[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 121 (Thursday, July 25, 2024)]
[House]
[Pages H4919-H4930]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
STRONGLY CONDEMNING THE BIDEN ADMINISTRATION AND ITS BORDER CZAR,
KAMALA HARRIS'S, FAILURE TO SECURE THE UNITED STATES BORDER
Mr. GREEN of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution
1376, I call up the resolution (H. Res. 1371) strongly condemning the
Biden Administration and its Border Czar, Kamala Harris's, failure to
secure the United States border, and ask for its immediate
consideration in the House.
The Clerk read the title of the resolution.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to House Resolution 1376, the
resolution, as amended, is considered read.
The text of the resolution, as amended, is as follows:
H. Res. 1371
Whereas, on March 24, 2021, President Biden tasked Vice
President Kamala Harris with working to address illegal
immigration into the United States, including ``root
causes'', and came to be known colloquially as the Biden
administration's ``border czar'';
Whereas it took Vice President Kamala Harris 93 days as the
border czar before finally visiting the southern border on
June 25, 2021;
Whereas when Vice President Kamala Harris traveled near the
southern border for the first time on June 25, 2021, she
decided to travel to El Paso, Texas, 800 miles away from the
lower Rio Grande;
Whereas former United States Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz
stated that during his two years in the position, ``I've
never had one conversation with the president [Biden] or the
vice president [Harris], for that matter. I was the Chief of
the Border Patrol, I commanded 21,000 people. That's a
problem.'';
Whereas current United States Border Patrol Chief Jason
Owens stated that Vice President Kamala Harris has not spoken
with him since he was appointed in July 2023;
Whereas, since Joe Biden and Kamala Harris took office,
there have been over 9.7 million illegal immigrant encounters
nationwide;
Whereas, since Joe Biden and Kamala Harris took office,
there have been over 7.9 million illegal immigrant encounters
at the United States southern border;
Whereas, since Joe Biden and Kamala Harris took office,
there have been roughly 2 million known gotaways who evaded
the United States Border Patrol;
Whereas this number represents more known gotaways than in
the previous decade combined;
Whereas, in May 2024, there were 170,723 illegal immigrant
encounters at the United States southern border, a 185
percent increase from the average May encounter total under
President Trump;
Whereas May 2024 was the 39th straight month where monthly
illegal immigrant encounters have been higher than even the
highest month seen under President Trump;
Whereas illegal immigrants with violent criminal histories
who have murdered innocent Americans like Laken Riley,
Jocelyn Nungary, Rachel Morin, and others throughout the
United States, pose an existential threat to the safety and
security of the American people;
Whereas, in June 2024, NBC News reported that over 400
illegal immigrants with ties to an ISIS-affiliated smuggling
network entered the United States under Border Czar Harris's
leadership, and that the whereabouts of over 50 of these
individuals were unknown;
Whereas, under Border Czar Harris's leadership, multiple
illegal aliens with terrorist ties have been released into
the United States;
Whereas, to date in fiscal year 2024, there have been a
record-breaking 31,077 Chinese nationals encountered at the
southwest border;
Whereas the Biden border crisis is costing the United
States approximately $150.7 billion each year and each
taxpayer $1,156 each year;
Whereas, in April 2024, Republicans on the House Committee
on Homeland Security released documents showing the Biden
administration, under Border Czar Harris, flew at
[[Page H4920]]
least 400,000 illegal immigrants into the country through the
abuse of parole programs; and
Whereas President Biden's and Border Czar Harris's far left
Democrat open border policies are to blame for this historic
crisis, and in August 2022, Biden and his administration
decided to make the border crisis significantly worse by
formally ending former President Trump's successful Remain in
Mexico program: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the House of Representatives--
(1) strongly condemns the Biden Administration and its
Border Czar, Kamala Harris's, failure to secure the United
States border;
(2) affirms that the American people deserve elected
officials who understand the gravity of the crisis at the
border and who will execute the policies to fix the border
crisis; and
(3) clearly and firmly states that the continuation of
the Biden, Harris border policies would be disastrous for
both the United States and the American people.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The resolution, as amended, shall be
debatable for 1 hour, equally divided and controlled by the chair and
ranking minority member of the Committee of Homeland Security or their
respective designees.
The gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Green) and the gentleman from
Mississippi (Mr. Thompson) each will control 30 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Green).
General Leave
Mr. GREEN of Tennessee. 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 H. Res. 1371.
=========================== NOTE ===========================
On July 25, 2024, on page H4920, in the first column, the
following appeared: marks and include extraneous material on H.
Res. 1376.
The online version has been corrected to read: marks and include
extraneous material on H. Res. 1371.
========================= END NOTE =========================
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from Tennessee?
There was no objection.
Mr. GREEN of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I
may consume.
Mr. Speaker, on March 24, 2021, President Joe Biden announced to the
American people that he tasked Vice President Kamala Harris to ``lead
our efforts'' to address the ``root causes'' of the border by working
with Mexico and Central America to stem the flow of illegal border
crossings at the Southwest border.
However, since President Biden and Vice President Harris took office,
CBP has recorded more than 9.6 million encounters nationwide, and this
number continues to rapidly increase.
Over 200,000 Americans have died from the fentanyl flooding across
our open border. Precious lives like those of Laken Riley, Rachel
Morin, and Jocelyn Nungaray have been brutally taken by illegal aliens
who have been released.
We have been told that Vice President Harris' job was to find the
root causes of the crisis. Turns out to do so, she could have just
looked in the mirror.
Now, it would be charitable to say that Vice President Harris is
completely out of her depth when it comes to securing the border. The
fact is, she has a long track record of opposing border security and
immigration enforcement, whether as a Senator, a Presidential
candidate, or as Joe Biden's ``border czar.''
For example, then-Senator Harris advocated abolishing Immigration and
Customs Enforcement. She proudly boasted that she would introduce
legislation to reduce the number of ICE detention beds, and she also
advocated for doing away with private detention facilities. She called
construction of the new border wall system ``a stupid use of money.''
She opposed the use of title 42 during the COVID-19 pandemic. She even
once compared ICE to the KKK.
In her short-lived campaign for President in 2019, Vice President
Harris declared during one debate that she supported decriminalizing
illegal border crossings. According to her campaign website,
longstanding, bipartisan border security policies were ``cruel and out
of control.''
As Vice President, her track record has been just as dismal. Let's
first recognize that many of the very policies she supported as a
Senator, including cutting ICE beds, ending border wall construction,
and ending title 42, became a reality after she took office.
Further, despite being President Biden's border czar, after saying
border visits were just grand gestures, she has only made one trip to
the Southwest border, all the way back in June 2021, in what Texas
Democratic Representative Henry Cuellar called a politically safe,
check-the-box visit. She has not been back since.
Just this week, it was reported that she has never spoken with
current Border Patrol Chief Jason Owens or his predecessor, Chief Raul
Ortiz. This belies absolute dereliction of her responsibility to secure
the border.
This longtime extremist has run point on ending the Biden
administration's self-inflicted border crisis, and it shows.
Vice President Harris has also lied to the American people repeatedly
about the crisis she helped to create. In June 2022, she falsely
claimed on national television: ``The border is secure. . . . We have a
secure border, in that that is a priority for any nation, including
ours, and our administration.'' She also helped spread the vicious lies
about mounted Border Patrol agents in Del Rio, Texas, slandering and
maligning them for just doing their jobs.
Now, given how bad the border is for them politically, our friends on
the left are suddenly aghast that we are again referring to the Vice
President as the border czar. However, back in March 2021, even the
corporate media were describing her role with this title, which, as we
all remember from the Obama years, simply means a government official
tasked with the responsibility for a particular policy issue.
Now that Vice President Harris is the presumptive Democratic nominee
for President, we have watched our colleagues on the other side of the
aisle get defensive about it because they know they cannot possibly
defend her disastrous handling of the border crisis she was supposed to
end.
Vice President Harris is an extreme, dishonest, open-borders radical.
That is why President Biden entrusted her with this role. She owns all
of his failed border policies and the horrific consequences that have
resulted from them. Americans know it, and I am glad that this Congress
will acknowledge it, too.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Members are reminded to refrain from
engaging in personalities toward the Vice President.
Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as
I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong opposition to this unserious and
politically motivated resolution.
It is sad that today we are wasting time on this pointless
resolution, which is nothing more than a campaign press release, rather
than addressing real problems facing the American people, but a do-
anything resolution is right in line with this do-nothing Congress.
The House is about to go on vacation for 6 weeks, having delivered
only political resolutions, not solutions, for the American people.
In fact, my Republican colleagues are so eager to campaign, they are
starting the August recess a week early and rushing to the floor with
this press release disguised as a resolution before they head for the
exits.
Let's make no mistake: This resolution is only before this body
because Vice President Harris will be the Democratic nominee for
President.
Testing new campaign messaging, though, is not a good use of the
House's time, yet that is all this resolution offers. It changes
absolutely nothing. It does not even pretend to change anything.
I am sure the American people would rather us use our time to fund
the government, but my Republican colleagues can't seem to agree among
themselves about that.
Instead, here we are, debating H. Res. 1371, a second-rate attempt at
election interference. Perhaps it is also an ethics violation since my
Republican colleagues are blatantly using House resources for campaign
purposes, and like so much other campaign literature, this political
resolution is premised on falsehoods and supported by cherry-picked
statistics.
The resolution would have you believe President Biden and Vice
President Harris inherited an impenetrable southern border from the
former administration. This is just not true. The cruel and inhumane
policies of the
[[Page H4921]]
Trump administration did not deter irregular migration.
It took a worldwide shutdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic to
temporarily reduce the ever-increasing numbers of desperate people
seeking freedom, safety, and opportunity in the United States. When
global pandemic-era restrictions eased, worldwide migration increased.
The United States is far from alone in facing this challenge.
When President Biden and Vice President Harris took office, they
reversed terrible Trump-era policies that separated children from their
parents and put children in cages.
The Biden-Harris administration has also increased enforcement,
deployed more border surveillance equipment, and sped up immigration
processing. The administration is removing and returning more people
and implementing tough new policies that have cut the number of border
crossers by more than half over the last 7 weeks alone.
{time} 0930
Vice President Harris, in particular, has worked to address the root
causes of migration, especially from El Salvador, Guatemala, and
Honduras. Improving conditions in Northern Triangle countries means
fewer people feel compelled to make the journey to the U.S.
We have seen results. Since Vice President Harris was given this
task, Customs and Border Protection's encounters with Central American
migrants have declined by more than 70 percent.
Furthermore, under Vice President Harris' leadership, the
administration has also reinforced partnerships with countries in the
region, and even around the world, to increase enforcement and share
information.
Mexico, for the first time ever, has agreed to accept the return of
Venezuelans and Cubans. Under the former President, we struggled to
remove migrants from these countries from the United States.
There are also more visa requirements to enter the Western Hemisphere
now, making the journey that much more difficult. This administration
has recognized that migration is no longer regional but global and has
taken action.
Mr. Speaker, you will notice that nowhere in my remarks have I
referred to the Vice President as a so-called border czar like this
flawed resolution does. That is because such a position does not exist.
The authors of this resolution cannot point to a single
administration document that names the Vice President the ``border
czar.'' That is because such documents do not exist.
Even news organizations, like Axios, that referred to Vice President
Harris as a so-called border czar have posted corrections and
clarifications. That is because border czar is simply not her role.
I would like to read from President Biden's March 2021 remarks
describing Vice President Harris' duties. ``The Vice President has
agreed, among the multiple other things that I have her leading--and I
appreciate it--agreed to lead our diplomatic effort and work with those
nations to accept the returnees and enhanced migration enforcement at
their borders.''
The Vice President's role is diplomatic. It is about leading
partnerships with foreign countries. It is not about overseeing the
Border Patrol or ICE. That is Secretary Mayorkas' job, and he said as
much in testimony before the Homeland Security Committee.
The border czar title is a work of fiction created by overactive
Republican imaginations and the media, and this resolution is premised
on that fiction.
Furthermore, this resolution is incredibly petty because Republicans
struggle to quick squeeze anything of substance into it. It criticizes
the Vice President, who was directed to focus on diplomatic
engagements, for waiting 3 months to visit the southern border.
Republicans then take issue with where she chose to go along the
southern border. Vice President Harris went to Texas, just not the part
of Texas Republicans thought she should go.
The resolution also criticizes the Vice President for failing to make
direct outreach to U.S. Border Patrol chiefs. Again, she was not tasked
with overseeing the Border Patrol. Secretary Mayorkas, their actual
boss, speaks to the U.S. Border Patrol regularly.
Furthermore, H. Res. 1371 only includes border encounter statistics
through May of this year, conveniently failing to include a nearly 30
percent decrease in encounters between ports of entry in June.
The resolution also conveniently fails to mention that since early
last month, DHS has removed or returned more than 65,000 border
crossers to more than 125 countries. In the past year, DHS has removed
or returned the most people since 2010. That includes more removals to
countries other than Mexico than in any other prior year ever.
Mr. Speaker, the House has better things to do than adopt pointless,
false, and politically driven, nonbinding resolutions. Perhaps, for
example, it could legislate on border security in a bipartisan fashion
as the Senate tried to do; that is, before former President Trump told
his MAGA allies to run away from the negotiating table so he could run
on border security on the campaign trail.
As much as my Republican colleagues talk about the threats from our
border, they don't want to seem to do anything about it. Taking action
is bad politics for them, so we get political resolutions rather than
solutions.
In fact, under Republican control, the 118th Congress has little to
show for itself. Indeed, it is among the least productive in history.
Maybe House Republicans are simply biding their time because they think
they can implement their Project 2025 agenda next year.
This do-nothing resolution is out to test-drive political talking
points rather than change the sorry trajectory of this do-nothing
Congress.
Before I reserve, Mr. Speaker, I want to note that this is the first
time the Homeland Security Committee has come to the floor since the
passing of my dear friend, Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, who was a
senior member of the committee. Congresswoman Jackson Lee cared
passionately about border security and a humane immigration system that
reflected American values. We will miss her bold, distinctive voice
during today's debate, which we all know that she would have
participated in with trademark tenacity.
Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to oppose this thinly veiled
attempt as a political attack, and I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. GREEN of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time she may
consume to the gentlewoman from New York (Ms. Stefanik), the esteemed
Republican Conference Chair and the author of this resolution.
Ms. STEFANIK. Mr. Speaker, I rise to condemn Vice President Kamala
Harris for her failed and dangerous policies as Joe Biden's border czar
that caused the most catastrophic border crisis in modern history.
No matter what congressional district you go to, the number one issue
facing Americans is Kamala Harris' open-border crisis. By every metric,
Kamala Harris has failed to secure our borders and has been instead
advancing far-left Democrats' failed open-border policies and the needs
of illegal immigrants over the safety of Americans.
This resolution condemns Kamala Harris' role as Joe Biden's open-
border czar and affirms that the American people deserve elected
officials who understand the gravity of the crisis at the border and
who will work to secure the border.
Now, Democrats will try to run from this record, but they cannot
hide. Joe Biden's open-border czar Kamala Harris, and every elected
Democrat, is responsible for this border crisis, along with every other
aspect of Joe Biden's failed and feckless record which brought not only
the border crisis but skyrocketing Bidenflation, surging violent
crimes, chaos, and weakness around the world.
We all remember the widely publicized delegation that Vice President
Kamala Harris conducted and led, saying: ``Do not come. Do not come.''
Millions of illegals poured into our country since then because of
Kamala Harris' and Joe Biden's administration's unconstitutional,
illegal executive actions wiping away President Trump's effective
border security policies which created the most secure border in modern
history. The American people know that.
[[Page H4922]]
In fact, just last month, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection
announced there were over 130,000 illegal immigrant encounters at our
southern border in June. This is roughly 4,300 illegal encounters at
our southern border a day, which is four times more than the definition
of a crisis set by Obama's DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson.
So far this fiscal year, there have been 93 individuals whose names
appear on the terrorist watch list who were stopped trying to enter the
U.S. illegally between ports of entry at the southern border. That is
over 500 since Kamala Harris was assigned the border-czar role.
On our northern border, in the Swanton Sector, which I represent, I
have seen firsthand, with the Border Patrol, the disastrous
consequences of Kamala Harris' and Joe Biden's administration's failed,
far-left open-border agenda which caused a historic surge in illegal
crossings the likes of which we have never seen on our northern border
before, including individuals on the terrorist watch list.
This is not just a national security crisis. It is a humanitarian
crisis. Under Kamala Harris' role as Joe Biden's border czar, nearly
80,000 minors have been lost, left, slipped through the cracks. This is
also part of the violent crime crisis surge concerning every single
American.
Look in upstate New York. A 21-year-old, innocent girl was killed by
an illegal and buried in a Syracuse public park and a 15-year-old,
innocent girl was raped by an illegal in Albany County, all because of
Kamala Harris' failed policies as open-border czar.
Make no mistake: Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are to blame for this
historic crisis. Their policies stopped the construction of the border
wall, ended President Trump's remain in Mexico program, and released
the largest number of illegals into the United States in history.
Since Kamala Harris became the open-border czar, monthly encounters
have surpassed even the highest month under President Trump and the
number of illegals released into the country have skyrocketed.
Former U.S. Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz stated that during his 2
years in the position, he had never once spoken to Vice President
Harris. Even worse, Vice President Harris has never even spoken with
the current Border Patrol chief since he was appointed in July of 2023.
This is unacceptable.
The American people have had enough. They know that the only way to
fix this historic crisis is by returning to President Trump's effective
border security policies. That is why House Republicans passed H.R. 2,
the strongest border security bill in history, the Secure the Border
Act of 2023, that will put an end to this catastrophic border crisis
caused by Joe Biden and his open-border czar, Kamala Harris.
Kamala Harris has failed in overseeing American safety by refusing to
secure the border. She has proved that she is unfit to lead, and I
strongly urge my colleagues to join me in supporting this resolution.
Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the
gentlewoman from Washington (Ms. Jayapal).
Ms. JAYAPAL. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong opposition to this
resolution.
Here we go again. The Republican majority made their appropriations
bills so extreme that they can't pass the vast majority of them with
votes from their own party. Instead, we are going to come here to the
floor and waste our time as they politicize the work that we are doing
here in Congress and use this time to attack the Vice President.
They can't pursue their impeachment claims, their fake impeachment
claims of Joe Biden, or any other number of people that they have
targeted, because Joe Biden is no longer running for President. Now,
they have got to quickly shift and instead use their time on this
floor, where we are supposed to be doing official business, to attack
Vice President Harris days after she is clearly going to be our
Democratic nominee for President.
Kamala Harris was never the border czar. She was never asked to
address the situation at the border. She was asked to do something that
MAGA extremists, who want quick fixes that they can give to FOX News,
never want to focus on, and that is a real solution.
She was narrowly tasked with developing agreements that could help
bring government and private-sector investments to those countries that
are sending migrants to the United States, so that those countries
could help strengthen the conditions in those countries. She did so,
most significantly in Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras.
She brought in billions from private-sector investments to support
government funding for entrepreneurs, to ensure labor rights, to
strengthen food security, and launch projects across those countries
that invested in financial inclusion, healthcare, climate finance, and
affordable housing. Those are the things that will keep migrants in
their home countries.
The only reason that Republicans are doing this today is to distract
the American people from the fact that they still can't get anything
done here on the House floor that will actually benefit the American
people. It is no wonder. The leader of their party has been convicted
on 34 felony counts and has a Trump Project 2025 agenda that will take
total control over people's lives.
{time} 0945
That agenda includes plans for mass deportations, including spouses
and children of U.S. citizens, Dreamers, and essential workers and farm
workers.
Let's not forget that roughly 22 million people in America live in
mixed-status families where at least one person is undocumented. When
Donald Trump and Republicans are talking about mass deportations, they
are talking about tearing apart American families.
It doesn't end there. Trump's Project 2025 calls for the end of
protections for Dreamers and family-based immigration. Attacking family
unity comes as no surprise from the party that cruelly tore over 5,000
kids from their moms and dads. Trump's Project 2025 also eliminates due
process in the immigration system. It would deny people their day in
court to make their case for protection under U.S. laws. Republicans
have made it clear over and over again that they do not want to
modernize our immigration system.
Even the bill that was written by the second-most conservative
Republican Senator in the U.S. Senate, Trump told them not to vote for
it, so they didn't because they wanted to keep it out there as an
election issue.
Mr. Speaker, Republicans want to distract you from the fact that the
Biden-Harris administration has been the most effective administration
in my lifetime, investing in infrastructure and green jobs, taking on
climate change, bringing down the cost of prescription drugs, and
canceling student loan debt so people have more money in their pockets
instead of allowing billionaires to profit off your pain.
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Weber of Texas). The time of the
gentlewoman has expired.
Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, I yield an additional 30
seconds to the gentlewoman from Washington.
Ms. JAYAPAL. Just today we heard that the economy grew by 2.8 percent
in the second quarter showing extraordinary strength because of the
policies that President Biden and Vice President Harris have put into
place for this country.
Don't be distracted, Mr. Speaker. Democrats want to protect your
freedoms, uphold democracy, and give every American a real chance to
succeed.
Vote ``no'' on this resolution.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair reminds Members to refrain from
engaging in personalities toward nominees for the Office of the
President.
Mr. GREEN of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Moran).
Mr. MORAN. Mr. Speaker, I thank Chairman Green for yielding.
Today, I rise in strong support of H.J. Res. 1371 introduced by
Congresswoman Elise Stefanik.
Each day, the failed policies of this administration become more
glaring, and those who implemented the disastrous agenda leading to the
current crisis at our border must absolutely be held accountable.
Today, I give my strongest support to this resolution to ensure that
Vice
[[Page H4923]]
President Kamala Harris is held responsible for her role in the
administration's far-left open-border policies.
As border czar, Vice President Harris has overseen the most
catastrophic border crisis in our Nation's history. As we all know, the
failed policies of the Biden-Harris administration have turned every
State in the United States into a border State and led to a record
level of illegal immigration, including from individuals on the
terrorist watch list.
We cannot stand by and allow this to happen. These failed policies
are a direct assault on the sovereignty, the security, and the strength
of the United States.
Under Harris' watch and with her consent and her support, President
Biden has issued more than 70 executive orders and policy changes that
have brought about this border crisis, something unlike anything we
have ever seen in our Nation's history.
Illegal immigrants have had free run to abuse our system. Drugs like
fentanyl have poured into our communities across our entire country,
and individuals with ties to terrorism and to known adversaries of our
great Republic have been turned loose inside the United States,
including a record level number of Chinese Communist nationals. Because
of that, Americans are suffering, and we are in danger.
Despite this, Kamala Harris has visited our southern border just once
since becoming border czar, and for that reason this resolution is
important to hold her accountable for her role in this mess.
Mr. Speaker, this resolution is an important part of that
accountability, and, as such, I urge passage, and I urge all colleagues
to lend it support.
Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the
gentleman from New York (Mr. Goldman).
Mr. GOLDMAN of New York. Mr. Speaker, I thank the ranking member for
yielding.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to address the Republicans' desperate
attempt to, yet again, use the official business of the House of
Representatives to do the partisan, political bidding of Donald Trump.
My colleagues on the other side of the aisle have spent most of this
Congress wasting our time and taxpayer money on a bogus sham
impeachment investigation of President Biden that yielded no evidence
of wrongdoing, much less any high crime or misdemeanor.
It was obvious that that phony effort was solely designed to provide
election fodder for Trump in advance of November's election, and
recently the chairman of the committee overseeing that investigation
even admitted as much.
Now that President Biden has selflessly and patriotically passed the
torch to Vice President Kamala Harris, my colleagues on the other side
of the aisle are scrambling to help Donald Trump's electoral chances by
using our time here today on a blatantly false resolution about Vice
President Harris.
The title of this resolution is ``Strongly condemning the Biden
administration and its Border Czar, Kamala Harris's, failure to secure
the United States border.''
There is one problem. There is no such thing as a border czar, nor
was Vice President Harris ever named the border czar. The entire
premise of this resolution is simply false.
Not surprisingly, the resolution makes no mention of the border
security bill that the Biden-Harris administration negotiated with
Senate Republicans that would have comprehensively addressed the
problems at the border, nor does it say anything about Donald Trump's
decision to sabotage and kill that bipartisan bill because it would
have solved the problems that this resolution complains about.
Now, why did he do that?
It is precisely because he wanted his minions in the House to
introduce useless and deceptive resolutions like this one to help his
campaign. While Republicans continue to play politics with the border,
the Biden-Harris administration did not stop trying to solve the
problems facing the administration. They used what limited authority
they have to control the border, and it is working.
This resolution cites statistics from May of 2024 that there were
170,723 encounters at the border; however, the resolution does not
include numbers from the next month, June of 2024, which cut encounters
by more than one-half, to 83,536.
While my Republican colleagues continue to put politics over
solutions, this administration and House Democrats will continue to put
people over politics to address the issues facing the American people.
Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to reject this false, inaccurate,
and deceptive resolution.
Mr. GREEN of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the
gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. De La Cruz).
Ms. DE LA CRUZ. Mr. Speaker, this is a subject that is very, very
close to me and my community. I am on the border of Texas, over 80
percent of my district being Hispanic.
This is a resolution that I strongly support. In fact, in listening
to my colleagues on the other side of the aisle where they say this is
campaigning and politically motivated, not only am I deeply offended,
but the American people are deeply offended by those comments.
Why?
It is because we are not rushing to recess to campaign. We are
rushing to our districts to calm our communities down that very soon--
very soon--there will be a change in administration, there will be a
change in political thought, and that we will have a President come
January who will care about our borders and who will care about our
national security.
It is an insult to the American people that Kamala Harris and the
Biden administration have not cared about our national security and
that they have allowed millions of illegal immigrants to come to our
border.
Perhaps my colleague from Mississippi has not been to Eagle Pass,
Texas, or Del Rio, Texas, and seen the kids. Let's talk about false
claims here.
Kids in cages?
No, sir, there are no kids in cages.
Let's talk about the kids who are missing in America who are sex
trafficked. Let's talk about those kids under the Biden-Harris
administration, but we forget about those thoughts.
It is an insult of what I am hearing across the aisle about our
border and the lack of national security that has been caused by the
Biden-Harris administration.
Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the
gentlewoman from California (Ms. Barragan).
Ms. BARRAGAN. Mr. Speaker, I thank Ranking Member Thompson for
yielding.
We should be offended at the lies. We should be offended that the
American people are being lied to.
We should be offended that kids were separated from their parents and
their families under the Republican Party and the Republican
leadership. That is what the American people and they should be
offended about.
House Republicans are living in a land of make-believe when it comes
to the record of Vice President Harris. We keep hearing the term over
and over again, the lie that she was the border czar. Vice President
Harris was never the administration's border czar. As a matter of fact,
Republicans even know that because they had to change the resolution.
There has never been such a position. It was invented by Republicans.
Border security is the responsibility of Homeland Security Secretary
Mayorkas. He has been to the border. He has met with the border chief.
Republicans tried to impeach him, and they failed in the Senate. Now
they have a desperate resolution to blame Vice President Harris for the
border.
Again, this was not the responsibility President Biden gave her.
President Biden tasked the Vice President to address the root causes in
the Northern Triangle countries of Central America that caused migrants
to flee their home countries.
While a lot of work remains, Vice President Harris got results. She
announced an additional $310 million for humanitarian relief to address
food insecurity for El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. She led
efforts on a private-public partnership that has secured commitments
from the private sector to invest over $5 billion in the region to
improve peoples' lives.
She worked with the Department of Justice to launch the Task Force
[[Page H4924]]
Alpha to combat migrant smuggling and human trafficking from the
Northern Triangle countries. This task force led to over 220
convictions of members of human trafficking organizations.
Border crossings from migrants from Guatemala, Honduras, and El
Salvador, the countries in Vice President Harris' root causes
portfolio, have also decreased in recent years. In fiscal year 2023 the
crossings from these Northern Triangle countries made up 22 percent of
all crossings, down from 41 percent in 2021 when she started.
This resolution also criticizes the administration for the number of
border crossings and the encounters.
Guess what, Mr. Speaker?
Border crossings are lower today than when the Trump administration
left office.
Let me say that again: Border crossings are down at a lower level
than when even the Trump administration left office, but that is not
convenient for my colleagues across the aisle.
Mr. Speaker, Republicans also fail to tell you the Republicans have
refused to vote even on a border supplemental bill because former
President Trump told them: Don't do it, we need this for an election
year issue. Here we are on the House floor talking about this as a
political issue.
What Republicans also fail to tell you, Mr. Speaker, is that more
Democrats have actually voted for funding for DHS and border security
than Republicans.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentlewoman has expired.
Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, I yield an additional 30
seconds to the gentlewoman from California.
Ms. BARRAGAN. This resolution does nothing to address the challenges
at our southern border, and Republicans know that. They are not serious
in addressing border security. This resolution is not about solutions,
it is about politics.
Democrats, including Vice President Harris, will continue our work to
address the challenges everyday Americans face.
Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to reject these desperate tactics
and this dishonest resolution.
Mr. GREEN of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the
gentleman from California (Mr. Issa).
Mr. ISSA. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H. Res. 1371, and I
stand before you for the fourth time requesting that my State's former
attorney general, former U.S. Senator, and now Vice President and
candidate for President come to the border.
Mr. Speaker, the other side will tell you she wasn't a border czar. I
am going to tell you they didn't say she didn't have the border
responsibility given to her by the President and dealing with the root
causes, so to speak, when it happened. They are now revising history.
You can't unring the bell. She was assigned it. She said she was going
to do it, and she didn't come to the border.
{time} 1000
I represent the district that has the most border crossings in
America over the last two quarters. We had over 250,000 encounters just
in the last year. Most importantly, 90 percent of the over 52,000 of
what my colleagues call special interest aliens crossing the border
since October 2023 entered from my district.
These are Chinese. These are Russians. These are people who have come
from countries where we cannot verify and cannot return.
They are not just being encountered, but they are being brought into
the country. They are being sent to New York. They are staying where
they want to stay and doing what they want to do.
That is what this administration has done for 4 years. In 4 years,
our country has absorbed 10 million or more people as a result. Some
were get-aways, 500,000 at a crack, per year. Some simply presented
themselves and were automatically allowed in.
This administration has not used the tools they claim to use. Now, in
an election year, they want to unclaim their border czar, and they want
to unclaim responsibility for an un-American activity, letting people
into the country outside the intent of the law.
Mr. Speaker, I urge support for the resolution.
Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, if my Republican colleagues
are worried about migrant children, I encourage them to look at policy
solutions and to engage on a bipartisan bill, such as the Senate
bipartisan border bill, where we can make real change. I encourage the
majority to support this administration's effort to crack down on the
employers who take advantage of these children.
I encourage Republicans to take real action. This partisan resolution
achieves nothing.
Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from New York (Mr.
Kennedy).
Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding time.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to discuss the border crisis, an issue my
Republican colleagues are quick to pontificate on but refuse to
address.
At the heart of the matter are real people escaping extreme poverty,
violence, natural disasters, and persecution. They are leaving their
homes, their families, their culture, and their countries to do what
many of our own ancestors did in order to seek a better life.
What they experience in pursuit of the American Dream is nothing
short of a nightmare. On their journey to the United States, they risk
their lives traveling through treacherous terrain. They are vulnerable
to everything from drug cartels to disease.
Throughout our country and especially in border communities, the
inpouring of migrants seeking asylum and immigrants is overwhelming
hospitals, schools, and other social service providers.
Instead of advancing solutions, Republicans in this House have
resorted to blatantly obvious politics. Unfortunately, because this
body has failed to deliver resources to our borders, tens of thousands
of personnel have had to do more with less as the crisis worsens.
In my district and other northern border communities, our Border
Patrol officers and agents are being sent away from their posts in the
north to meet the demands at the southern border, even as migration and
illegal drug smuggling rises back home.
The need to act could not be more dire.
Earlier this year, a bipartisan coalition of United States Senators
came together for the first time in decades to provide meaningful
immigration reform. The bipartisan bill would invest in law enforcement
with more than 2,000 new Border Patrol officers and other personnel to
secure the border, speed up the processing of those seeking asylum,
crack down on illegal drugs by investing in cutting-edge inspection
machines for ports of entry, and improve the immigration system with
4,300 new asylum officers and 100 more immigration judges.
We have the solution. Extreme MAGA Republicans in this body declared
it dead on arrival before even reading the bill. Instead of solving
real problems, my colleagues on the other side of the aisle chose
politics over people.
We were sent here to do the opposite. We could be using this time to
advance a bill that would improve the lives of Americans, those seeking
asylum, and immigrants while strengthening security at the border and
boosting our economy. Instead, we are wasting our time on this
political stunt.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentleman has expired.
Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, I yield an additional 30
seconds to the gentleman from New York.
Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. Speaker, we are wasting our time on this political
stunt, one that is both entirely transparent and, frankly, desperate.
This is simply an attack on Vice President Kamala Harris for one
reason: Her career is advancing, and extreme MAGA Republicans are
shuddering.
Since Democrats have rallied behind our nominee for President,
extreme MAGA Republicans, fearful of a candidate running on the issues
instead of a cult of personality, have rushed this emergency resolution
to the floor of the House. It has no basis in fact or reality. That
doesn't appear to bother my colleagues across the aisle.
What they should be doing is bringing the bipartisan border bill to
the floor for a vote. That is what the American public wants. That is
what I urge my colleagues to do.
Mr. GREEN of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the
gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Yakym).
[[Page H4925]]
Mr. YAKYM. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of this resolution introduced
by my colleague, Representative Stefanik.
In March 2021, an Axios headline declared: ``Biden puts Harris in
charge of border crisis.''
According to this article: ``The first goal will be stemming the flow
of illegal migrants to the U.S.''
The chart next to me shows cumulative Southwest border encounters for
the first 42 months of the last six Presidential terms. The red line
represents the Biden-Harris administration. Look at the chart and ask
yourself: How did Vice President Harris do as the person in charge of
the border?
In June 2021, Vice President Harris said: ``If you come to our
border, you will be turned back.''
Look at that chart and ask yourself if anyone took her warning
seriously.
In September 2022, Vice President Harris said: ``The border is
secure.''
Look at that chart and ask yourself if it was then or if it is now.
Mr. Speaker, the Venn diagram of border security and the Biden-Harris
administration are two separate circles.
Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to vote ``yes.''
Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my
time.
Mr. GREEN of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the
gentleman from Florida (Mr. Gimenez).
Mr. GIMENEZ. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H. Res. 1371.
Mr. Speaker, in March 2021, President Biden proclaimed Vice President
Kamala Harris as our Nation's border czar. Yet, over the last 3\1/2\
years, it is unclear what work she has done, if any, to secure our
borders.
As a member of the Homeland Security Committee, I traveled to the
Darien Gap in Panama to witness the migrant crisis firsthand. I have
also been to our southern border.
This is a picture of me at the Darien Gap. Those folks there, that is
thousands of migrants coming to the United States. This is 2 years
after she was named the border czar.
According to the CBP, before the Biden-Harris administration, there
were less than 1 million encounters at the southern border annually.
Since the border czar, Harris, has taken over, there have been nearly 8
million illegal encounters at the southern border and nearly 2 million
known got-aways. That is a total of almost 10 million people who have
entered our country.
The growing crisis has a direct impact on our border districts, like
mine. Illegal migrant landings have increased in our State,
particularly in our beloved Florida Keys. We have seen an increase in
encounters of Chinese and other nationals.
Our adversaries know that they can take advantage and exploit the
open-border policies of the Biden-Harris administration. FBI Director
Christopher Wray has testified that suspected terrorists have crossed
the southern border and are unaccounted for in our country.
The Biden-Harris open-border policies are a risk to every man, woman,
and child living in America.
Vice President Harris has proven herself incapable as border czar,
and I know that the country cannot afford 4 more years of these
disastrous policies.
Mr. Speaker, I urge passage of this resolution.
Mr. GREEN of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, may I inquire as to how much
time is remaining.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman from Tennessee has 11\1/2\
minutes remaining. The gentleman from Mississippi has 4\1/2\ minutes
remaining.
Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my
time.
Mr. GREEN of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the
gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Van Duyne).
Ms. VAN DUYNE. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of this necessary rebuke of Vice
President Kamala Harris' abject failure to do anything meaningful to
secure the southern border and protect American citizens in her
responsibility as border czar of the Biden-Harris administration.
Since Harris was given this critically important national security
role, control of our southern border has been handed over to ruthless
and deadly Mexican cartels that were aided by policies and spending
from this administration to engage in the most massive government-
sanctioned human-trafficking effort we have seen in American history.
Indeed, because of the Vice President's staggering negligence and
outright contempt of actually protecting our Nation, we have seen the
largest amount of human slavery in America since before the Civil War.
Children are sold as sex slaves. Others are forced to work at gunpoint
in illegal marijuana farms. Tens of thousands of other illegal
immigrants have simply gone missing because, once Biden and Harris
traffic them to destinations across the country, they are dropped with
people who are part of cartel human-trafficking rings.
To make this worse, cartels operate gangs in virtually every part of
America, which has led to increased domestic violence, rapes, murders,
and more than 100,000 dead Americans because of fentanyl poisoning.
Young women and children have been slaughtered in every State as a
direct result of Vice President Harris' dereliction of duty, but we
should not at all be surprised that the end goal for Vice President
Harris was to drive this invasion, regardless of the chaos, pain, and
loss of life on American citizens. After all, then-Presidential
candidate Harris plainly stated that she wanted to decriminalize
illegal immigration. She wanted to give free taxpayer-funded healthcare
to illegal immigrants. She serves in a party that has openly stated
that they want vast illegal immigration to help them with Census data,
populating congressional districts, and holding on to electoral college
power for failing liberal States.
The long-term damage done and that is being done to America could be
tracked directly back to Vice President Harris, and it is time that
this House spoke clearly and definitively against her willful acts.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Members are reminded to refrain from
engaging in personalities toward the Vice President.
Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my
time.
Mr. GREEN of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the
gentlewoman from Georgia (Ms. Greene).
Ms. GREENE of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for
yielding.
Mr. Speaker, since being appointed as border czar by President Joe
Biden, Kamala Harris has undoubtedly been a complete failure in her job
and has destroyed our country by releasing a record-setting level of
criminals, rapists, and terrorists into our communities.
Despite the attempts of the fake news media to whitewash her
appointment as border czar, as Axios correctly reported and are now
lying and saying they never did, she was, in fact, labeled a border
czar by nearly every major news outlet across the country.
Border czar Kamala Harris said, ``Do not come,'' yet proudly welcomed
11.5 million illegals from over 160 countries, including over 2 million
known got-aways, who completely evaded U.S. authorities.
She stood by and allowed these people to come in and idly watched our
children and women being raped by illegal alien criminals.
She is not just allowing them to come. The policies of the
administration allowed the CBP One app to import over 400,000 illegals
into American communities. Under her watch as border czar, this has
happened.
She can fake it for the photo ops, but we know that Kamala Harris
wholeheartedly supports the chaos at our border, the chaos in our
streets, and the chaos in the families who have been victims of her
open-border policies.
Border czar Harris outlandishly compared ICE to KKK and radically
called for ICE to be abolished. She also posted the Minnesota Freedom
Fund to bail out violent Black Lives Matter terrorists who burned down
cities, looted stores, destroyed communities, and caused over $2
billion in damage to communities all over America.
Kamala Harris is not only the border czar, but she is also the czar
of chaos, and her policies have destroyed America.
[[Page H4926]]
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Members are reminded to refrain from
engaging in personalities toward the Vice President.
{time} 1015
Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the
gentlewoman from Illinois (Mrs. Ramirez).
Mrs. RAMIREZ. Mr. Speaker, as I walked in here, all I heard was what
I hear in my committee, constant criminalizing of immigrant
communities.
Let me tell you, I rise in strong opposition to H. Res. 1371.
What this is, is more lies, more misrepresentations, and more
inaccuracies.
When the majority cannot pass bills, what do they do? They introduce
blatantly political resolutions that consistently target powerful women
of color.
Mr. Speaker, you can always tell when we are getting closer to an
election because these extreme members of the Republican Party
literally turn up the volume on their xenophobia, and they are doing it
again with H.R. 1371.
They lie about immigration and public safety. When you look at
studies, it shows that immigration is actually associated with lower
crime rates.
They fearmonger, they dehumanize, while they are also quoting
Scripture, which is kind of hypocritical, and they scapegoat asylum
seekers, people who, just like my parents, want to seek a life of
dignity and hope and who have faithfully contributed to their community
and to our collective economy.
They are willing to vilify and misrepresent the sitting Vice
President of the United States for her diplomatic work to address the
root cause of migration from Central America.
If my Republican colleagues actually cared about immigration or
border security, they would address the conditions that drive people to
the southern border. They would pass spending bills and invest in
foreign humanitarian assistance and international development programs
and would participate in cooperative efforts to realize a world where
people can build the life they want back at home. They have done none
of that.
Just this week, I didn't see any of my Republican colleagues at my
Congressional Caucus on Global Migration. Instead, they want us to
waste our time on legislative gimmicks and sham resolutions to score
cheap political points. It is enough. Seriously, enough.
We have been here. We have done this. It is deja vu. It is so tired.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentlewoman has expired.
Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, I yield an additional 30
seconds to the gentlewoman from Illinois.
Mrs. RAMIREZ. Mr. Speaker, they should shelve their mass deportation
BS; I am so tired of it.
Let's get to solutions. We should be talking about appropriations. We
should be talking about how we make sure that things are working for
the American people, instead of criminalizing people that are helping
us with our economy.
Mr. Speaker, let's vote ``no'' on H. Res. 1371 and let's be done with
this waste of time.
Mr. GREEN of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Pfluger).
Mr. PFLUGER. Mr. Speaker, I rise to offer support for H. Res. 1371,
Strongly Condemning the Biden Administration and Its Border Czar,
Kamala Harris's, Failure to Secure the United States Southern Border,
and in fact, all of our borders.
This administration's failure to secure the border has been so
significant, so catastrophic, that Congress must use its power to
provide accountability.
On day one, the Biden-Harris administration issued 64 executive
orders to open the border to human traffickers, terrorists, and foreign
adversaries.
In fact, over 300 known or suspected terrorists have crossed the
border illegally that we know about and 50 migrants with ties to ISIS
are currently on the loose inside the United States.
What are we hearing from our colleagues on the other side of the
aisle with regards to that? Don't they care? They don't want to do
anything about it. They just want to defend an open-border policy
because that is what they are doing.
The American people are paying the real cost of this border crisis.
It is people like Laken Riley, like Jocelyn Nungaray, like Rachel
Morin, who were assaulted and killed by violent criminals who crossed
the southern border illegally.
I have even lost constituents in my own district to this border
crisis. The Tambunga family lost 78-year-old Maria and 7-year-old
Emilia to a human trafficker who was here illegally, evading law
enforcement, doing over 100 miles an hour.
What is being done? Where is the compassion that I just heard from my
colleague toward that family?
Law and order is compassionate. Americans deserve accountability for
this crisis that has wreaked havoc on our communities.
Unfortunately, Vice President Harris does not take it seriously, has
not done anything positively to shut down the border, to restore law
and order, and her complacency and complete disregard to secure the
border is unprecedented.
This isn't about politics. In fact, for the first 2 years of the
administration, we didn't have a single hearing on border security, not
a single one, on the Committee of Homeland Security.
This resolution simply calls for accountability. How many more
hearings do we have to have under our current chairman to call for
accountability on this because our colleagues on the other side of the
aisle are not willing to actually call out President Biden and Vice
President Harris? How many more times do we have to call out for help
in our communities?
This was led by the border czar. This open-border policy was led by
the border czar, and it doesn't matter what we hear, it doesn't matter
what excuses are said, and it doesn't matter what else is said from the
other side of the aisle.
The facts are clear: 8\1/2\ million people plus have entered this
country illegally, 300 plus on the terrorist watch list. Thousands of
people who are associated with gangs, who are associated with criminal
activities, and who are associated with delivering fentanyl that has
killed over 100,000 people in this country.
I don't think it is funny. I personally don't think it is funny.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentleman has expired.
Mr. GREEN of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, I yield an additional 1 minute
to the gentleman from Texas.
Mr. PFLUGER. Mr. Speaker, I personally don't think it is funny. For
those laughing on the other side of the aisle, shame on them. The
Tambunga family deserves better in my district. In fact, every American
deserves better.
How many more classified hearings, Mr. Speaker, are we going to have
where the FBI comes in and where other intelligence agencies come in
and say we have got a problem? How many more classified hearings are we
going to have to have where they come into Congress to tell us that we
have known and suspected terrorists inside our country?
The post-9/11 Commission said the system was flashing red. We need to
wake up. The system is flashing red right now, and it is due to
President Biden and Vice President Harris' inability to secure the
border and do something to secure our country. Shame on those who won't
stand up and do the right thing.
Mr. Speaker, I strongly urge my colleagues to support H.R. 1371 and
to bring accountability back to the southern border.
Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance
of my time.
Mr. Speaker, this resolution is a last-ditch, unserious effort by
extreme MAGA Republicans to scapegoat Vice President Harris for
longstanding challenges at the border.
H. Res. 1371 is premised on the false claim that the Vice President
was made a ``border czar,'' a fake title made up by Republicans and the
media. This is a political stunt on the American taxpayers' dime. I
wish they would put the same effort into immigration reform or passing
budget bills.
Let me reiterate: This resolution does absolutely nothing to improve
the quality of life for Americans. If Republicans truly saw the
challenges at the border as a crisis, they would have worked with
Democrats on the bipartisan Senate border legislation, but
[[Page H4927]]
they abandoned the bipartisan bill to please their Presidential
candidate who wanted a campaign issue instead.
We get political resolutions rather than solutions. The American
people deserve better.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. GREEN of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my
time.
Mr. Speaker, as we conclude this debate, I will quote the Vice
President one more time.
In 2015, she said: ``An undocumented immigrant is not a criminal.''
Well, actually, under title 8 of the United States Code, illegally
crossing the southwest border is a Federal misdemeanor with up to 6
months in prison as the penalty for a first offense and a felony for
repeated offenses.
Vice President Harris brought that mentality to her role as border
czar. What we have witnessed today from congressional Democrats
confirms that they know it. They have demonstrated that they have no
concrete defense for the Biden administration or Vice President Harris'
disastrous handling of the unprecedented border crisis, which the Vice
President was supposed to help resolve.
They are more upset about colloquial titles for the Vice President
than the deadly chaos she has blatantly ignored. They think 1 month of
slightly less disastrous border crossing numbers compared to the
numbers of the past 3\1/2\ years is their get-out-of-jail-free card on
this issue.
The American people are not so easily fooled, however. It is time to
pass H. Res. 1371 to call out Vice President Harris' abysmal failure
and for the Senate to move on the mountain of border security bills we
have sent them this Congress as well.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
=========================== NOTE ===========================
On July 25, 2024, on page H4927, in the first column, the
following appeared: Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my
time. The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Murphy). All time for debate
has expired. Pursuant to House Resolution 1376, the previous
question is ordered on the resolution and the preamble, as
amended. The question is on adoption of the resolution. The
question was taken; and the Speaker pro tempore announced that the
ayes appeared to have it. Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi. Mr.
Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays. The yeas and nays
were ordered. The vote was taken by electronic device, and there
were--yeas 220, nays 196, not voting 16, as follows: Mr. THOMPSON
of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, I include in the RECORD a July 23
article
The online version has been corrected to read: Mr. Speaker, I
yield back the balance of my time. Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi.
Mr. Speaker, I include in the RECORD a July 23 article
========================= END NOTE =========================
Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record a
July 23 article from CBS News stating that the ``border czar'' title is
incorrect and the Vice President's work is often mischaracterized.
Notably, the article includes the following quote: ``Harris was not
asked to be the administration's `border czar' or to oversee
immigration policy and enforcement at the U.S.-Mexico border.''
[From CBS News, July 23, 2024]
The Facts About Kamala Harris' Role on Immigration in the Biden
Administration
(By Camilo Montoya-Galvez)
Following President Biden's decision to abandon his
reelection campaign and endorse Vice President Kamala Harris
to be the Democratic nominee for president, Harris' role on
immigration has come under scrutiny.
Soon after Mr. Biden's announcement, Republicans sought to
blame Harris for the Biden administration's woes at the U.S.-
Mexico border, where American officials have reported record
levels of illegal crossings in the past three years. In a
phone conversation with CBS News on Saturday, former
President Donald Trump said Harris presided over the ``worst
border ever'' as ``border czar,'' a title her Republican
detractors often give her.
Harris is all but certain to face even more criticism over
the Biden administration's record on immigration, one of
American voters' top concerns ahead of the election. And
Harris does have an immigration-related role in the Biden
White House, but her responsibilities on the issue are often
mischaracterized.
What exactly is Harris' immigration role?
In March 2021, when the Biden administration faced the
early stages of an influx in illega1 crossings at the U.S.
southern border, Mr. Biden tasked Harris with leading the
administration's diplomatic campaign to address the ``root
causes'' of migration from Guatemala, Honduras and El
Salvador, including poverty, corruption and violence.
The region, known as Central America's Northern Triangle,
has been one of the main sources of migration to the U.S.-
Mexico border over the past decade.
Harris was not asked to be the administration's ``border
czar'' or to oversee immigration policy and enforcement at
the U.S.-Mexico border. That has mainly been the
responsibility of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro
Mayorkas and his department, which oversees the country's
main three immigration agencies, including Customs and Border
Protection.
In reality, the only role close to that of a ``border
czar'' under the Biden administration was held for only a few
months by Roberta Jacobson, a longtime diplomat who served as
coordinator for the Southwest border until April 2021.
In her immigration role, Harris' main line of work has
focused on convincing companies to invest in Central America
and promoting democracy and development there through
diplomacy. In March of this year, the White House announced
Harris had secured a commitment from the private sector to
invest over $5 billion to promote economic opportunities and
reduce violence in the region.
Efforts to reduce migration by improving conditions in
migrants' home countries have always been viewed as a long-
term strategy by U.S. officials. In its ``root causes''
framework, the Biden administration conceded the ``systemic
change'' it envisions for Central America ``will take time to
achieve.''
Questions about her work on immigration
There are some legitimate questions about Harris' work on
immigration.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, most non-Mexican migration to
the U.S. southern border originated from the Northern
Triangle. In 2021, it made sense for the administration to
focus on the root cases of migration in those countries. But
migration flows have changed dramatically in recent years.
Record numbers of migrants have been coming from places
outside of Central America, including from countries like
Cuba, Colombia, China, Ecuador and Venezuela.
In fiscal year 2023, for example, Border Patrol
apprehensions of migrants from Guatemala, Honduras and El
Salvador made up 22 percent of all crossings during that time
period, down from 41 percent in fiscal year 2021, government
statistics show. On the flip side, however, the
administration could point to the fact that illegal crossings
along the U.S. southern border by migrants from Guatemala,
Honduras and El Salvador have decreased significantly every
year since 2021.
While most of her critics have been Republicans, Harris'
work on immigration has also garnered some criticism from the
left. During a visit to Guatemala in June 2021, Harris told
those intending to migrate, ``Do not come,'' a statement that
drew ire from some progressives and advocates for migrants.
As the second-highest ranking member of the Biden
administration, Harris will also likely face questions over
the all-time levels of unlawful border crossings reported in
2021, 2022 and 2023. Those crossings, however, have plunged
this year, reaching a three-year low in June, after Mr. Biden
issued an executive order banning most migrants from asylum.
Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record a
July 19 article from CBS News stating that the number of migrants
unlawfully crossing the southern border has continued to drop
dramatically in July, thanks to Biden-Harris administration policies.
Notably, the article includes the following quote: ``July is on track
to see the fifth consecutive monthly drop in migrant apprehensions
along the U.S.-Mexico border and the lowest level in illegal
immigration there since the fall of 2020, during the Trump
administration. . .''.
[From CBS News, July 19, 2024]
Migrant Crossings Continue to Plunge, Nearing the Level That Would Lift
Biden's Border Crackdown
(By Camilo Montoya-Galvez)
The number of migrants unlawfully crossing the U.S.
southern border has continued to drop markedly in July,
nearing a threshold that would require officials to lift a
partial ban on asylum claims enacted by President Biden,
according to internal government data obtained by CBS News.
July is on track to see the fifth consecutive monthly drop
in migrant apprehensions along the U.S.-Mexico border and the
lowest level in illegal immigration there since the fall of
2020, during the Trump administration, the internal
Department of Homeland Security figures show.
In early June, President Biden invoked a far-reaching
presidential authority to suspend the entry of most migrants
entering the U.S. illegally, effectively shutting off access
to the American asylum system outside of official ports of
entry.
Illegal border crossings--which were already falling before
Mr. Biden's action--plunged further after the order took
effect, reaching a three-year low in June.
Illegal crossings along U.S. southern border over the past year
The numbers denote Border Patrol apprehensions of migrants
who entered the U.S. between official ports of entry along
the southern border.
But the DHS regulation implementing Mr. Biden's
proclamation stipulated that the asylum crackdown would be
lifted if the 7-day average of daily migrant apprehensions
between ports of entry fell to 1,500.
In the past week, the average of daily illegal crossings
counted in the regulation's calculations reached roughly
1,650, according to the internal DHS figures. Those
calculations, as dictated by the regulation, exclude
crossings by unaccompanied children who are not
[[Page H4928]]
from Mexico. Those children are typically housed in
government-run shelters until they turn 18 or are placed with
a U.S.-based sponsor, as mandated by a 2008 antitrafficking
law.
If the 7-day average of daily illegal crossings dips to
1,500, the regulation says, Mr. Biden's asylum proclamation
would be ``discontinued 14 days after'' Homeland Security
Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas makes a ``factual
determination'' about the threshold being reached.
``The Departments have determined that the 1,500-encounter
threshold is a reasonable proxy for when the border security
and immigration system is no longer over capacity and the
measures adopted in this rule are not necessary to deal with
such circumstances,'' the regulation says.
Asylum limits could remain in place
While illegal border crossings are nearing the 1,500
deactivation threshold, it's possible that they may remain
above that number, keeping the partial asylum ban in place.
And even if the 1,500 trigger is reached, Mr. Biden's
proclamation would be reinstated if the 7-day average of
daily illegal crossings were to rebound to 2,500.
A senior U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) official
said the agency does not expect the partial ban on asylum
requests to be deactivated imminently, noting that illegal
crossings appear to be plateauing.
``We're not in a place yet where we're a day . . . or days
away from being below 1,500,'' the official told CBS News.
But the official acknowledged that reaching the 1,500
trigger is possible and confirmed there's been internal
planning and preparations for that eventuality.
If Mr. Biden's proclamation is suspended, the official
said, CBP would still strive to place migrants in expedited
deportation proceedings, instead of releasing them with
notices to appear in immigration court. Another Biden
administration asylum restriction that applies to those who
don't seek refuge in third countries before crossing into the
U.S. would also remain in place.
``Noncitizens who enter the United States between ports of
entry and do not have a legal basis to remain in the United
States continue to be swiftly removed,'' DHS spokesperson
Erin Heeter said in a statement.
A dramatic change at the border
With an overall average of roughly 1,800 daily migrant
apprehensions so far in July, Border Patrol is on pace to
record fewer than 60,000 migrant apprehensions this month,
the lowest level since September 2020, according to
unpublished DHS data. That average, unlike the one used in
the asylum regulation's calculations, includes all
unaccompanied children.
The current situation at the southern border represents a
dramatic change from just late last year, when illegal
crossings rose to a quarter of a million in December, an all-
time monthly high. After that record-breaking influx, the
Mexican government, at the request of U.S. officials, ramped
up operations to stop migrants from reaching American soil.
Immigration experts credited the Mexican government's
migration crackdown with playing a key role in the sustained
drop in migrant crossings recorded by American officials this
year. Temperatures in the southern U.S. have also soared in
the summer, making the migration journey even more perilous.
But U.S. officials said Mr. Biden's move to partially shut
down asylum processing has led to a more acute drop in
unlawful crossings. Because it makes it easier for U.S.
officials to deport more migrants, the proclamation has
sharply reduced the releases that authorities view as a
factor that encourages migration.
Still, not everyone is being deported quickly. Some groups,
such as unaccompanied children, medically vulnerable migrants
and those who secure appointments to be processed at legal
entry points, are exempt from the partial asylum ban. Some
migrants who are disqualified from asylum under the policy
are also still allowed to stay because the U.S. does not
carry out regular deportations to their home countries due to
diplomatic and logistical constraints.
Progressive advocacy groups have strongly decried Mr.
Biden's asylum crackdown, and the American Civil Liberties
Union is arguing in federal court that the policy violates
U.S. and international refugee law.
Theresa Cardinal Brown, a senior adviser at the Bipartisan
Policy Center and a former government immigration official
under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, said the
legality of Mr. Biden's actions are ``still an outstanding
question.'' But she said the drop in releases under the
policy is affecting migrants' decisions, at least in the
short-term.
``When a sufficient number, it doesn't necessarily have to
be everybody, but a sufficient number of people are not
allowed to come in, to wait and succeed in coming in, that
does send a signal back,'' she said.
Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record a
fact sheet released by the Department of Homeland Security this morning
that shows President Biden's Presidential Proclamation to temporarily
suspend the entry of certain noncitizens across the southern border has
helped reduce the number of encounters at out our Southwest Border by
55 percent.
[From the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, July 24, 2024]
FACT SHEET: President Biden's Presidential Proclamation and Joint DHS-
DOJ Interim Final Rule Cut Encounters at Southwest Border by 55 Percent
The Presidential Proclamation issued by President Biden to
temporarily suspend the entry of certain noncitizens across
the southern border--including the southwest land and
southern coastal borders--and the complementary joint interim
final rule (IFR) issued by DHS DOJ have now been in effect
for seven weeks, helping reduce the number of encounters at
our Southwest Border by 55 percent. The Border Patrol's 7-day
average has decreased to below 1,800 encounters per day. In
June, the Border Patrol recorded 83,536 encounters between
ports of entry, the lowest number since January 2021, and
below the number of encounters between ports of entry in June
2019, the last comparable year prior to the pandemic.
While the President's action has led to significant
results, our nation's immigration system requires
Congressional action to provide needed resources and
additional authorities. Twice now, Congress has failed to
pass the bipartisan border security agreement negotiated in
the U.S. Senate, which would provide the critical personnel
and funding needed to further secure our Southern border. The
agreement would have added 1,500 U.S. Customs and Border
Protection (CBP) Agents and Officers, added 1,200 U.S.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) personnel, 4,300
asylum officers, invested in technology to catch illegal
fentanyl, and delivered sweeping reforms to the asylum
system. Congress must still act.
While the Proclamation and IFR have been in effect:
DHS has removed and returned more than 65,000 individuals
to more than 125 countries, including by operating more than
200 international repatriation flights.
DHS has doubled the percentage of noncitizens processed
through Expedited Removal while in CBP or ICE custody.
Expedited Removal processing was already at record levels
prior to the Proclamation.
DHS has decreased the number of people released pending
their removal proceedings by 70
We continue to implement recently announced measures
(https://www.ice.gov/news/release/ice-announces-ongoing-work-
optimize-enforcement-resources) to increase the overall
capacity of enforcement resources--including repatriation
flights and detention capacity. ICE is optimizing air charter
contracts to maximize the number of repatriation flights
operated each week.
Over the last year, the agency has removed individuals to a
range of South American and Eastern Hemisphere countries,
including Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Egypt, Mauritania,
Senegal, Uzbekistan, and India, and in the last few weeks,
DHS conducted a removal flight to the People's Republic of
China (PRC). Efforts to expand the number of removal flights
continue with the expectation of additional flights added to
the schedule in the coming weeks.
Under the terms of the IFR, the limitation on asylum
eligibility will be discontinued when encounters fall below
certain levels but will come back into effect if encounters
rise again. The Proclamation and IFR enable DHS to quickly
remove those without a legal basis to remain, strengthening
enforcement consequences for those who fail to use lawful
pathways to come to the United States. For more information
on how the Proclamation and IFR work, visit the following
links:
Fact Sheet: President Biden's Presidential Proclamation and
Joint DHS-DOJ Interim Final Rule Cut Encounters at Southwest
Border by Over 40 Percent in First Three Weeks (https:/-
www.dhs.gov/news/2024/06/25/fact-sheet-president-bidens-
presidential-proclamation-and-joint-dhs-doj-interim)
Fact Sheet: Presidential Proclamation to Suspend and Limit
Entry and Joint DHS-DOJ Interim Final Rule to Restrict Asylum
During High Encounters at the Southern Border (https://
www.dhs.gov/news/2024/06/04/fact-sheet-presidential-
proclamation-suspend-and-limit-entry-and-joint-dhs-doi)
Individuals continue to be eligible for asylum, including
individuals who use the CBP OneTM mobile app's
appointment scheduling function. CBP makes 1,450 appointments
available per day at eight land ports of entry via this
functionality. Use of the app requires those seeking an
appointment to submit vital information in advance, improving
DHS's ability to conduct screening and vetting. CBP One is
just one example of how this Administration has carried out
the largest expansion of lawful pathways and orderly
processes in decades.
The majority of all Southwest border encounters during the
past three fiscal years resulted in a removal, return, or
expulsion. DHS removed or returned over 740,000 individuals
in the 12 months after the end of the Title 42 public health
Order, more than any year since 2010. That included more
removals to countries other than Mexico than in any prior
year ever.
Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record a
July 22 ``analysis'' article from the right-wing Wall Street Journal
stating that the Vice President's role was narrow--and also successful.
Notably, the article includes the following quote: ``Harris's job was
meant to be narrow, and over the years Harris has fulfilled it by
announcing tranches of private investments.''
[[Page H4929]]
[From WSJ, July 22, 2024]
Analysis: Was Kamala Harris Actually Biden's `Border Czar'?
(By Michelle Hackman)
Even before Kamala Harris became the Democrats' likely
challenger to Donald Trump, Republicans have used her
immigration portfolio as a line of attack against her--
calling her President Biden's ``border czar.'' But Harris's
task, assigned to her in 2021 by Biden, was actually much
narrower.
At the start of his presidency, Biden tasked his VP with
what the administration called the ``root causes'' of
migration from Central America--the extreme poverty, famine
and gang violence that have driven so many people over the
last decade to uproot their lives and head north to the U.S.
Former President Barack Obama had asked Biden to take on
the same task when he was vice president. Biden successfully
pushed Congress to allot several billion in aid money for
Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras.
Harris's job was meant to be narrow, and over the years
Harris has fulfilled it by announcing tranches of private
investments by companies like Pepsi, Cargill and Nestle in
Central America.
But the assignment gave Republicans a convenient scapegoat
as illegal crossings at the southern border climbed. Days
after the announcement of her assignment, House Republicans
appeared at a press conference brandishing a sign reading,
``missing at the border: Vice President Kamala Harris.''
On Monday, the RNC tweeted a video purporting to show the
moment Biden anointed Harris ``border czar.'' In the video,
Biden says he is asking Harris ``to lead our efforts with
Mexico and the Northern Triangle, the countries that need
help in stemming a movement of so many folks, of stemming the
migration to our southern border.''
Mr. Thompson of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record an
April 5 ``fact check'' article from the Washington Post giving four
Pinocchios to the favorite Republican claim that the Biden
administration ``flew at least 400,000 illegal immigrants into the
country.''
Notably, the article states that Republicans are Quote: ``peddling a
blatant falsehood her'' Unquote.
[From the Washington Post, April 5, 2024]
Taxpayer Dollars Being Used to Fly `Illegal Aliens' Into U.S.? Nope.
(By Glenn Kessler)
``Do you support American taxpayer dollars being used to
fly illegal immigrants from countries like Venezuela and
Haiti into America to be settled in cities and towns near
you? If so, then vote against me. Vote no to preserve this
practice of using taxpayer dollars to charter planes that
move and import thousands of illegal aliens into your
states.?
Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.), in a speech on the Senate
floor, March 23:
``Have you had to cancel or rethink any upcoming summer
trips because of high prices? Don't worry--your taxpayer
dollars will be used to pay for illegal immigrants to fly
into a town near you.''
Rep. Mark Green (R-Tenn.), chair of the House Homeland
Security Committee, in a post on X, April 2:
Two lawmakers from Tennessee have issued misleading
statements about a Biden administration program that
permitted an increased use of a process known as humanitarian
parole for migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and
Venezuela. Hagerty offered an amendment to a spending bill--
defeated in a party-line vote--that he said would prevent
taxpayer dollars from being used to fly in migrants. Green,
on X, posted a Fox News article--headlined ``All Senate Dems
vote against barring taxpayer funds to fly illegal migrants
to U.S. towns''--and made a similar claim.
Under the Biden program, people from these countries who
try to cross the border without the proper paperwork are
ineligible for parole and subject to expulsion. Instead,
before arriving, they must receive authorization to travel to
the United States and a statement of financial support from a
sponsor.
As of the end of February, the Department of Homeland
Security says, more than 386,000 people from those countries
had arrived lawfully in the United States and another 19,000
were vetted and authorized to travel. In other words, they
are not in the country illegally, despite the rhetoric in the
statements.
And beyond the question of whether these immigrants are
``illegal,'' if You listen to Hagerty and Green, U.S.
taxpayers are footing the bill for their travel. That's
wrong.
the Facts
The website for the program makes clear that people
applying for humanitarian parole must pay for their tickets.
Under a list of requirements, one is: ``Provide for their own
commercial travel to an air U.S. port of entry and final U.S.
destination.''
When we asked spokespeople for Hagerty and Green, we
received different answers about why they said taxpayers'
dollars were involved. Neither is convincing.
Hagerty's staff said he was referring not to plane tickets,
but to the fact that the program was created and administered
with taxpayer dollars. His amendment said ``no funds
appropriated by this Act may be used to facilitate, provide,
or purchase air transportation from a foreign country to the
United States''--so ``facilitate'' is the operative word
here.
But the arm of the DHS that administers the program--U.S.
Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS)--is 96 percent
funded by fees paid by people seeking to come to the United
States. For instance, people in the parole program must pay
as much as $520 to file an application for work
authorization.
Moreover, parole applications (now totaling about 400,000)
make up an even smaller part of the nearly 10 million
applications handled by USCIS each year, so the number of
people handling the applications would be an infinitesimal
part of the USCIS workforce. On top of that, the salaries of
these workers are funded by fees, not congressional
appropriations (``taxpayer dollars'').
In any case, as we noted, people approved for the program
must book and pay for their own flights to come to the United
States. There aren't any charter flights, despite what
Hagerty said.
Green's staff offered a different explanation--that he was
referring to nongovernmental organizations being reimbursed
for transportation costs through the Shelter and Services
Program (SSP), run by the Federal Emergency Management
Agency, another arm of the DHS. But this is also off base.
The SSP is focused on helping pay the costs for people who
cross the border between ports of entry, such as with the
help of smugglers, and find themselves abandoned in the
middle of a desert. The recipients are mainly border cities
and charities that assist these undocumented immigrants with
food, shelter and transportation. But people in the parole
program arrive with authorization and a confirmed financial
sponsor. In fact, the Biden administration created the parole
program to reduce unauthorized border crossings that have
burdened border facilities.
So the only way SSP dollars would be used by someone in the
parole program is if a disaster happened and this person
found themselves in a shelter that received some funding from
the SSP--a highly unlikely prospect.
the Pinocchio Test
Hagerty and Green are peddling a blatant falsehood here--
that the Biden administration is paying for the flights of
migrants from four countries in the parole program. In
reality, the migrants must pay their own way. When
challenged, their offices resorted to alternative
explanations about the use of taxpayer dollars that strain
credulity.
Four Pinocchios
The Fact Checker is a verified signatory to the
International Fact-Checking Network code of principles.
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Murphy). All time for debate has
expired.
Pursuant to House Resolution 1376, the previous question is ordered
on the resolution and the preamble, as amended.
The question is on adoption of the resolution.
The question was taken; and the Speaker pro tempore announced that
the ayes appeared to have it.
Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas
and nays.
The yeas and nays were ordered.
The vote was taken by electronic device, and there were--yeas 220,
nays 196, not voting 16, as follows:
=========================== NOTE ===========================
On July 25, 2024, on page H4929, in the third column, the
following appeared: code of principles. [Roll No. 400] YEAS--220
The online version has been corrected to read: code of principles.
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Murphy). All time for debate has
expired. Pursuant to House Resolution 1376, the previous question
is ordered on the resolution and the preamble, as amended. The
question is on adoption of the resolution. The question was taken;
and the Speaker pro tempore announced that the ayes appeared to
have it. Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, on that I
demand the yeas and nays. The yeas and nays were ordered. The vote
was taken by electronic device, and there were--yeas 220, nays
196, not voting 16, as follows: [Roll No. 400] YEAS--220
========================= END NOTE =========================
[Roll No. 400]
YEAS--220
Aderholt
Alford
Allen
Amodei
Armstrong
Arrington
Babin
Bacon
Baird
Balderson
Banks
Barr
Bean (FL)
Bentz
Bergman
Bice
Biggs
Bilirakis
Bishop (NC)
Boebert
Bost
Brecheen
Buchanan
Bucshon
Burchett
Burgess
Burlison
Calvert
Cammack
Caraveo
Carey
Carl
Carter (GA)
Carter (TX)
Chavez-DeRemer
Ciscomani
Cline
Cloud
Clyde
Cole
Collins
Comer
Crane
Crawford
Crenshaw
Cuellar
Curtis
D'Esposito
Davidson
Davis (NC)
De La Cruz
DesJarlais
Diaz-Balart
Donalds
Duarte
Duncan
Dunn (FL)
Edwards
Ellzey
Emmer
Estes
Ezell
Fallon
Feenstra
Ferguson
Finstad
Fischbach
Fitzgerald
Fitzpatrick
Fleischmann
Flood
Fong
Foxx
Franklin, Scott
Fry
Fulcher
Gaetz
Garbarino
Garcia, Mike
Gimenez
Golden (ME)
Gonzales, Tony
Good (VA)
Gooden (TX)
Gosar
Graves (LA)
Green (TN)
Greene (GA)
Griffith
Grothman
Guest
Guthrie
Hageman
Harris
Harshbarger
Hern
Hill
Hinson
Houchin
Huizenga
Hunt
Issa
Jackson (TX)
James
Johnson (LA)
Johnson (SD)
Jordan
Joyce (OH)
Joyce (PA)
Kean (NJ)
Kelly (MS)
Kelly (PA)
Kiggans (VA)
Kiley
Kim (CA)
Kustoff
LaHood
LaLota
LaMalfa
Lamborn
Langworthy
Latta
LaTurner
Lawler
Lee (FL)
Lesko
Letlow
Lopez
Loudermilk
Lucas
Luetkemeyer
Luna
Luttrell
Mace
Malliotakis
Maloy
Mann
Mast
McCaul
McClain
McClintock
McCormick
McHenry
Meuser
Miller (IL)
Miller (OH)
Miller (WV)
Miller-Meeks
Mills
Molinaro
Moolenaar
Mooney
Moore (AL)
Moore (UT)
Moran
Murphy
Nehls
Newhouse
Norman
Nunn (IA)
Obernolte
Ogles
Owens
Palmer
Peltola
Pence
Perez
Perry
Pfluger
Posey
Reschenthaler
Rodgers (WA)
Rogers (AL)
Rogers (KY)
Rose
Rosendale
Rouzer
Roy
Rulli
Rutherford
Salazar
Scalise
Schweikert
Scott, Austin
Self
Sessions
Simpson
Smith (MO)
Smith (NE)
Smith (NJ)
Smucker
Spartz
Stauber
Steel
Stefanik
Steil
Steube
Strong
Tenney
Thompson (PA)
Tiffany
Timmons
Valadao
Van Drew
Van Duyne
Van Orden
Wagner
Walberg
Waltz
Weber (TX)
Webster (FL)
Wenstrup
Westerman
Williams (NY)
Williams (TX)
Wilson (SC)
Wittman
Womack
Yakym
Zinke
[[Page H4930]]
NAYS--196
Adams
Aguilar
Allred
Amo
Auchincloss
Balint
Barragan
Beatty
Bera
Beyer
Bishop (GA)
Blumenauer
Blunt Rochester
Bonamici
Bowman
Boyle (PA)
Brown
Brownley
Budzinski
Carbajal
Cardenas
Carson
Carter (LA)
Cartwright
Casar
Case
Casten
Castor (FL)
Cherfilus-McCormick
Chu
Clark (MA)
Clarke (NY)
Cleaver
Clyburn
Cohen
Connolly
Correa
Costa
Courtney
Craig
Crockett
Crow
Davids (KS)
Davis (IL)
Dean (PA)
DeGette
DeLauro
DelBene
Deluzio
DeSaulnier
Dingell
Doggett
Escobar
Eshoo
Espaillat
Fletcher
Foster
Foushee
Frankel, Lois
Frost
Gallego
Garcia (IL)
Garcia (TX)
Garcia, Robert
Goldman (NY)
Gomez
Gonzalez, Vicente
Gottheimer
Green, Al (TX)
Harder (CA)
Hayes
Himes
Horsford
Houlahan
Hoyer
Hoyle (OR)
Huffman
Ivey
Jackson (IL)
Jackson (NC)
Jacobs
Jayapal
Jeffries
Johnson (GA)
Kamlager-Dove
Kaptur
Keating
Kelly (IL)
Kennedy
Khanna
Kildee
Kilmer
Kim (NJ)
Krishnamoorthi
Kuster
Landsman
Larsen (WA)
Larson (CT)
Lee (CA)
Lee (NV)
Lee (PA)
Leger Fernandez
Levin
Lieu
Lofgren
Lynch
Magaziner
Manning
Matsui
McBath
McClellan
McCollum
McGarvey
McGovern
Meeks
Menendez
Meng
Mfume
Moore (WI)
Morelle
Moskowitz
Moulton
Mrvan
Mullin
Nadler
Napolitano
Neal
Neguse
Nickel
Norcross
Ocasio-Cortez
Omar
Pallone
Panetta
Pappas
Pelosi
Peters
Pettersen
Phillips
Pingree
Pocan
Pressley
Ramirez
Raskin
Ross
Ryan
Salinas
Sanchez
Sarbanes
Scanlon
Schakowsky
Schiff
Schneider
Scholten
Schrier
Scott (VA)
Scott, David
Sewell
Sherman
Sherrill
Slotkin
Smith (WA)
Sorensen
Soto
Spanberger
Stansbury
Stanton
Stevens
Strickland
Suozzi
Swalwell
Sykes
Takano
Thanedar
Thompson (CA)
Thompson (MS)
Titus
Tlaib
Tokuda
Tonko
Torres (CA)
Torres (NY)
Trahan
Trone
Underwood
Vargas
Vasquez
Veasey
Velazquez
Wasserman Schultz
Waters
Watson Coleman
Wexton
Wild
Williams (GA)
Wilson (FL)
NOT VOTING--16
Bush
Castro (TX)
Evans
Garamendi
Granger
Graves (MO)
Grijalva
Higgins (LA)
Hudson
Massie
Pascrell
Porter
Quigley
Ruiz
Ruppersberger
Turner
{time} 1059
Mr. NUNN of Iowa changed his vote from ``nay'' to ``yea.''
So the resolution, as amended, was agreed to.
The result of the vote was announced as above recorded.
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
Mr. GRAVES of Missouri. Mr. Speaker, I missed one Roll Call vote
today. Had I been present, I would have voted ``YEA'' on Roll Call No.
400.
Mr. BUSH. Mr. Speaker, I was not present during today's vote series.
Had I been present, I would have voted NAY on Roll Call No. 400.
Ms. PORTER. Mr. Speaker, I was unable to be present to cast my vote
today. Had I been present, I would have voted NAY on Roll Call No. 400.
____________________