Transcripts For CSPAN U.S. 20240702

Government end the extremism. Lets open up the peoples house. I yield back, mr. Speaker. Mr. Jeffries Speaker Mike Johnson and speaker emerita pelosi. Whip clark, chairman aguilar and all of my colleagues, honor and privilege to stand before you as House Democratic leader. From the very beginning of this congress, House Democrats have made clear that we will find bipartisan, Common Ground with our republican colleagues whenever and wherever possible, for the good of the American People. And House Democrats have repeatedly done just that. It was House Democrats who provided a majority of the votes necessary to avoid a catastrophic default on our debt that would have crashed the u. S. Economy and triggered a jobkilling recession and House Democrats provided majority of the votes necessary to avoid a Government Shutdown that would have hurt everyday americans. It was House Democrats who provided a majority of the votes necessary to secure 16 billion in Disaster Assistance for americans whose lives have been been devastated from extreme weather events from the beginning of this congress. House democrats have been governing for the people. We continue to look forward to finding bipartisan Common Ground whenever and wherever possible. House democrats will continue to partner with President Biden and Senate Democrats to put people over politics. House democrats will continue to fight for lower costs, better paying jobs, Safer Communities and to build an economy from the middle out and the bottom up and not the top down. House democrats will continue to push back against extremism in this chamber and throughout the country. House democrats will continue to protect Social Security medicare, medicaid, protect our children, protect our climate, protect lowincome families, protect working families, protect the middle class, protect organized crime, protect the lgbtq community, protect veterans, older americans, protect the Affordable Care act, protect the right to the right to vote, the peaceful transition of power and protect a womans right to make her own health care decisions. These are blue lines in the sand. And we will work hard to make sure that they are never crossed. We must also continue to stand by President Biden as he works to bring american hostages and israeli hostages held by hamas back home. American hostages and israeli hostages and International Hostages back home. We must also stand by our friends on the international stage. And we have no better friend in the middle east than the state of israel. Israel has a right to exist as a jewish and democratic state. The special relationship between the United States and israel is unbreakable. Our commitment to israels security is ironclad. And israel has a right to defend itself under the International Rules of war against a brutal terror unleashed on its citizens by hamas. Our ironclad commitment to israels security and the effort to defeat hamas is not inconsistent with the goal of achieving a lasting and just peace between israel and the palestinian people. In many ways it is a necessary ingredient because hamas is not good for israel, hamas is not good for america, hamas is not good for the free world, hamas is not good for the democratic aspirations of the palestinian people. We must also support ukraine and its courageous effort to defeat russian aggression. There are only two paths in front of us. We can either stand up for ukraine, or bow down to vladimir putin. That is not a difficult choice. We must stand up for Americas National security. We must stand up for democracy. We must stand up for freedom. We must stand up for truth. We must stand up for the ukrainian people until victory is won. It is my expectation that in the next week or so the senate will send over for consideration a Bipartisan National Security funding package for israel, ukraine, and our other allies throughout the free world. That also includes humanitarian assistance for Palestinian Civilians and others who may be in harms way. The house of representatives should take up this National Security package and humanitarian relief package immediately in totality, and without delay. The time for gamesmanship is over. The time for brinksmanship is over. The time for partisanship is over. Its time to get back to doing the business of the American People. Let me conclude let me conclude with an observation about the state of our democracy. Joe biden won the 2020 president ial election. Hes doing a great job under difficult circumstances. And no amount of election denialism will ever change that reality. Not now. Not ever. Throughout the president s from Ronald Reagan to barack obama, dwight eisenhower, to Lyndon Baines johnson have spoken to this chamber and urged us to put aside partisan politics for the good of the American People. President lincoln spoke to this congress on december 1, 1862, in the middle of the civil war and noted that we in this institution had the power and hold the responsibility to save the union. The stakes were high as articulated by president lincoln. We could either nobly save or meanly lose america as we know it. The last best hope on earth. This is a turbulent time in the american journey. And we have but one charge to keep during this moment of great fragility. Our union must be sustained, our union must be strengthened, our union must succeed. There are many there are many throughout this country who are understandably alarmed at the turbulence of the moment. At the chaos, the dysfunction, and the extremism that has been unleashed in this chamber from the very beginning of this congress. But this, too, shall pass. Our country has often confronted adversity and the good news is we always find a way to make it to the other side. We faced adversity in the 1860s in the middle of the civil war when the country was literally tearing itself apart. We faced adversity in october of 1929 when the stock market collapsed. Plunging us into a great depression. We faced adversity in december of 1941 when a foreign power unexpectedly struck. Plunging us into a world war with an evil empire of nazi germany. We faced adversity in the deep south in the 1950s and 1960s when the country was struggling to reconcile the inherent contradictions between jim crow segregation and the glorious promises of the constitution. We faced adversity on september 11, 2001 when the towers and the pentagon were unexpectedly struck. Killing thousands of lives in an instant. We faced adversity right here in the house of representatives when on january 6, 2021, a violent mob of insurrectionists incited by some in this chamber overran the house floor as part of an effort to halt the peaceful transfer of power. Every time we faced adversity, the good news here in america is that we always overcome. That is the power of american exceptionalism. That is why america is the land of the free and the home of the brave. That is why i remain optimistic about the future of this country. That is why america is the last best hope on earth. God bless you. God bless the house of representatives. God bless the United States of america. It is now my solemn honor and responsibility to hand over the peoples gavel here in the United States house of representatives to a family man, a hardworking man, a baptist man, a southern man, a son of a firefighters household, the gentleman the great state of louisiana and the 56th speaker of the United States house of representatives, the honorable mike johnson. The speaker thank you. Thank you. Thank you all. First a few words of gratitude. I want to thank leader jeffries. I do look forward to working with you on behalf of the American People. I know we see things from very different points of view, but i know that in your heart you love and care about this country and you want to do whats right. We are going to find Common Ground there, all right. I want to express my great thanks for our speaker emeritus, kevin mccarthy. Kevin has dedicated over two decades of his life to selfless public service, 166 those 6 those 16 of those years in this house. You would be hard press anybody who loves this institution more or contributed more to it. Hes the reason we are in this majority today. His impact could never be overstated. I want to thank him for his leadership, his friendship, and the selfless face you and judy have made for so many years. You helped build t. Kevin, and we owe you a great debt dude. I want to thank the dedicated and overworked staff of this beleaguered house. They accept praise so stowically. Stoically. Mrs. Susan, our House Reading clerk. Yes, yes. Listen, all the clerks and all the staff, they are terribly overworked. This has been a grueling process. They have served an integral role in keeping our republic. We thank them for that service. I know we all do. I want to thank my dedicated wife of almost 25 years, kelly. Shes not here. We couldnt get a flight in time. This happened suddenly. But we are going to celebrate soon. She spent the last couple of weeks on her knees in prayer to the lord. Shes a little worn out. We all are. I want to thank our children, michael and hannah and abby and jack and will. All of our children sacrifice, all of them do. We know that. And there is not a lot of perks to be in being a member of congress kid. So i want to thank all your families as well for what they endure and what they have had to endure for the last few weeks. We have been here a while. I want to thank my faithful mother, jeanie johnson, who wore me at the age of 17. My brothers chris and josh and my sister laura and their families and extended family in louisiana family is a big deal. We have a bunch of them. I especially want to thank alt Extraordinary People of the all the Extraordinary People of the great state of louisiana. We have never had a speaker of the house hail from our state. They have been lifting us up. I thank the people of louisiana for the opportunity to serve you in congress and im humble by your continuous support. We will make you proud. To my colleagues, i want to thank you for the trust you have instilled in me. To lead us in this historic and unprecedented moment that we are in. The challenge before us is great, but the time for action is now. And i will not let you down. I want to say to the American People, on behalf of all of us here, we hear you. We know the challenges you are facing. We know that there is a lot going on in our country. Domestically and abroad. We are ready to get to work again to solve those problems. We will. Our mission here is to serve you well. To restore the peoples faith in this house. In this great and essential institution. My dad, it was mentioned my dad was a firefighter. He was an assistant chief in the Fire Department of my hometown of shreveport, louisiana. Northwest. Louisiana. On september 17, 1984, when i was 12, he was critically burned and permanently disabled in the line of duty. All i ever wanted to be when i grew up was the chief of the Fire Department in shreveport. But after the explosion on that faithful day he nearly diamond notessed and it was a long road back and it changed our directory. Im the old. My dad lived with pain all the rest of his life for decades more. I lost my dad to cancer three days before i got elected to congress. Three days. And he wanted to he wanted nigh. Several weeks after that, 2017, 2017, my freshman term, and it fell to me to be in the ross thrum one night to serve as speaker pro tempore and i figured out that is what you do as a freshman late at night. Ms. Jackson lee was winding down one of her long eloquent speeches and not that i wasnt enraptured by her speech and i look at the top of the chamber and saw the face of moses staring down and i felt the weight of this place, the history that is revered here and the future we are called to forged and i was overwhelmed with emotion. It had been several weeks i had not an opportunity to grieve my dads passing and i had this sense that somehow he knew and i had tears in my eyes and standing here and wiping them away and suddenly occurs late night cspan viewers are going to think there is something wrong with the new congressman from louisiana. It wasnt your speech. I knew in that moment, my dad, my father would be proud of me and i felt that he was. And i thank all of our parents are proud what we are called to do here. All the American People at one time had great pride in this institution. But right now, thats in jeopardy and we have a challenge to rebuild and restore this trust. It is a beautiful country and beauty of america that allows a firefighter kid like me to serve in this chamber where great men and women served and strived together and preserve what lincoln did refer to as the last best hope. We are in a dangerous time, the world is in turmoil, but a Strong America is good for the entire world. We are the beacon of freedom and we must he preserve. We are only 247 years in this grand experiment and the founders told us to take good care of it. I want to tell all my colleagues what i told the republicans in that room last night, i dont believe there are any coincidencees i believe that scripture and the bible is very clear that god is the one that raised up each of you and god has allowed us to be brought here to this specific moment and time. I believe each one of us has a huge responsibility today to use the gifts that god has given us to strive the extraordinary gifts of this great country and this is the great beacon of light, hope and freedom in a world that desperately needs it. It was in 1962 and our National Motto in god we trust was adorned about us. If you look at the little guide they give tourists and constituents who come and visit the house, if you turn in there page 14, it tells the history. These words replaced above us. This motto was placed here as rebuke of the cold era war philosophy of the soviet union. That was marxism and communism which begins with the premise there is no god. This is a critical distinction that is articulated. We know the language well. The famous second paragraph, that we used to have children member rise in school and dont do it too often. G. K. Chester son said america is the only nation in the world that is founded upon a creed and listed with theological lucidity. All men are created equal, not born equal, created equal and endowed by the same enablable rights, life, liberty, pursuit of happiness. That is the creed that has and mated our nation and made us the great nation that we are and we are in a time of extraordinary crisis and the world needs us to be strong and remember our creed. Turmoil and violence have rocked middle east and europe. The country demands strong leadership of this body and we must not waver. Our nations greatest ally in the middle east is under attack. First bill that im going to bring to this floor in a little while will be in support of our dear friend israel and we are overdo overdue in getting that done. We are going to show not only israel, but the entire world that the. Ms. Barragan ism of hamas we have seen play out on our Television Screens is reach he had and wrong and we are going to stand for the good in that conflict. We have a catastrophe at our southern border. Senate and the white house can no longer ignore the problem, texas to new york, illegals are stressing. Our streets are being flooded with fentanyl in all of our communities. Children and adults are dying from it. The status quo is unacceptable. Inaction is unacceptable and must come together to address the broken border. We have to do it. The skyrocketing cost of living is unsustainable and americans shouldnt worry about how to feed their family every week because they cant afford groceries. Everyone in this room heres the stats, prices increased by 17 last two years. Credit card rates are at the highest levels and Mortgage Rates are at a peek we havent seen since 2001. We have to bring to the American People by bringing in federal spending and bringing down inflation. But the grateddest threat to our National Security is our nations debt and while we have been sitting in this room thats right the debt has crossed almost 33. 6 trillion and time to take me to deliver this speech, we will go up 20 million in debt. Unsustainable. We have to get the country back on track. This wont be an easy task and tough decisions have to be made but the consequences are unbeeivel. We have the duty to the American People to explain it to them and understand it well and establish a Bipartisan Debt Commission to begin working on this crisis immediately, immediately. We all know we live in a time of bitter partisanship. It was noted and on display here today. When our people are losing faith in government. When they are losing sight of the premises that made us the greatest nation in the history of the world, we have to be mindful of that. We are going to fight vigorously over our core premises because they are at odds in this modern era. We have to sacrifices our preferences because that is what is necessary but we will defend our core premises to the end. Thank you. And in his fair well address president reagan explained the rapport with people and i would like to paraphrase his explanation and he said they call me the great communicator and he said i wasnt that. I was communicating the great things that founded our nation. What are those, i call them the seven prements of the nation. And i have wrote down, individual freedom, rule of government, rule of law, peace through strength, free markets, fiscal responsibility and human dignity. Those are the foundations that made the extraordinary nation that we are. And you and i are the stewards of those premises. The things that have made us the freest, most powerful nation in the history of the world, the things that have made us truly exceptional. And time of great crisis, it is our duty to Work Together as previous generations of leaders have to solve these problems. I will conclude with this, the job of the speaker of the house is to serve the whole body and i will. But i made a commitment to my colleagues here that this Speakers Office is known for decentralizing the power here. My office is going to be known for members being more involved and having more influence in our processes and in all the major decisions made here for regular order. We owe that to the people. Thats right. And i want to make this commitment to you to my colleagues here and the other side, my office is known for trust, transparency and accountability, for good stewardship of the peoples treasure, honesty and integrity that is incumbent upon all of us here in the peoples house. Our system of government is not perfect. It has a lot of challenges but still the best one in the world and we have the opportunity to preserve it. Last thing im going to say is a message to the rest of the world, they have been watching this drama play out for a few weeks and learned a lot of lessons. Through adversity, it makes you stronger. Yeah. And we want our allies around the world to know this body of lawmakers is reporting again to our duty stations. Let the enemies of freedom around the world here us loud and clear, the peoples house is back in business. Thank you. Thank you. We will do our duty here. We will serve you well. We will govern well and make you proud in this institution again. We are going to fight every day to make sure that is true. I look forward to the days ahead. I believe that the best days of america are still ahead of us. God bless you and god bless the United States of america. Thank you. Thank you. Im now ready to take the oath of office and i ask the dean of the house of representatives, the honorable Harold Rogers of kentucky to please administer the oath of office. Mr. Rogers mr. Speaker designee. Congratulations on your election. Mr. Johnson thank you sir. Mr. Rogers when our Founding Fathers chose a new bold and Innovative New self rule of governing, it met by deep skepticism by the worlds monarchs. They said self rule is only a dream. And founders said, youre right. Its the american dream. Mr. Johnson amen. Mr. Rogers now its our dream. Were in charge. The speakership of the United States house of representatives is the crucial outpost for the wellbeing of the people, the keeper, if you will, of the dream. Sir, if you wish to assume this awesome responsibility please raise your right hand. Do you solemnly swear that you will support and defend the constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic, that you will bear true faith and allegiance to the same, that you take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion and that you will well and faithfully discharge of the duties on the office of which you are about to enter. Some help you god. Mr. Johnson i do, so help me god. Mr. Rogers congratulations, quarks of you think this is just a Community Center . No. Comcast is partnering with 1000 Community Centers to create wifi and double lists so students from low income families can get the tools they need to be ready for anything. Comcast support cspan along with these other television providers, giving you a front row seat to democracy. Tonight President Biden and First Lady Jill Biden host a state dinner honoring austraan prime ministeAnthony Albanese. We will ow highlights including thPrime Ministers arrival to the wte house, the guest arrival from the red carpet and the dinner tst. Watch tonight at 11 p. M. Eastern , on the free cspan now video app or online at cspan. Org. President biden and First Lady Jill Biden welcomed australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and jill hayden with a ceremony on the white lawn. The leaders greeted government officials before giving remarks on the importance of the u. S. Australian alliance. Biden australian Prime Minister anthony on the south lawn of the white house during a welcoming ceremony. Ahead of the state dinner and honor of Prime Minister two leaders highlight importance of the u. S. Australia alliance