibly proud of these student athletes who represented our 
community with pride and made memories that will last a lifetime.
  I wish these Nassau County neighbors nothing but success in their 
future academic and athletic endeavors, and we will continue to 
advocate to make sure that girls play girls' basketball and that boys 
play boys' basketball.
  Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend from Texas for the opportunity to 
speak.
  Mr. ROY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from New York. I 
appreciate what he came to the floor to address. We all have these 
great stories back home in our districts, and it is worth regaling 
those things, and I am glad he got the ability to do that.
  Mr. Speaker, I want to give a special shoutout to my daughter today. 
Today is my daughter's 13th birthday, and I just want to say happy 
birthday to my little girl, who is out in California of all places for 
this Texan--out in San Diego with her mama having a little fun for her 
13th birthday.
  Happy birthday to my wonderful daughter, Virginia.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

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