[Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 9 (Tuesday, January 13, 2026)]
[House]
[Pages H711-H713]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
MANDATE OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE
(Under the Speaker's announced policy of January 3, 2025, Mr. Harris
of North Carolina was recognized for 30 minutes.)
General Leave
Mr. HARRIS of North Carolina. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent
that all Members have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their
remarks and include extraneous material on the topic of the Special
Order into the Record.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from North Carolina?
There was no objection.
Mr. HARRIS of North Carolina. Madam Speaker, in November of 2024, the
American people didn't just cast votes. They issued a thunderous
mandate. It was loud, it was clear, and it was unmistakable. They rose
up, and they declared: Enough is enough. Enough of the reckless
spending that mortgages our children's future. Enough of open-borders
flooding our communities with chaos and danger. Enough of unelected
bureaucrats and activist judges lording over a free people, and enough
of weakness abroad and surrendering to our enemies while our
adversaries laugh.
The voters didn't send House Republicans back to Washington to warm
chairs, cut ribbons, and play defense. They sent us here to fight. They
sent us here to do government differently, to reverse the damage, and
to restore what made America great.
Now the moment of truth has arrived.
What must the House Republican majority do in 2026, and why must we
act boldly without apology and without hesitation?
In 2026 the American people expect a Republican-led Congress to
deliver results. Alongside President Trump, we must leverage our House
and Senate majorities to advance a bold agenda fulfilling more of our
promises. We must act urgently in the first quarter of 2026, using
every tool available to compel the Senate to deliver now. The stakes
extend beyond the next election. America's future depends on it.
This evening I want to take a few moments to lay out that answer,
four priorities, four commitments, and four reasons the future of the
Republic depends on what we do next.
{time} 2040
First of all, there must be a priority to cut spending because a
nation that can't balance its books can't defend its future. The most
fundamental duty of any government worthy of the name is stewardship of
the taxpayers' hard-earned dollar.
Families balance their checkbooks every month. Small businesses live
within their means or they fail. Yet, for too long, Washington has
acted as if math, morality, and accountability simply don't apply here.
Today, right now, in January of 2026, our national debt stands at
more than $38.4 trillion. Madam Speaker, that is not just statistics,
it is a theft from our children. It is bondage for our grandchildren.
It is a crushing burden that grows by billions every single day, while
interest payments alone devour more than a trillion dollars a year.
Please, let's be crystal clear with America. We do not have a revenue
problem. We have a spending problem and a massive fraud problem in this
country. Just look at the scandals exploding across this country right
now. In Minnesota, Democrats allowed millions of taxpayer dollars to
flow to fraudulent daycare centers, fake operations with misspelled
signs, empty buildings, no children in sight. Yet, they pocketed huge
sums from programs meant to help the vulnerable children.
A viral investigation by independent journalist Nick Shirley has
triggered Federal probes, payment freezes, and demands for
accountability. Money that was intended for children, stolen by
criminals exploiting government incompetence.
Back home in my own State of North Carolina, a fresh Federal audit
just revealed that 54 percent--more than half--of the State's
nondomiciled commercial drivers' licenses were issued illegally, often
to foreign nationals whose driver licenses were valid long after their
lawful presence in the United States had expired.
I submit to you, this isn't a clerical glitch. It is a systemic
failure that is putting the lives of Americans at risk on our highways,
wastes taxpayer resources, and, yes, threatens millions in Federal
funding.
Mr. Speaker, fraud is never victimless. It robs seniors of the
benefits they earned. It shortchanges our veterans who sacrificed for
this country. It burdens working families already struggling to get
ahead, and it saddles future generations with debts they never agreed
to carry.
In 2026, I believe House Republicans must do what Washington has
refused to do for decades: hunt down waste, fraud, and abuse, and shut
it off at its source. That means oversight with real teeth, audits that
trigger prosecutions, not just reports, and zero tolerance. Cut funding
to any agency that refuses to clean house and deal with the situation.
Only a year ago, several in my party were hyping up DOGE, the
Department
[[Page H712]]
of Government Efficiency. I must ask, where is the enthusiasm now? Why
are we not continuing to slash the waste, fraud, and abuse? We did it
with USAID, NPR, and PBS, but, listen, we can't stop there.
While we are wielding the budget ax, let's be unequivocal about what
should never receive another dime of taxpayer money--no taxpayer-funded
abortions, period. Full stop. The Federal Government must never force
Americans of faith, or any Americans for that matter, to bankroll the
destruction of innocent life. Life begins in the womb, and America must
never apologize for defending the most vulnerable among us.
There is one more pipeline that I believe must be severed: no funding
for lawless jurisdictions. Cities and States that are defying Federal
immigration law, harboring criminals instead of enforcing the law
should receive not one more cent of Federal grants. We cannot, we must
not continue rewarding sanctuary politicians who put American lives in
the crosshairs.
This past Saturday, on what would have been Laken Riley's 24th
birthday, we paused to remember a bright, compassionate nursing student
whose life was stolen far, far too soon. Laken was jogging on a college
trail, doing what young Americans do every day, full of promise, full
of faith, full of the future. She never made it home. My colleague
talked about her killer tonight: an illegal alien with ties to the
Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua who crossed our border, was released,
and then brutally ended her life.
Don't forget Laken, don't forget Rachel Morin, don't forget Joycelyn
Nungaray, don't forget the countless American victims--daughters, sons,
mothers, and fathers--who have been lost to the chaos of reckless open-
border policies that have been pushed by the radical progressive
Democrats.
These same Democrats remain unashamed. They fight harder, they fight
louder for violent criminal aliens than they ever do for the American
families that have been left shattered. They shield sanctuary cities
that harbor lawbreakers, defund enforcement, and turn their backs on
our people. However, we remember, and because we remember, we must act.
In 2026, House Republicans must keep fighting. No more Federal
dollars for sanctuary jurisdictions that defy the law, and I mean no
more excuses, no more American blood on the hands of politicians who
choose criminals over citizens. Laken's memory demands it. America's
safety requires it. We will not rest until justice is restored for
Laken, for every victim, and for every family that deserves to feel
safe in their own country.
If a city wants our taxpayers' money, it must follow Federal law. If
it chooses to act as a sanctuary for lawbreakers, let it do so on its
own dime, not ours. Cut the waste. Cut the fraud. Cut the funding to
lawlessness. That is how we will restore fiscal sanity. That is how we
will restore public safety. That is how we will restore moral clarity
to Washington, and I mean starting today.
There is a second priority: to conserve our way of life, because a
Republic only survives if its foundations are defended. The Bible says
in Psalms 11:3 that if the foundations be destroyed, what can the
righteous do?
The second mission of the House Republican majority in 2026 is clear
and nonnegotiable: We must conserve the American way of life. What good
is economic prosperity if our freedoms, the very soul of our Nation,
are eroded day by day?
Let's start with the foundation of self-government. Yes, I am talking
about our elections. Only American citizens should vote in American
elections. This is not controversial. This is common sense. The House
has already acted decisively. We passed the SAVE Act requiring
documentary proof of U.S. citizenship to register for Federal
elections.
The need for the SAVE Act couldn't be clearer. Just in my own State
of North Carolina last fall, the DMV admitted to registering an unknown
number of noncitizens, and this is just the tip of the iceberg.
Americans, I believe, demand that we have secure elections, and yet the
SAVE Act has been sitting in the Senate gathering dust. The question is
clear: When will the Senate pass it?
A nation that cannot secure its elections cannot preserve its
liberty, and election integrity is not voter suppression, it is the
bedrock of a representative government.
{time} 2050
Now, let's talk about justice. We are witnessing a dangerous trend:
rogue, unelected district judges legislating from the bench--you know
it--issuing sweeping nationwide injunctions that overrule the will of
the people, the President, and the Congress.
That is not how our Constitution works. That is why the House passed
the No Rogue Rulings Act, limiting injunction to the parties in a case,
not the entire country.
Yes, once again, it awaits Senate action. The question I raise, once
again: When will the Senate pass it? Courts interpret the law; they do
not make it. They do not govern the Nation. We must also defend the
rule of law itself. American law is grounded in one Constitution, not
foreign legal systems.
Let me say it clearly: Sharia law has no place superseding Federal or
State law in the United States of America. We must protect our Nation
from violence and ideologies that are antithetical to the Constitution.
We are one Nation, one Constitution, and one rule of law, period.
Finally, while we are talking, think about free speech, the First
Amendment right our Founders placed first for a reason. Yet, today, as
a pastor, I understand that pastors are being muzzled and churches
intimidated. The IRS has been weaponized as a tool of censorship,
threatening tax-exempt status for daring to speak Biblical truth on the
moral issues of today.
That is why I introduced the Free Speech Fairness Act, to repeal the
remnants of the Johnson amendment and restore pastors' God-given right
to preach freely from the pulpits across this land.
I am sorry, but no government bureaucrat should dictate what a pastor
can say about life, about marriage, or about liberty. No politician
should decide which moral truths are acceptable. Free speech is not a
privilege bestowed by Washington. It is a right that is endowed by our
creator.
Sadly, America has been drifting away from basic common sense, and
nowhere is this more painfully evident than in the world of sports. Our
daughters are being forced to compete against males. Our sisters are
being forced to share locker rooms and changing spaces with boys.
Today, the highest Court in our land is grappling with this very
issue. This very day, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in two
critical cases, Little v. Hecox and West Virginia v. BPJ, to decide
whether State laws that protect girls' and women's sports by basing
eligibility on biological sex at birth violate Title IX or the Equal
Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.
I submit to you tonight that the American people have already spoken
clearly. It was a January 2025 New York Times poll that found that 79
percent of Americans, including a majority of Democrats, believed
athletes who were male at birth but pretend to be female should not be
eligible to compete in women's sports.
That is exactly why the House passed the Protection of Women and
Girls in Sports Act of 2025, which restores fairness by clarifying that
Title IX protects biological females in federally funded athletic
programs. Yet, Senate Democrats blocked it last year, standing against
the overwhelming will of the American people.
When will Democrats stop rejecting common sense and start listening
to the American families they claim to represent?
In 2026, House Republicans will keep pushing these bills forward,
demanding Senate action, defending our elections, our courts, our laws,
and our voices because if we don't conserve the American way of life
right now, who will? Who will?
We will not apologize. We will not back down. We will defend it for
our children, for our faith, and for our future.
The third priority that I think is critical, and let me move quickly,
is that we codify our border wins because a nation without borders is
not a nation.
The third task before the House Republican majority is urgent and
nonnegotiable. We must codify our border wins into law.
[[Page H713]]
President Trump has delivered on his promise to secure the border.
Customs and Border Protection has achieved 7 straight months of--get
this--zero releases of apprehended illegal immigrants into the United
States from the border.
In 2025, DHS enforcement operations resulted in more than 605,000
deportations, but I submit to you tonight that executive action is not
enough. Temporary enforcement is not enough. America needs permanent
border security. We must ensure the security of our Nation is not
undone by the stroke of a pen of a future administration.
That means passing H.R. 2, the Secure the Border Act. This
legislation, as you will recall, finishes the wall, ends catch and
release, restores interior enforcement, and puts American sovereignty
back where it belongs, in American hands.
For years, we were told securing the border was impossible, and then
President Trump proved it was possible simply when the law is enforced.
Now, it is time to lock those victories into statute. No more open
borders. No more fentanyl flooding our streets. No more surrender to
cartels and traffickers. A sovereign nation controls who enters its
territory, and the House Republican majority must ensure Americans
exactly that.
The fourth and final priority: celebrate freedom. Celebrate freedom
because America's greatness flows from liberty, not government control.
In 2026, House Republicans must do what the radical left despises
most: We must celebrate and defend freedom. Yes, that starts with
healthcare, where Big Insurance and Big Government have trapped
Americans into a broken, unaffordable system they don't control.
Just last month, a bombshell GAO report exposed the truth. The
ObamaCare marketplace rubberstamped approvals for 96 percent of fake
applications. Fictitious identities, stolen Social Security numbers,
dead people, yet billions in taxpayer subsidies flowed straight to the
insurance companies. Your hard-earned dollars were wasted on fraud
while families faced skyrocketing premiums.
Democrats are fighting tooth and nail. Do you know what they are
fighting tooth and nail to do? To keep funneling subsidies to Big
Insurance giants, to let wealthy individuals continue to access
government-funded healthcare, to allow some Americans to pay zero for
coverage while the rest of us foot the bill.
Madam Speaker, I am glad to say tonight that Republicans are fighting
for you, the American people, by expanding real choices for families,
increasing competition to drive down prices, and putting patients and
doctors first, not lining the pockets of Big Insurance.
Something has to change, and we must put healthcare back in the hands
of individuals, not bureaucrats in Washington. A powerful first step?
Expand health savings accounts, HSAs.
{time} 2100
Madam Speaker, HSAs empower families to make their own decisions.
Yes, they lower costs. Yes, they increase choice. Yes, they restore
freedom to control your own care. Healthcare should serve patients, not
bureaucrats or corporate cronies.
We must confront another growing threat most Americans don't yet see,
and that is malign foreign influence, especially from Communist China.
Our colleges and universities have taken hundreds of millions--
estimates now actually exceed $426 million in recent years--from
foreign adversaries like China. They are selling access, influence, and
sensitive research to the highest bidder. This is unacceptable.
That is why the House passed the DETERRENT Act, which includes
language from my No Contracts for Foreign Adversaries Act, to force
transparency, block shady deals, and stop our institutions from taking
money from enemies who wish to harm us.
Once again, that bill is now in the Senate. The question arises once
more: When will the Senate pass it?
America's intellectual capital, the minds of our next generation,
should never be auctioned off to those who seek to undermine us.
Freedom is worth defending economically, culturally, and morally.
In 2026, our House Republican majority will keep leading the charge
to reform healthcare to empower individuals, to secure our campuses
from foreign threats, and to celebrate the American way of life without
apology. We understand that freedom isn't free. That is why we will
fight to keep it for our families, for our future, and for our Nation.
In conclusion, I want you to hear my heart because it is a call to
courage. This is our moment. As we stand on the threshold of America's
250th birthday--250 years since 56 brave signers pledged their lives,
fortunes, and sacred honor to the Declaration of Independence--we are
all called to renew the covenant our Founders made.
The House Republican majority was not sent here to manage decline. We
were elected to reverse it, to cut reckless spending, to conserve our
God-given way of life, to secure our sovereign borders, and to
celebrate and defend the freedoms they fought to secure. History will
not judge how cautious we were. It will judge how courageous we were.
As General George Washington declared to his troops, in 1776, on the
heels of the Continental Congress' decision for independence, he said:
``The fate of unborn millions will now depend, under God, on the
courage and the conduct of this Army.''
Madam Speaker, today the fate of unborn millions--our children, our
grandchildren, and generations yet to come--depends on us, on our
courage, on our conviction, and on our unwavering faith in the
exceptional Nation that our Founders envisioned.
I implore my colleagues: Let us act with conviction. Let us lead with
faith. Let us govern with courage.
America's best days are not behind us. They are still ahead. If we
are bold enough, faithful enough, and courageous enough to fight for
them, we will see it through.
Madam Speaker, in this year of America 250, let us recommit to the
principles of liberty, self-government, and moral clarity that launched
the greatest experiment in human freedom that the world has ever known.
We will not shrink. We will not surrender. We will fight. We will win
for what our Founders built and that we are called to preserve.
Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
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