    [Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 38 (Wednesday, February 26, 2025)]
    [House]
    [Pages H870-H872]
    From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

                       PROMOTING STABILITY AND PROSPERITY

      The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Goldman of Texas). Under the Speaker's
    announced policy of January 3, 2025, the gentleman from Utah (Mr.
    Moore) is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority
    leader.

                                 General Leave

      Mr. MOORE of Utah. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all
    Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their
    remarks and include extraneous material on this Special Order.
      The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
    gentleman from Utah?
      There was no objection.
      Mr. MOORE of Utah. Mr. Speaker, last Monday marked a somber
    milestone. It was 500 days since the horrific attacks on October 7,
    2022, when Iranian-backed Hamas terrorists launched the most harrowing
    assault on Israel and the Jewish people since the Holocaust.
      We witnessed an unprecedented act of violence that shocked the world
    500 days ago. We will never forget the 1,200 innocent lives Hamas
    murdered and the 240 civilians they took hostage that day, as well as
    those affected in the months following the October 7 attacks.
      My House Republican colleagues and I are grateful to President Trump
    and Prime Minister Netanyahu for securing the recent ceasefire
    agreement which has led to Hamas releasing American and Israeli
    hostages. As we remember this day, we are more motivated than ever to
    stand with Israel and the Jewish people. I am grateful to my colleagues
    for joining me this evening to discuss this solemn anniversary.
      Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr.
    Wilson).
      Mr. WILSON of South Carolina. Mr. Speaker, I thank and very much
    appreciate Republican Vice Chairman Blake Moore of Utah for holding
    this Special Order hour.
      Last Monday, February 17 marked 500 days since the heinous attack in
    Israel where drug-induced Iranian puppet Hamas launched the most
    cowardly, murderous assault against Israel and the Jewish community
    since the Holocaust. The world will not forget the mass slaughter of
    1,200 innocent lives by Hamas and the 240 civilians taken hostage,
    including Americans.
      It is a remarkable achievement that under the leadership of President
    Donald Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that a ceasefire
    agreement was reached and led to the release of many hostages, though
    many remain.
      Prime Minister Netanyahu has been successful in eliminating the
    leadership of Hamas and Hezbollah. He will face the nuclear threat of
    Tehran.
      Americans will continue to reaffirm our unwavering support for Israel
    and the right of its citizens and Jewish people to live in peace. With
    the leadership of President Donald Trump, Secretary of State Marco
    Rubio, and Ambassador Mike Huckabee, Americans will not stop until we
    bring home every hostage and achieve victory over the Iranian regime
    and its puppets.
      The people of Iran can be inspired by the courageous patriots of
    Syria who liberated Damascus on December 8. Additionally, the new
    government in Beirut is positive for the people of Lebanon.
      With the courageous patriots such as Ahmed Albasheer in Iraq, the
    people of Iraq will free themselves from Iranian domination for
    independence, achieving stability with prosperity.
      Dictators around the world are losing in the war of dictators with
    rule of gun invading democracies with rule of law. War criminal Putin
    is failing in Ukraine with Ukrainians inspired by President Volodymyr
    Zelenskyy.
      In Georgia, the legitimate president, Salome Zourabichvili, is
    respected worldwide.
      In Belarus, the legitimate president of Belarus, Sviatlana
    Tsikhanouskaya, has been warmly welcomed at the Munich Security
    Conference, supporting freedom for the people of Belarus.
      In conclusion, God bless our troops as the global war on terrorism
    continues. Open borders for dictators put all Americans at risk of more
    9/11 attacks imminent as warned by the FBI. Trump is reinstituting
    existing laws to protect American families with peace through strength.
      Mr. MOORE of Utah. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from South
    Carolina (Mr. Wilson). I always appreciate his perspective on these
    foreign policy issues.
      Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from California (Mr. LaMalfa.)

                     Supporting Our International Partners

      Mr. LaMALFA. Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Moore for leading this
    opportunity to cover important subjects that we are working on in the
    House in D.C. and in tandem with the excellent effort coming out of the
    Trump administration. It is a more positive outlook we have had lately.
    With the economy moving in the right direction, it gives people more
    freedom.
      The foreign relations are going to improve. I think it is important
    that we have strong relations. I think NATO is extremely important and
    that we support and remain part of NATO. I am encouraged to see that
    NATO countries under President Trump are moving to step up a little bit
    more and take some more of their own responsibility for their defense.
    It shouldn't all be on the burden of taxpayers of America, but indeed
    with more and more of that self-starting, I would say. We are seeing
    that talked about in Germany a little bit more right now.
      It is always important that we maintain the NATO alliance and that
    the United States remain part of that, as well as our relationship with
    Israel. It is such an excellent partnership that we have with them; how
    we are able to work together in tandem as two different nations with
    the technology that has been developed.
      They do amazing things in concert with our knowledge and our
    technology in this country, for example, on agriculture water-saving
    technology. They have to irrigate in a desert. In my home State of
    California, we have a rather arid climate, but we do have a very
    plentiful water supply. It comes from the Sierras in the north and the
    east. Israel has shown the way on how to make water go much farther
    with their drip irrigation systems. It comes from working together on
    these technologies, as well as defense systems.

      That is important. Israel puts so much effort into defending itself,
    and America has worked in tandem with that to develop missile defense
    systems that are helpful for us. They are helpful with our other allies
    around the world and Israel, as well; them with the Iron Dome, ours
    with the Patriot, and newer technology that has come since then.
      When we consider Israel, they have really been under the gun ever
    since they were reconstituted back in the late 1940s. No sooner were
    they were put in place and set up shop than the neighboring countries
    immediately attacked them. For the Israeli people, it is really an
    existential situation. They are constantly under threat.
      To hear what they are trying to do and the way they advocate for
    constant peace and coexistence--I mentioned that a little bit earlier
    today--Israel would like to get along, and they have many folks of Arab
    descent that live within their country.
      When I have been able to listen to different seminars on that, those
    folks are asked would they like to move out of Israel if they feel like
    they are an Arab in Israel and may or may not be having a good go of
    it. They said that, no, they like it there. They want to stay there. We
    see that cooperation within on people that have that understanding.
      Marking recently the 500 days since the horrific attack by Hamas on
    October 7, when an Iranian-backed group inflicted an incredible amount
    of damage, death, destruction, and terror on a group of people that
    were just peacefully enjoying the day, for the next 500 days we have
    hardly gotten much cooperation. More recently, we have been able to
    negotiate hostage releases; but they still have more.
      Hamas, that terror regime in Gaza that has been there and set up shop
    not long after the whole Gaza Strip was deeded over basically--and
    Israel withdrew in good faith, land for peace back then. What is the
    reward for that? Before the ink is even dry on agreements, the mortar
    rounds are being set up and launched indiscriminately into Israel.
      What are they supposed to do? Are they supposed to just let that
    happen?

    [[Page H871]]

    Of course, they are going to defend themselves. We have seen that since
    October 7 or approximately 500 days ago. Israel has done what it must
    do in order to defend itself from these indiscriminate terror attack
    that happened from within Hamas and still holding many hostages, both
    Israeli and even some Americans.
      How do we negotiate with that? They are doing the best they can. They
    are doing their best to keep peace. They are doing their best to be a
    good neighbor. That doesn't seem to be rewarded in that part of the
    world.
      I think it is perfectly appropriate and I think in a way our duty as
    an ally to people with a lot of kinship with us that we remain strong
    as a support of Israel and ultimately eradicate Hamas from what they
    are doing there. I don't know what the overall long-term solution is
    going to be in Gaza. What they have going now is not working.
      As long as they want to continue to inflict that kind of damage as a
    bad neighbor, then Israel is going to have to take steps to defend
    itself. When it does, it does so surgically. It isn't indiscriminately
    bombing out areas there. I know there have been many, many casualties.
    We get that.
      When Hamas is using their people in Gaza, their own neighbors as
    human shields, and expecting Israel to not make a move where the
    terrorism or the rocket attacks are emanating from, what are they
    supposed to do? Hamas is the one that is evil, using their own people,
    their own neighbors, their own kind as human shields. Somehow the rest
    of the world wants to blame Israel for what is going on there. It is
    nonsense.

                                  {time}  1830

      As these 500 days have passed and we remember the 1,200 innocent
    lives lost, taken, butchered, and at the time the 240 hostages that
    were taken, we must stand strong with them.
      I appreciate what President Trump has been able to set up, in just a
    month, to send a signal there that the United States is going to stand
    strong with Israel and that Prime Minister Netanyahu recognizes that
    and will do everything he can to find a solution to forge that peace
    amongst that and still be strong for his nation and for his people that
    is essential for its continued existence.
      It is an existential threat every day. I have toured the country and
    met with folks more toward the southern part of Israel. They live on a
    15-second alert status basically. They have to be ready at any time to
    be able to find shelter within 15 seconds in certain sectors of more
    southern Israel for what might come in as a rocket attack upon them.
    What a way to live.
      On the other hand, it seems they take it in stride. It is amazing.
    They are amazing, resilient people, time and time again. All they want
    to do is get along, to peacefully coexist.
      I made this comment a little bit earlier, but I don't see the
    ``Coexist'' stickers on the back of the military vehicles or
    automobiles that are in the Gaza area or the Hamas vehicles. They
    aren't interested in coexisting. They ultimately have to be defeated
    and moved out of there, because this is not going to work long term.
    You can't deal with unreasonable people who want to eradicate who you
    are, so I don't blame Israel.
      Of note here in Congress, we were able to accomplish an important
    budget resolution just last night. It is amazing the rhetoric that
    flies out of here about what we are trying to do.
      Government needs to be accountable, much more accountable than it has
    been. Since the COVID era, when spending went up dramatically, and we
    are dealing with $2 trillion deficits--how do we even say that so
    easily and add that number every year to our national debt? We are
    fortunate interest rates aren't worse off, because the management of
    that debt, the servicing of that, the interest on that, would consume
    the rest of our budget if it got too much more out of control.
      What we are trying to do and what the Trump administration is trying
    to do by identifying the fraud, the needless spending that is happening
    with these organizations, should be commended.
      In our budget resolution last night, as this leads us toward the
    budget reconciliation process, that indeed is trying to find things
    that will more streamline and clean up our budgeting process. That is a
    good, honest, earnest effort here.
      Hearing the rhetoric flying around on the other side of the aisle or
    coming out from the media that they are going to make draconian cuts to
    Medicaid, nowhere in that document is there even mention of Medicaid or
    certainly cuts to it or some of the other programs that people have
    come to depend on.
      That is going to be an ongoing discussion in the budget
    reconciliation process of where are we going to find these reductions.
    If DOGE can keep doing its work without being unfairly criticized for
    the effort being made, then we are going to find more and more. We are
    finding billions already, finding bogus contracts, things that the
    average American is not interested in having their money--$40 million
    here, $15 million there, billions on certain things. That is not in the
    American people's interest because they have their own difficult time.
      There was a lot of discussion about the price of eggs. When the Biden
    administration caused an overreaction to bird flu, 160 million chickens
    had to be eradicated in this country. Yeah, it is going to have an
    effect on the price of eggs and poultry and other things. When the
    government does things, there is a cause and there is an effect.
      I am hoping with this budget being resolved here and moving forward
    with the reconciliation conversation--again, it is going to be on
    national TV in a committee process, open hearings, as these numbers are
    wrestled with.
      It isn't easy. If we can just reset back to pre-COVID spending, with
    perhaps an adjustment for inflation since then. However, the inflation
    we need to be adjusting to is something more normalized, like in the
    first Trump era, instead of the dramatic inflation caused by the Biden
    policies on energy and massive spending, such as the Infrastructure
    Act--which, hey, there is some good infrastructure in there, but there
    is a lot of spending that really isn't infrastructure. On top of that,
    the American Rescue Plan and then, ultimately, the so-called Inflation
    Reduction Act, which was another trillion-dollar spending spree of pet
    programs and green projects that the Democrats seem to love.
      Maybe we can salvage a bit of that money and channel it into good
    things. That is some of the effort here, but a lot of that needs to be
    limited and cut off longer term. That is the effort that needs to be
    made here.
      I keep coming back to my home State's high-speed rail project. There
    was an additional $4 billion dumped on top of that right at the end of
    the Biden administration. That is where these eleventh hour
    pronouncements and executive actions really need scrutiny.
      I am glad we have the Congressional Review Act to look at those, some
    onerous regulations on last-minute spending, on monuments that are all
    around the country, with massive amounts of acres declared under the
    Biden administration as national monuments and areas that are not going
    to be available.
      For example, one ocean monument that was set here that is about 625
    million acres. How big is that area? Let us do the math on that.
    Basically it boils down to a million--it really boils down to, in easy
    numbers, a 1,000-mile square. That is how much those acres add up to,
    625 million. That is basically a no-go zone for doing normal things
    like certain types of fishing, or if there is an area that is rich in
    oil, being able to take advantage of that and do offshore drilling that
    would be helpful to our economy.

      We know how to do it right. Yet, when there is a massive declaration
    by the President, just by the stroke of a pen, under abuse of the
    Antiquities Act, it puts us in a hard way, a difficult way to be energy
    independent and sustain our own needs as a country when these willy-
    nilly declarations just keep happening.
      Thankfully, that has come to an end, and we can review some of these
    things and say: Is this really what is effective under the Antiquities
    Act for our country, for the landscape we have, and for the resources
    that are available?
      I am hoping for good things, and I think good things will happen. We
    need the American public to have faith and see what has been happening
    so far with the DOGE process. What we would

    [[Page H872]]

    be seeing under budget reconciliation is that we want to put the power
    back with the people, for the people, and not have it just be vested in
    government.
      Government run amuck becomes abusive. Your rights are limited and
    your property rights abused, as we see so much of in the West where
    people are being sued for a 150-year-old fence and charged criminally
    for a fence line that has been undefined, for example. This is in South
    Dakota. The Forest Service is going after them for that when it was
    unsettled. They hadn't even done a survey on it to see if there was
    something right or wrong with that particular fence line. Property
    rights are being trampled and people are being intimidated by their
    government in this sense.
      Let's reset on this and put government back in a position where it is
    accountable directly to those who are elected, who are accountable
    directly to the people. We will be much better off with that. It is
    moving in a good direction, I certainly believe, as we have more
    accountability for the spending. Where is it going? Is it something
    that is effective? Is it a good value for the American people?
      That is why I am happy with the DOGE process. There are some
    imperfections in it. We will figure that out. We will hammer that out.
      The budget reconciliation process will be underway very soon and,
    hopefully, will be successful. This is something that Republicans have
    stood for for a long time, the accountability to the American people,
    accountability for how their tax dollars are being used, and
    accountability for those working in the government and who are supposed
    to be showing up and providing a service. Government jobs are not
    supposed to be a jobs program. They are there to deliver a service to
    the people that give us the charge to bring them aboard and start these
    agencies.
      Somehow, they think it is supposed to be 100 percent job security.
    That isn't available anywhere else in the country in the private
    sector, especially when overactive government and overactive regulators
    can sweep away your right to farm, to mine, to ranch, to have a
    business or have it taken away by eminent domain, such as we have seen
    on the Point Reyes National Seashore, where 12 ranching families there,
    dairy and beef ranchers, have had that swept away from them after they
    finally relented back in the early sixties to sell the land, because
    the government came and bullied them off of it. Now they are kicking
    them off all the way, if that is allowed to stand. I hope we can put a
    stop to that, because that is not right and that is not the American
    way of doing things.
      There is a lot of energy to do the right things for the American
    people coming from the administration and from this House. Hopefully,
    the Senate can take up what we send over there and have success on
    that. It is really about, again, resetting and making government
    accountable to the people and doing what is best for them, not what is
    best for the expansion of the government and the furthering of the
    little fiefdoms that go on in it.
      Mr. Speaker, I am really grateful for the opportunity here. I am
    grateful that our House was able to pass the budget resolution and
    continue the process. It is going to be one I think we can ultimately
    be proud of.
      Mr. MOORE of Utah. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from
    California, and I always appreciate his participation.
      I thank the rest of my colleagues for being here tonight and taking
    time to speak on the horrific assault against our ally and the Jewish
    community.
      On October 7, 2022, the world was shocked at the atrocities carried
    out by Hamas terrorists against Israel and the Jewish community. Nearly
    3,000 Hamas fighters crossed into Israel by land, air, and sea, killing
    around 1,200 people and taking more than 250 Israeli and foreign
    hostages.
      October 7 will forever be a turning point in history.
      As we reflect on the events of that day and the 500 days that have
    followed, it is imperative that we also recognize the broader
    implications of this attack.

      It was not just an assault on Israel. It was an attack on the
    American vision for a safe and secure Middle East, which was led,
    perpetuated, and financed by the Iranian regime.
      The Hamas perpetrators not only set out to destroy the very existence
    of the State of Israel, but they sought something larger. They wanted
    to prevent a seismic shift in the region from taking place. I am, of
    course, referring to the early success of the Abraham Accords,
    negotiated by the first Trump administration, and the long-term goal of
    a Saudi-Israel peace and normalization agreement.
      Iran and its terrorist proxy groups, like Hamas, Hezbollah, and the
    Houthis, could not bear to see Israel accepted by its neighbors or
    folded into the community of nations where it rightly belongs. Instead,
    they chose to commit unspeakable acts of violence, rape, terror, and
    slaughter.
      As we mark 500 days since the October 7 attack, we must also look at
    the ongoing suffering of those affected by this violence. There are
    countless families and individuals living with the scars of that day.
    It is our duty to honor their memory and ensure that attacks like this
    never happen again.
      We must remain vigilant against the threats posed by extremist groups
    and continue to champion freedom and democracy around the world. We
    must also work to strengthen the Abraham Accords, push hard for Saudi-
    Israeli normalization, and ensure that Iran's plan to destabilize the
    Middle East fails. We have a plan. We have a vision for success in the
    region and now is not the time to take our foot off the gas pedal.
      House Republicans will remain steadfast in maintaining a strong
    relationship with Israel to continue to ensure that freedom and
    democracy endure.
      Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

                              ____________________