Transcripts For CSPAN U.S. House Of Representatives U.S. House Of Representatives 20220930

The speaker pro tempore on this vote, the yeas are 230, the nays are 201. The motion is adopted. Without objection, the motion to reconsider is laid on the table. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule 20, the Unfinished Business is the vote on passage of h. R. 8987 on which the yeas and nays are ordered. The clerk will report the title of the bill. The clerk h. R. 8987, a bill to amend the justice for victims of state sponsored terrorism act to authorize appropriations for catchup payments from the United States victims of statesponsored terrorists fund. The speaker pro tempore the question is on passage of the bill. Members will record their votes by electronic device. This is a fiveminute vote. [captioning made possible by the national captioning institute, inc. , in cooperation with the United States house of representatives. Any use of the closedcaptioned coverage of the house proceedings for political or commercial purposes is expressly prohibited by the u. S. House of representatives. ] the speaker pro tempore for what purpose does the gentlewoman from texas seek recognition . As the member designated by mr. Troy nehls of the great state of texas, i inform the house that mr. Nehls will vote nay on h. R. 8987. The speaker pro tempore for what purpose does the gentleman from rhode island seek recognition . Madam speaker, as the member designated by ms. Leger fernandez of new mexico, ms. Wilson of florida, ms. Sewell of alabama, ms. Jayapal of washington state, mrs. Beatty of ohio, i inform the house that these members will vote yes on h. R. 8987. The speaker pro tempore for what purpose does the gentleman from florida seek recognition . Madam speaker, as the member designated by mr. Mast and ms. Salazar of florida, i inform the house that p mr. Mast and ms. Salazar will vote yea on h. R. 8987. The speaker pro tempore for what purpose does the gentlelady from massachusetts seek recognition . Madam speaker, as the member designated by mr. Lynch and ms. Pressley of massachusetts, i inform the house that mr. Lynch and ms. Pressley will vote yes on h. R. 8987. The speaker pro tempore for what purpose does the gentleman from South Carolina seek recognition . Go tigers. Madam speaker, as the member designated by mr. Norman of South Carolina, i inform the house that mr. Norman will vote nay on h. R. 8987. As the member designated by mr. Timmons of South Carolina, and mr. Wilson of South Carolina, i inform the house that both will vote yea on h. R. 8987. The speaker pro tempore for what purpose does the gentleman from california seek recognition . Madam speaker, as the member designated by mr. Sherman and mr. Vargas, i inform the house that these members will vote yes on h. R. 8987. The speaker pro tempore for what purpose does the gentleman from indiana seek recognition . Madam speaker, as the member designated by mr. Buchanan of florida, i inform the house that mr. Buchanan will vote yea on h. R. 8987. The speaker pro tempore for what purpose does the gentleman from california seek recognition . Madam speaker, as the member designated by ms. Eshoo, i inform the house that ms. Eshoo will vote yes on h. R. 8987. The speaker pro tempore for what purpose does the gentleman from indiana seek recognition . Madam speaker, as the member designated by mr. Rogers of alabama, i inform the house that mr. Rogers will vote yes on h. R. 8987. The speaker pro tempore for what purpose does the gentlelady from texas seek recognition . Madam speaker, as the member designated by ms. Meng and mr. Soto, i inform the house that they will vote yes on h. R. 8987. The speaker pro tempore for what purpose does the gentlelady from florida seek recognition . Thank you, madam speaker. As the member designated by mr. Donalds and dunn of florida, i inform the house that they will vote yes on h. R. 8987. The speaker pro tempore for what purpose does the gentlelady from texas seek recognition . Madam speaker, as the member designated by ms. Speier of california, i inform the house that ms. Speier will vote yes on h. R. 8987. Thank you. The speaker pro tempore for what purpose does the gentlelady from new york seek recognition . As the member designated by mr. Carlos gimenez and lee zeldin of florida and new york, i inform the house that mr. Gimenez and mr. Zeldin will vote aye on h. R. 8987. Thank you. The speaker pro tempore for what purpose does the gentlelady from pennsylvania seek recognition . Madam speaker, as the member designated by mrs. Demings of florida, i inform the house that mrs. Demings will vote yes on h. R. 8987. The speaker pro tempore for what purpose does the gentleman from texas seek recognition . As the member designated by mr. Carter of texas, mr. Gosar of arizona, i inform the house that they will vote yes on h. R. 8987. The speaker pro tempore for what purpose does the gentleman from colorado seek recognition . Madam speaker, as the member designated by ms. Porter, ms. Ocasiocortez and ms. Cherfilusmccormick, i inform the house that these three members will vote yes on h. R. 8987. The speaker pro tempore for what purpose does the gentleman from North Carolina seek recognition . Madam speaker, as the member designated by mr. Barr of kentucky, i inform the house that these members will vote aye on h. R. 8987. The speaker pro tempore for what purpose does the gentlelady from missouri seek recognition . As the member designated by mr. Bacon of nebraska, i inform the house that mr. Bacon will vote yea on h. R. 8987. The speaker pro tempore for what purpose does the gentleman from california seek recognition . Madam speaker, as the member designated by Congress Members vicente gonzalez, tim ryan, henry cuellar, and zoe lofgren, i inform the house that these members will vote yes on h. R. 8. The speaker pro tempore for what purpose does the gentleman from wisconsin seek recognition . Madam speaker, as the member designated by mr. Tom tiffany of wisconsin, pursuant to House Resolution 8, i inform the house that mr. Tiffany will vote aye on h. R. 8987. The speaker pro tempore for what purpose does the gentleman from new york seek recognition . Madam speaker, as the member designated by miss Kathleen Rice of new york, i inform the house that miss rice will vote yes on h. R. 8987. The speaker pro tempore for what purpose does the gentleman from new york seek recognition . As the member designated by mr. Jacobs of new york, i inform the house that mr. Jacobs will vote aye on h. R. 8987. The speaker pro tempore for what purpose does the gentleman from indiana seek recognition . As the member designated by mr. Carson, i inform the house that the member will vote yes on h. R. 8987. The speaker pro tempore for what purpose does the gentleman from tennessee seek recognition . Thank you, madam speaker. As the member designated by mr. Brooks of alabama, i inform the house that mr. Brooks will vote nay on h. R. 8987. Madam speaker, as the member designated by mr. Long of missouri, mr. Bilirakis of florida, mr. Desjarlais of tennessee, and mr. Crawford of arkansas, i inform the house that these members will all vote yea on h. R. 8987. Thank you. The speaker pro tempore for what purpose does the gentlelady from michigan seek recognition . As the member designated by chair johnson and mr. Larson, i inform the house that these members will vote yes on h. R. 8987. The speaker pro tempore for what purpose does the gentleman from michigan seek recognition . Madam speaker, as the member designated by mr. Bergman of michigan, i inform the house that he will vote yes on h. R. 8987. The speaker pro tempore for what purpose does the gentlelady from maine seek recognition . Madam speaker, as the member designated by ms. Brownley and mrs. Bustos, i inform the house that these members will vote yea on h. R. 8987. The speaker pro tempore for what purpose does the gentleman from pennsylvania seek recognition . Madam speaker, as the member designated by ms. Mace of South Carolina, i inform the house that ms. Mace will vote yea on h. R. 8987. The speaker pro tempore for what purpose does the gentleman from new jersey seek recognition . Madam speaker, as the member designated by ms. Ann kirkpatrick, mr. Donald payne, mr. Mike doyle, ms. Mikie sherrill and mr. Albio sires, i inform the house that these members will vote yes on h. R. 8987. The speaker pro tempore for what purpose does the gentleman from california seek recognition . Madam speaker, as the member designated by ms. Conway of california, i inform the house that ms. Conway will vote yea on h. R. 8987. The speaker pro tempore for what purpose does the gentleman from virginia seek recognition . Madam speaker, as the member designated by mr. Boyle of pennsylvania, mr. Kind, mr. Mfume, mr. Mceachin, ms. Newman and ms. Chu, i inform the house that these six members will vote yes on h. R. 8987. The speaker pro tempore for what purpose does the gentleman from california seek recognition . Madam speaker, as the member designated by Michele Steele of california, pursuant to House Resolution 8, i inform the house that she will vote yes on h. R. 8987. The speaker pro tempore for what purpose does the gentleman from texas seek recognition . Madam speaker, as the member designated by mr. Pfluger of texas, i inform the house that mr. Pfluger will vote yea on h. R. 8987. The speaker pro tempore for what purpose does the gentleman from pennsylvania seek recognition . Thank you, madam speaker. As the member designated by mr. Mahere diazbalart of florida, i inform the house that mr. Diazbalart will vote yea on h. R. 8987. Additionally, as the member designated by ms. Elice stefanik of new york, i inform the house that ms. Stefanik will vote aye on h. R. 8987. The speaker pro tempore for what purpose does the gentleman from texas seek recognition . Madam speaker, as the member designated by mr. Madison cawthorn of the state of North Carolina, i inform the house that mr. Cawthorn will vote yea on h. R. 8987. The speaker pro tempore for what purpose does the gentleman from michigan seek recognition . As the member designated by mr. Kinzinger and ms. Herrera beutler, they will vote yes. As the member designated by mr. Rice, i inform the house that mr. Rice will vote nay on h. R. 8987. The speaker pro tempore for what purpose does the gentleman from california seek recognition . As the member designated by mrs. Murphy of florida, i inform the house that mrs. Murphy will vote yes on h. R. 8987. The speaker pro tempore on this vote, the yeas are 400 and the nays are 31. The bill is passed. And without objection, the motion to reconsider is laid on the table. The speaker pro tempore for what purpose does the gentleman from arizona seek recognition . I remove myself as a cosponsor from h. R. 8814. The speaker pro tempore the gentlemans request is granted. The speaker pro tempore the chair lays before the house a communication. The clerk the honorable, the speaker, house of representatives, madam, i submit my resignation effective at the close of business today, september 30, 2022 as United States representative for the 22nd district of the state of florida. Enclosed find my copy of the letter i have submitted to the Florida Governor ron desantis. Signed sincerely, ted deutch, member of congress. The speaker pro tempore the chair lays before the house the following enrolled bill. The clerk senate 47 1, an act toll amend section 301, title 44 United Statescode to accomplish a term for the appointment of the government publishing office. The speaker pro tempore the house i will be in order. The chair will entertain requests for oneminute speeches. For what purpose does the gentlewoman from new york seek recognition . I request unanimous consent to address the house for one minute and revise and extend my remarks. The speaker pro tempore the gentlewoman is recognized. I rise in commemoration of the 150th anniversary of lenox Road Baptist Church and 150 years of Selfless Service as a home to the people of central palestinian and all those cross their threshold in fellowship of one another. The lenox road baptist was established as a christian beacon. This Sacred Community never failed to open their doors to any and all who were following the teaching of jesus christ. Those doors remain open for those of communion of saints. Under the leadership and the team, may the lenox Road Baptist Church continue to grow of magnifying gods word, uplifting the people and service to all humanity and honoring their incomparable legacy. I yield back. The speaker pro tempore the house will please be in order. For what purpose does the gentleman from michigan . I request unanimous consent to address the house for one minute and revise and extend my remarks. The speaker pro tempore without objection. The gentleman is recognized for one minute. Mr. Speaker, i rise today to honor world war ii veteran herb evilring. Herb truly embodies the best of america and greatest generation. Herb turned 100 years old earlier this year and he is one of the very few survivors of the pearl harbor attack to still be alive. From 1940 to 1945 he served in the u. S. Army National Guard and stationed in hawaii at the time of the attack, barely avoiding fire from japanese planes. Herbert would earn promotions and various medals for his bravery in the hain of duty. Herb and his late wife were married for 57 years and five children, eight grandchildren and seven greatgrandchildren. To this day, herb remains active in the jackson community. Thank you for your service to our country and legacy in the jackson community. And i yield back. The speaker pro tempore for what purpose does the gentleman from michigan seek recognition . I request unanimous consent to address the house for one minute and revise and extend my remarks. The speaker pro tempore without objection. The gentleman is recognized for one minute. I rise to recognize the bravery and initiative of the congressional workers uniono monday, my staff became the first in the 233year history of this congress to form a union with a unanimous vote. I look forward to bargaining a just contract to set strong standards for the years ahead. The c. W. Announced staff in the offices of the congresswoman omar and congressman khanna. It is a fitting time to mark a new beginning for workers here on capitol hill. If we Want Congress to have a work force that reflects americas diversity and want poor and working class people to work here, not just the children of the wealthy, and if we want to reduce turnover and increase the effectiveness and efficiency, it is hard time our staff a say. Thats the journey we are embarking on and im delighted to be part of it. Friends, there is power in a union. I yield back. The speaker pro tempore for what purpose does the gentleman from pennsylvania seek recognition . Mr. Thompson i request unanimous consent to address the house for one minute and revise and extend my remarks. The speaker pro tempore without objection. The gentleman is recognized for one minute. Mr. Thompson i rise and congratulate Lieutenant Commander Mike Deangelo after his career with the United States navy. Lieutenant commander deangelo has served our country with dedication and honor. He graduated from Morris Catholic high school and penn state university. He began a career in the navy as a linguist and rising to the rank of chief petty officer in 2001. After years of hard work, he attended the naval postgraduate school. He was deployed to afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring freedom and returned to central pennsylvania and set up roots in evansburg where he commanded the Navy Operational center. He had the unique experience of serving along side his son chief petty officer in afghanistan. They risked everything in the service of our great nation and we are grateful to the deangelo family. Best wishes to you and your family in the next chapter. I yield become. The speaker pro tempore for what purpose does the gentleman from california seek recognition . Without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. I stand today to honor the legacy of walter monk, a Ground Breaking scientist and oceanographer who advanced our knowledge of waves, ocean temperature, the earths rotation and more. Born in austria, he made his way to san diego and enlisted in the army as world war ii approached. He returned to work in the navy radio laboratory. The scope of his work was vast. He helped predict the waves troops would face in mor nan doctor in norman diin world war ii and helped predict tsunami patterns. His work led him to push for the building of the u. C. San diego campus in the 1960s. He conferred with figures like pope francis and the dalai lama to advocate for action. In his honor i proclaimed october 19, walter monk World Oceans Day in californias 52nd Congressional District. I yield back. The speaker pro tempore for what purpose does the gentleman from california seek recognition . I ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. The speaker pro tempore without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. Mr. Speaker, on sunday, friends and family will gatter to celebrate the extraordinary life of steve chase. As they do, i want to extend my deepest condolence to his wife pat and his entire family. Mr. Mccarthy the steve i knew was a transformational leader, proud of his country and devoted to his loving family and community. His impact on curran county and across america was enormous. As a champion of American Energy he saw the value of investing in the oil patch. In 1998 he organized a master. Deal to purchase the oak hills Strategic Petroleum reserve in my Congressional District in california. It was a huge gamble but it paid off. Today, the county is renowned for energy production, largely because of the hard work of our oil workers and our embrace of innovative technologies. The oak hill deal captures the essence of steves long and storied career. He was a trendsetter, not a trend follower. Others took cues, steve took smart risks. With his intellect and vision hurricanes guts and wit and his candor, steve transformed an industry and helped deliver American Global energy leadership. I also appreciate that he didnt mince words. His quips were legendary. He famously said, houston had bad weather and good people. L. A. Has good weather. By the time we met steve was already a titan in the industry. But i also saw another important side of steve. I saw his boundless generosity. Heres the truth. Steve was a relentless philanthropist. When he wasnt working he was giving back to his community. Education, medicine, and the environment. These are just a few of the many areas that benefited from steves unselfish support. His impact is profound. And the most notable part is, steve didnt care about getting the credit. He was a great leader but even a greater person. Finally, let me say a word about steves selfless patriotism. For several years, steve served his country as a canine handler in the vietnam war. He didnt talk about it much. But he was a decorated veteran. In vietnam, steve and his scout dog would find and disable land mines in front of the rest of his unit. Dog handlers like steve were so effective that they were special targets for the enemy. Only 13 of the 113 brave soldiers who trained with steve returned home. Yet because of their courage, more than 10,000 american lives were saved. Imagine for a moment that the Vietnam Memorial had another 10,000 names on it. Whether it was his visionary leadership, his philosophy, his pride in america or his deep love for pat, steve was great man. His life is an enduring example of leadership and service. A reminder of our duty to help one another. As we celebrate his life and lasting impact, lets lift up pat and the entire chasten family in our prayers and lets dedicate ourselves to continuing the lessons steve instilled in us to improve our country. I yield back. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman yields back. The chair lays before the house an enrolled bill. The clerk h. R. 6833, an act making continuing appropriations for the fiscal year 2023 and for other purposes. The speaker pro tempore for what purpose does the gentleman from ohio seek recognition . I ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute and revise and extend my remarks. The speaker pro tempore without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. Thank you, mr. Speaker. I proposed h. R. 8331 to amend the Internal Revenue code of 1986 to temporarily suspend required minimum distributions for certain Retirement Plans. Id like to briefly discuss these. These distributions are generally minimum amounts that Retirement Plan account owners Must Withdraw annually or else they pay a penalty. The amount to be distributed is calculated based on the previout balance as of december 31 of the previous year. Mr. Davidson since the market was nearly at an alltime high at the end of 2021 and has dropped more than 20 , the distributions from 2022 are disproportionately high. So while this Administration Pushes more terrible inflationary policies that hurt our market, its our retirees that are suffering the consequences most from this downturn. Ive introduced this bill to waive the required minimum distributions for 2022 much like this body did in 2020 in the cares act when the government shut down our economy. My office has received countless phone calls not just from my constituents but from american retirees all over the country demanding that congress address this issue. I hope we can get something done by the end they have year. Er yield back. The speaker pro tempore for what purpose does the gentlewoman from texas seek recognition . Without objection, the gentlewoman is recognized for one minute. Ms. Jackson lee as we begin to take our work recess and engage with constituents, families, young people, in texas, sports is sort of the heart of our state. We love our friday night football. I want us to think of a young woman who did everything right, Brittney Griner, a family, a father that was a vietnam vet, grew up in houston, texas, went to school, high school in my district, was quiet but an outstanding athlete. And athletes are holistic persons with many talents. She even did better than that, graduating from Baylor University and a twotime olympian. I guess the russians realized how important a person she is. She is now in a cage in russia. As many of our hostages are in iran and russia. Putin, i believe, thinks that this is his own special pawn, a 69 young woman in a cage. I ask my colleagues as they go home to their families to remember to tweet out, to bring Brittney Griner home and direct it to putin to stop the cruelty. Bring Brittney Griner home and paul phelan an all our hostages. I yield back. The speaker pro tempore for what purpose does the gentleman from california seek recog recognition . Unanimous consent to address the house for one minute and revise and extend. The speaker pro tempore without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. Mr. Speaker, i rise today to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the city of barstow, california. Barstow got its genesis in 1947 as a key stop on route 66 and has since grown to form and iconic part of californias diverse landscape. Its the home of the bnsf railyard, one of the most important logistic hubs in our rail system. Its also home of the Marine Corps Logistics base at barstow as well as the transit point for every piece of equipment and soldier who trains at the national armys Training Center in fort irwin where almost all of our soldiers who are deployed to afghanistan have gotten their training. As route 66 approaches its 100th birthday, i have no doubt that barstow will continue to be a key component of the mo javy de. I would like to wish the city a very happy birthday and many years prosperity in the future. I yield back. The speaker pro tempore for what purpose does the gentleman from georgia seek recognition . Address the house for one minute. The speaker pro tempore without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. Thank you, mr. Speaker. The American People have one thing on their minds and thats inflation. Lets talk about it. Inflation is caused by a rapid increase in the money supply, the kind of increase that only follows a drastic rise in government spending. Since inauguration day, biden and the democrats have passed nearly 4 trillion in new spending. For reference, thats almost all the money we brought in last year. And we had record revenues. And its all out the door before we even fund the government. But thats in the all. Through his executive orders, biden has single handedly spent another 1. 5 trillion. This reckless spending has set off an economic crisis the likes of which we have never seen they feel average American Family will spend an extra 8,000 this year to keep pace with rising prices. For most georgians thats almost two months pay. The current majority has dug us deeper and deeper into debt. Well, its time to stop digging. Republicans will put an end to this recklessness and restore fiscal sanity to the peoples house. Thank you and i yield back. The speaker pro tempore for what purpose does the gentleman from wisconsin seek recognition . Address the house for one minute. The speaker pro tempore without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. Mr. Grothman from time to time we talk about the crisis at the border but we still done talk about it enough. A lot of times we get people say, maybe theyre wonderful people, theyll get a job. Still a big problem because you have people skipping line ahead of people. But something happened the last few weeks that should have everybody mad and should wake up the Biden Administration who has done so much to permanently damage the country. And that is news venezuela may be sending people here out of their prisons. Can you imagine any way quicker to ruin america than to accept people from other countries who are emptying out their prisons . But that is apparently what is going on. And we nothing is done. We still have over 150,000 people a month crossing the border. Even now, knowing that probably were getting people who are committing crimes, heinous crimes, in venezuela and sending them here. And the communist government of venezuela, im sure, is laughing all the way. But please, america, and please, our comatose press corps, wake up and educate america that we may be ruined because we have criminals coming here from venezuela and allowed to cross the border. Thank you very much. The speaker pro tempore for what purpose does the gentleman from georgia seek recognition . I ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute and revise and extend my remarks. The speaker pro tempore without objection, the gentleman is recognize if recognized for one minute. I rise in recognition of joe higgins, chairman of the veterans of Chatham County organization, for being atoward the marn rock star award. This award this program, recognizes private citizens for their dedication to serving fort stewart and Hunter Army Airfield both in georgias first Congressional District. Mr. Carter recipients must show they have given back to the bases throw outstanding public service. Joe higgins has done just that. As a result of him winning this prestigious award, joes photo along with a description of his service will be permanently displayed at division headquarters. Throughout the years hes given back to military bases in many ways. Hes given turkeys to junior soldiers at thanksgiving. Arranged meals for over 700 families for family day, secured donations for local distributors. Hes gone above and beyond with every opportunity hes gotten. He could not be more deserving of this award. On behalf of myself and the first Congressional District of georgia, i want to say thank you, joe, for giving to our service men and women. Thank you, mr. Speaker. And i yield back. The speaker pro tempore under the speakers announced policy of january 4, 2021, mr. Schweikert is recognized. Mr. Schweikert im going to sound my best not to be frustrated and defeated. I believe there is hope and im going to show the numbers, we got to figure out some way, particularly my brothers and sisters on the left and even some on my side to understand whats going on in the math, the math will always win. I have half an hour here, so im going to throw a lot of math and a lot of the facts, but these facts functionally decide whether this country survives or not. These facts decide whether we are going to have prosperity or not and the avoidance of math around here, the avoidance of the actual math, the level of cruelty, the level of just viciousness that will make to the poor, working middle class, to anyone in this country, because the actual Economic Data that has been flowing through to today is pretty damn ugly. Lets deal with reality on the math. This board is already out of date. In the next 30 years, c. B. O. And this is from a couple of months ago, says in todays dollars, 138 trillion and reason i had to do this, the number keeps changing. 138 trillion of board money borrod money. Every dime of this money from todays 31 trillion to 138 trillion borrowed is the shortfall of medicare and shortfall on Social Security. Its demographic. And whats terrifying is this medicare number, when health care right now has doubled, doubled the inflation rate, doubled the inflation rate of the rest of the country. I represent the highest inflation, the scottsdale, phoenix area, we are sitting at 123 . And in my marketplace, we are told 20 frs is medical inflation. This number explodes. How many times have you had anyone come from behind these microphones and said im terrified what we have done to the next generation, because this is reality. This is the math. And just to be a bit on the annoyed side and this doesnt even have all the spending. President biden, unified democrat control, has been 18 months. Added 4. 8 trillion to the deficit. Do you remember the Campaign Rhetoric . They are going to balance. 4. 8 trillion to the deficit. And heres where the math gets terrifying and im just livid that no one is willing to walk behind the microphones and tell the voters the truth because we need to hand out cash so they vote with us and say, we like you for funding this, funding that. Heres going to make sense in a moment. End of 2021 we had 0 interest and heres the inflation and u. S. T bills, the september, 2022, we are now calculating and this is real interest. Bonds and tbills but when you adjust for inflation, it will continue to go up and next few years as far as we can see on the futures market, Interest Rate is two, three, four points higher than the congressional budgets mod egg he elogy. Modeling. What does that mean . When you start to realize that just a marginal change lets do the easiest one. Two points higher than what c. B. O. Had projected a few months ago and in just a decade, well over 126 of debt to g. The d. P. Remember what im saying here is with inflation and expectations and the speech i did last week that i showed you date after after data points, inflation is transtower. It was never transit other. Look at the structural inputs we saw last week. Inflation is structural. The Federal Reserve has to either bust the labor markets because this place is incapable of doing what is necessary which is incentivizing in a bigtime way, productivity. Because if you dont make more stuff i know it is supply side and it is economics and it works if we dont get more productive as a society, its an economic term. Oh, yeah, were screwed. So do understand under the current c. Immplet o. Projection, current and this is from months and months ago. In 30 on years, 50 of all tax receipts is just paying interest. Now most of this is not republican or democrats. This is demographics. We got old as a society. But this is our future. And now you are putting the crappy fiscal decision, economic decisions this place has made over the last 18 months and you start to see what the actual future looks like. And this is from the c. B. O. Numbers and this is c. B. O. Data from a year ago, that if we had just one point, a single percentage point higher, mean on u. S. Sovereign Interest Rates, 70 of all tax receipts are just paying back the interest, not paying down the principal but paying interests. What happens if where we are at right now becomes longterm . We are at two points plus on that model. If it were to last 30 years, you got to understand, this is from c. B. O. Last year, if we ran 2 higher, 2 higher on u. S. Sovereign tbills, the 10 years, 30 years, 2 higher, 100 , 100 of the tax receipts of this country go just to pay our interest. Doesnt this scare the crap out of anyone . Does anyone here own a calculator with a battery in it . Do you understand that through a whole series of things. I have a 12 week old little boy that just came to us and yes, my wife and i are going to be old parents, but hes 12 weeks, if this is our future where because we have borrowed so much money and blown up productivity and productivity for work hours is crashing, it is falling, the incentives to participate in the labor market are not working. So we say, well we have this great unemployment number, but if you look at the data, why are there so many millions of young males missing from the work force . The incentives we should be engaging in to get Older Americans to stay in the work force. What can we do to incentivize . We dont. This is our future, 100 of all tax receipts being consumed just paying back the interest, not paying down the debt or paying for government. We have become United States is functionally an Insurance Company with an army. And the rate were going, we arent going to be able to pay Social Security, medicare, v. A. , Indian Health services. And it just drives me to the edge in anger, the trite, the crazy were going to talk about anything that we think will motivate our voters and maybe get excited or give us money, but to tell them the truth of how much trouble were in. I accept, maybe the job of a member of congress is dont come behind this microphone and tell the public the truth. And i accept these are big numbers. We are talking trillions. Think of this, the shortfall in Social Security over the 65year, i know thats a long time, thats how you im the ranking republican on Social Security, the shortfall in Social Security is 202 trillion. 202 trillion. In a decade, its out of money and you take the 25 cut. We will double the number of our brothers and sisters who will be in poverty. Does anyone here care about people . But we do brilliant virtue signaling. We virtue signal out of this place but anything requiring a calculator and all of your phones have a calculator on it, we do what . And im going to show this because hopefully this make sense and there are things we could be doing. And with the amount of money the left has spent in the last 18 months because that money had actually been directed to things that actually would have made a difference, hell, they might be heading towards the majority again, theyre not, but we are going to save the country. And there would be optimism. But we pander and spend our money buying the next generation of votes. This is really, really a societal problem and we need to have an honest discussion about it. And this is terrifying because members are tear tied to say where the twitter army is going to attack you. The 2021 estimate, 37. 3 Million People up from 26 million will have diabetes. Im going to show you a slide in a moment that we may have doubled in certain areas, the number of our brothers and sisters who are obese during the covid shutdown. Why is this board important . Our estimates from a couple of years ago was that diabetes is 33 of all Health Care Spending and 31 of all medicare spending, diabetes and the associated. I represent the population with the highest diabetes population. You want to meet the misery. I will introduce you to families that are doing ok financially and grandmas feet have been cut off. So the solution in this place is, well, we will build more diabetic clinics and help people maintain their misery. And i know im going to get crap for this, body mass index approximately doubled during the shutdowns. We have been trying to dive into why the excess mortality numbers from this last year and trying to do it sneully honest and here is our covid and fentanyl deaths. Come to phoenix and see the People Living in alleys and the number of bodies they are picking every week dying on fentanyl because it is now cheap. We are the Distribution Center because the border is open. Democrats dont give a damn about the border, but understand the misery. What happens in society if we just double obesity in the country . We know what this means. We also know that diabetes in the previous model was 33 of all Health Care Spending. We know this health index, lots of folks gaining weight during the time we were locked in because that was just the brilliance of this government. How many people have we made sicker, more miserable . Maybe thats the reason those young people, maybe thats the reason those people arent in the workforce, maybe thats the reason productivity isnt working. Its a unified theory, you know, health, immigration, technology, all these things come together to make this country healthy. And the reality were in trouble. Were in just real trouble. The debt has exploded. Now, the interest on that debt has exploded. And the elements we say, well, were going to cut look, the democrat mantra is, well, rich people dont pay enough taxes. Ive shown boards after boards, you can take every dime that they have and you dont functionally cover but a fraction of the crushing debt thats come in. Republicans say, its waste and fraud. Well, turns out waste and fraud and foreign aid are just a fraction. They need to be fixed. They are all things that probably should be fixed. Theyre part of the formula. So think of the cash the left spent on some of their legislation on giving cash to the big pharma that make insulin, instead of doing something that would have been much more brilliant hey, not too many here in d. C. In virginia theres a coop that will make coop that will make eight different generic insulin, why wouldnt you pass legislation saying, well bring that online, well do the things to incentivize this working together and, by the way, this is how you bring entries into the market because the additional competition is what lowers price . But the brain trust around here, we hate big pharma. Heres a bunch of cash. Heres billions of dollars. That was the democrats solution, and it was fascinating how many groups wanted the cash much more they wanted the competition because this place is always about the money. So something ive been trying to pitch here to at least maybe it wont work. Maybe its just too utopia to get this place around. But i think we have a half a dozen americans who have been cured of type 1 diabetes. I did a whole functionally 40 minutes on the floor a couple months ago walking through the process of the stem cells to be tagged, you can make lots of this, and then putting it in the body and the iso cells starts to attach and it produces insulin. Why wouldnt you put a fortune into bringing this and seeing if it works . The operation warp speed, the democrats can call it anything they want because this is moral. This is actually loving and kind. And if you look at the previous slides, you understand we have a debt avalanche and now the interest on that debt avalanche about to crush us. We need our brothers and sisters to be healthy and able to participate in the economy and theres some fascinating things weve been working on showing that, hey, income inequality, why is this population poor over here . And we would always get from our brothers and sisters on the left, well, its racism. Its education. Well, turns out its a hell of a lot more complicated. It turns out if you start to actually dig into the data, you actually start to see health, health and the fact that crime and people break your bones and steal your stuff, but health was an incredibly large component of why some of these urban populations, my tribal populations werent participating in the economy. And it was diabetes. The comality of diabetes in these populations the commonality of diabetes in these populations. So why wouldnt this be everything . Were going to take on the farm bill and make it so we can help our brothers and sisters with type 2 get healthy. Yes, it will take time and it will be controversial and it will be difficult. But if this is the modern plague, when you saw the numbers of the growth of diabetes, why wouldnt we throw everything we have at it . Because from a math standpoint, its singularly the most important thing you and i can do for u. S. Sovereign debt. Think about it. Its crazy. But if 31 of all medicare spending is diabetes, and that number is about to grow substantially because of what weve done in the last couple of years, and medicare is 75 of all the future debt, tada, the math doesnt take a brain surgeon. So lets actually start to walk through more of the things that are actually optimistic and hopeful and maybe when republicans are in the majority here well actually have the confidence to try to do hard, complicated things that actually make peoples lives better. So i just pull this up as just a thought experiment except for the fact the product actually exists today. Its functionally a home buy opsy. You can get this biopsy. You can get this, have it on your shelf at home. It actually will be functionally a laboratory where you can put some saliva, other body fluids, and it calculates, talks to the phone, talks to the algorithm and gives you a diagnosis and it would crash help crash parts of the health care. Now, this technology is substantially illegal if you allow the algorithm to write a script in this country. And we also know Health Care Costs are the things that are about to crush us, you would think this place will be contemplating what can we do in the Technology Disruption . Except when the brain trust here somehow thinks, well, the a. C. A. , obamacare. No, that was a financing bill. You got to understand and the republican alternative was one and medicare for all, theyre financing bills. Who gets to pay, who gets to who subsidized. Medicare for all is everyone is subsidized. Those are financing bills. They have nothing to do with what with what we pay. This is one of the ways you disrupt the cost of health care. But i believe this place is terrified because you just took, what, hospitals are the largest lobbyists in washington, d. C. They should love and embrace these types of Technology Disruption. Were just afraid to have that conversation with them. Other things and this is actually one of my pieces of legislation. Just a simple idea. What is inflation . Lets first go back to our High School Economics class. Inflation is too many dollars chasing too few goods and services. Ok. We can make more stuff and thats part of my argument is get the tax code, get the regulatory codes, things we did in the 2017 tax reform with expensing where we had that productivity spike because investments in things that made the society more productive, meaning, you can pay people more. The other side is also, too many dollars, how do i get my brothers and sisters to say, dont take that cash thats sitting in your Checking Account and go buy another big screen television, what if this place would make an incentive, take the cash and put it in your retirement account . Believe it or not, it accomplishes much of the same thing. We have some nice writeups on the piece of legislation congre congressman donalds and i are doing. Instead of spending in the marketplace, put it in retirement security. But instead, Congress Seems absolutely content on letting the Federal Reserve blow up the economy. You already see whats happening around the world. When the United States has inflation and we start to raise our Interest Rates and money comes screaming in from the world and the u. S. Dollar spikes up and the other currencies in the world collapse and, yet, they need to buy fuel and food in u. S. Dollars, understand the decisions the democrats here made two years ago little less than two years ago to push out almost 2 trillion in excess spending that set the match on the inflation kindling, you just blew up much of the world. This Time Next Year there will be countries around the world that cant make their debt payments. You think well hear anyone on the left actually combine the come to the microphone and say, we screwed up . We didnt show up. I have 13 inflation in the phoenixscottsdale area. If you work and you havent had a pay raise, you lost a month and a half of your wages. A month and a half of your wages. If that isnt, a, the biggest modern tax hike i tried to explain this next week who the winners and losers are in inflation. Well, society, people that save money, that young couple thats trying to save to get their family going, the retired couple, you are crushed. Whos the biggest debtor in the world . This place. We have 31 trillion of borrowed money. And guess what, we now get to pay back that 31 trillion or at least the interest on it with deflated dollars, with cheaper dollars because we lowered your economics but we made it cheaper for us to do thats one of the reasons why theres this sort of whisper here in washington, particularly in the treasurytype folks that say, inflations horrible. But at least in the short term, democrats are almost giddy, hey, by the end of the year, the debt to g. D. P. In real dollars will actually close and its not because they did anything to grow the economy. Its because the dollar value has crashed because of inflation. You know, the value of the debt, because youre paying it back with deflated dollars, that debt to g. D. P. In real dollar terms will close. Now, the punch line is a year or so from now when we had to sell the new bonds at the higher Interest Rates and higher Interest Rates and the higher Interest Rates, it moves against us. And thats like those slides i told you where we had longterm Interest Rates, 2 over c. B. O. Model, its 100 . 100 of all tax receipts go to pay just in interest. This is where were heading. Shouldnt this be the number one conversation in this place, the survival of the country, the survival of my new little boy . But it doesnt give a damn because its math and our voters lets face it, our voters want the shiny object because its our fault because were terrified to have a conversation with our voters saying, if we dont do these things, we cant save medicare, we cant save Social Security. That becomes the attack ad. And we do it to each other. I believe democrats are much more duplicitous in it. But math is scary. It doesnt need to be. There is hope. And look, i just bring this one up because this was in a recent article talking about some of the productivity effects, the g. D. P. Growth effects, when we got parts of the tax code right. And we didnt get everything we should have. But i need you if you want a real living example, look at the Fourth Quarter of 2017. Because remember Fourth Quarter of 2017 got the benefit of expensing even though the tax reform didnt finish until the end of 2017. But we did that retrospective. And then look at 2018. Look at 2019. The shrinkage of income inequality. The poor got much less poor. The working middle class had some of the most couple of their most prosperous years in modern history. Africanamerican females had this amazing growth in wages and job opportunities. But its a demonstration i know its it wasnt tax reform. It was tax reform, the revenue that came in, the number of times our friends on the other side said, were going into a depression. I am waiting for an apology. We took in more money. Corporate receipts went up. Thank god we had actually that robust of an economy, that robust of a tax system when the pandemic hit. Could you imagine if we didnt, how miserable we would have been . The last thing. Just and this is not meant to be a nonsecretary which tore. Its nonsequitor. Its to be a closing on the misery. Im a border state. I know most of the democrat votes arent anywhere near the border states so you dont give a damn about us. But im dead serious. I have some of i have an amaziny district. You had and come drive with me and see the misery that is living in the alleys behind these houses. Fentanyl has crashed. I have a Phoenix Police sergeant who is my neighbor and telling me, 120 to get high today and today its like 12 and im finding a new form of synthetic opioid crossing our border. It is 10 times more potent than fentanyl. Ok, maybe you dont give a damn about people in the southwest or the little 14yearold girl just down the way from my taking one pill. But when this stuff gets left on a countertop somewhere at your favorite wine bar and everyone in the the room is dead, will the left take serious the misery that their open border policies have brought to us . My pitch is really simple, the economics are all screwed up. The democrats set off inflation. That piled on the debt, piled on our demographics and health care. We are in real trouble as a nation. If we would embrace the disruptions of technology and incentives for productivity, we can at least bend the curve. Debt to g. P. G. D. P. Can be survivable. And this place is having no conversations that are actually serious, honest and important. And i dont know how this became republican versus democrat. We are talking about the survival of our republic. With that, mr. Speaker pro tempore, i yield back. The speaker pro tempore under the speakers announced policy of january 4, 202 1rbgs the chair recognizes the gentleman from texas as the remainder of the hour as the designee of the minority leader. The gentleman has approximately 28 minutes. Mr. Gohmert we had a bill we took up, last the day before we are out for october. And it was strange because this bill got rushed to the floor i cant find anybody on our side of the aisle that had any idea this was coming until yesterday afternoon and its interesting, though, it is entitled fairness for 9 11 families act and makes 2. 982, right at 3 billion available for 9 11 families. Theres been a lieutenant of money provided in the past, but its interesting because just last week, i was talking about this article from september 12 dana greenfield, about what the Biden Administration was doing in battling against 9 11 victims families in court, because there were 7 billion of afghanistan assets, bank funds, liquid money, funds in the bank in america that were frozen after 9 11 when we found out who was responsible. And the 9 11 victims families have sued and they had gotten a judgment against the taliban, al qaeda and iran for 6 billion. As this article points out, white House Democrats have a history of fighting against terror victims who are suing islamic terrorists. The Obama Administration suing the p. L. O. In 2015 after they won 218 million judgment against the terror group. Blinken, then assistant secretary of state, intervened and said it threatened several decades of u. S. Foreign policy, unquote. Took up for the terrorists against the victim families. The article points out that now the Biden Administration fighting 9 11 victims on behalf of the taliban until the United States. So further down, it points out, since afghanistan has assets in this country, United States, including 7 billion in bank funds, its now entirely possible for the victims to collect that money. Biden announced he is splitting the 7 billion between the families of the victims and trust fund, to provide quote humanitarian aid to families of afghanistan. For those who dont understand international relations, when the Biden Administration says it is for humanitarian aid, that means they have to give the money to the taliban and trust that the people who have lied and killed americans and killed 13 americans on the very day that the Biden Administration had that ridiculous hasty retreat, you are going to trust them . Are you kidding me . Its just so outrageous. The article points out that 3. 5 billion was placed in a separate trust that would be separate and distinct from around 800 million the Biden Administration has already spent in afghanistan. This administration was left 80 billion worth of military equipment that they could use to attack us later they have been sending millions of dollars over there. Like its really going to go to help the people . The article points out what biden did was take money off the table for the 9 11 victims and it got worse. On the same day as bidens executive order reserving 3. 5 billion for the terrorists, his Justice Department filed a statement of justice in court arguing that the judgment for the victims of terrorism here in the United States was too large and actually turning over the money to those victims in america would interfere with the Biden Administrations Foreign Policy in afghanistan. Like we have a Foreign Policy in afghanistan . Who believes that . This administration ran so fast it exposed our military, our people, our allies to death. Policy in afghanistan, for heavens sake. Article points out, now a magistrate judge has repeated much of the department of justices arguments and ruled for the Biden Administration that the 9 11 families who laid a claim to the other half of the 7 billion, were not entitled to it. If it werent for the Biden Administration going to court and fighting against the 9 11 victims families, there would have been 3. 5 billion dollars this isnt speculation, this is money in the bank, this is liquidity. This is money thats there, and the Biden Administration has been fighting them in court to keep them from getting that 3. 5 billion, with a b that the Biden Administration wants to give to the taliban for quote, humanitarian aid unfought. They are more likely to torture and kill as they have done with anybody that was our ally than provide true humanitarian aid. To them, humanitarian aid is treating women like property, preventing them from having education, which was improving and killing those with whom they disagree. Its just tragic. So and oh, if there is any doubt about who would get the money, the Deputy Governor of the bank that this will go through is the taliban leader, who we have listed specifically as a global terrorist. And that is who the Biden Administration wants to help. So it shouldnt have been a surprise and i have talked about this on the house floor last week that the Biden Administration was fighting our own 9 11 victims, trying to keep them from getting reimbursement from the terrorists. So what happens . The last thing, here we come, running in here, oh, oh, oh, we dont want the 9 11 families too mad at us, lets take 3 billion that american taxpayers have paid and give that to the 9 11 victims instead of the 3. 5 billion that belongs to the taliban, were told, by this administration. Well, i think most americans, if they knew that this had gone on would say, this is crazy. You actually want to give the people responsible for killing 3,000 americans 3. 5 billion so that you can take taxpayer money from americans and give that for the damages that the terrorists did . That makes no sense. But it does explain why the last bill for the next month and a half was 3 billion of taxpayers money that the Biden Administration wants to use instead of the 3. 5 billion that they say they need to send to the terrorists, the taliban in afghanistan. Was that enough that our Biden Administration desserted our allies in afghanistan and left them to be massacred by the evil within the taliban. And now they want to give the terrorists even more money . At least you would have thought that somebody in this administration would have said, you know what, we left them 85 billion of military equipment, i think they can get 3 billion out of that and pay that would pay the victims of 9 11. But this administration, 85 billion of equipment they left with them has added 800 million of american taxpayer dollars sent over there to the taliban for humanitarian aid. Yeah, right. And now they want to give 3 billion more of taxpayer money instead of terrorist money, give that to 9 11 victims. So i think there were 30 or so republicans that voted against this. And anybody who tries to say they dont care about 9 11 victims is a liar, because they do and thats why we have appropriated billions of dollars for them. But in this case today, if everyone on this floor i cant help but think if everybody on both sides of the aisle i know some would have known, but if they would have known there was 3. 5 billion in money in our banks that we could give to the 9 11 victims, they would say that is a better idea than taking it from american taxpayers. That is outrageous. Now shifting to whats going on in our department of justice. We have been seeing these we have been seeing these tactics thats been coming for years and people know there was corruption within j. Edgar hoovers f. B. I. People should have gone to prison from within the d. O. J. For what they did to dr. Martin luther king jr. To the point not only did they harass him, spy on him illegally, but even send him messages that he needed to kill himself. I mean, we know its been bad in the past, but most of us felt like there have been Great Strides forward to the point in the 1980s and 1990s if you ask people around the world, the f. B. I. Is probably the greatest Law Enforcement entity in the world. Thats not the case anymore. And some of the first people that will tell you that are people that are working for the f. B. I. , but they have to be very careful. But ive heard from f. B. I. Agents, former f. B. I. Agents, people that have been around a while, one of them said, you remember the way it used to be. The f. B. I. Was a class organization. And we knew if there was a defendant who was nonviolent that and i remember this happening before i went on the bench as a judge and then during my years on the bench as a district judge. I knew of cases the f. B. I. Knew they were nonviolent, whitecollar crime even though they were very, very serious felonies, theyd call the guys lawyer and say you need to show up at the jail this time. Youve been indicted or will be indicted. And they knew they would show up because otherwise, you know, they might come knock down the door. But that was not what they did. That was not their practice. They believed in civility and humanity. So ive been thinking about the intimidation tactics that have been used by the f. B. I. Theres no other reason but intimidation. And i think Merrick Garland through Christopher Wray, theyve done a good job, many are afraid to speak up about the improprieties that are going on within the f. B. I. And the d. O. J. Even to the point that the head of the department of justice, the attorney general himself, who was am nop nated for the Supreme Court who was nominated for the Supreme Court, thank you, god, that hes not there. But hes at a place he can do a lot of damage to peoples rights, and he has. But he issued an order that d. O. J. , f. B. I. , they were not to speak to a member of congress or the Senate Without going through the f. B. I. And ive heard from people that have complained about whats going on in d. O. J. And the f. B. I. And theyd talk about how Christopher Wray has talked repeatedly, using this line, protect the brand, protect the brand. And from the things that he would say, they tell me he made it clear, were not asking you to be honest and truthful. Were asking you when you find something that is criminal, wrongdoing within the f. B. I. , dont tell anybody. Just pass it up the chain of command. Lets keep it inhouse, because if people find out about corruption within the f. B. I. , d. O. J. , then it hurts our brand. Christopher wray and Merrick Garland apparently dont understand the damage that they have done to the brand of the f. B. I. And the d. O. J. And for the attorney general, knowing the constitution and knowing this bodys right of oversight and knowing that everybody inside and outside the department of justice has a constitutional right to talk to their member of Congress Without going through Merrick Garlands screeners and, yet, he orders that they dont have the Constitutional Rights theyve got because he thinks his orders take precedence over the u. S. Constitution. And why wouldnt he think that . Because they have been giving orders that takes precedence over the constitution. Ive been thinking, theres so much in the way intimidation tactics being utilized by the f. B. I. And d. O. J. Thats exactly what the tactics were of a group that people understood they were all about intimidation. And we hear comparisons people say, oh, donald trump is like hitler. Really . He wants more participation. He wants to have more rights back at the states. He wants to spread out the power of the government. And that the left thinks is like hitler . No, thats not. But when you have a Law Enforcement, a socalled Justice Department that is using the exact same tactics as the gestapo, then you need to understand your republic, democratic republic, as is often referred to because we elect represe representatives but then have representatives represent, servants of the people. So its a republic democratically elected but its in jeopardy, and ours is. When the d. O. J. Gets this powerful. Now, there were some that were extremely upset about what happened on 9 11, like all americans were, but they were concerned about what they saw as infringements on liberty within a month after 9 11. And they have been talking about those for years now. But it has really come into focus in recent days as the f. B. I. Has knocked down doors, leaked information to media so that theyre there to film people when they drag them out in their underwear. In cases not giving them a chance to put on clothes. Contrast that to the same treatment they would have gotten back in the 1980s or 1990s of telling them they need to report to the jail a certain day, certain time. So i dont use the term gestapo lightly. And having felt this why is our Justice Department feeling like they got to be like the gestapo . I greatly admired the f. B. I. When i saw the way they worked in the 1980s and 1990s. So professional. And then along came mueller in 2001 as the new director of the f. B. I. And he started a policy that allowed the f. B. I. To run off thousands and thousands and thousands of years of experience because he wanted nothing but young yes people working at the f. B. I. And so over the years, those people that would have said, excuse me, i know you think thats a good idea, but let me tell you what happened when we tried that before or let me tell you where thats going and why its not a gooded why, they didnt want those people in. Not a good idea, they didnt want those people in. If they wanted to go after a candidate like donald trump, they wanted people around them that said, ok, heres how we can do this. We can do this secretly and we can do this and that. Violates the constitution. We dont care. We need an insurance policy to keep trump getting elected. If he gets elected, well violate more rights and have people working for the Justice Department that will lie in an affidavit. Im telling you, thats why, when i saw the lack of experience or appropriate response lack of response or appropriate response from the fisa court when they found out that f. B. I. , the d. O. J. Lied to them and then kept filing for a warrant every 90 days basing it back on a lie, those fisa judges should have been outraged. The chief justice across the street of our Supreme Court should have been outraged. And they werent. They really didnt do anything. The state district judges, i know, and the former federal judges, Federal District judges i practiced in front of trying cases, i couldnt imagine them not calling a lawyer in and finding them in contempt because it was done in their presence and sending them to jail for six months before any criminal prosecution even took place and then demanding that there be criminal prosecution. That didnt happen. So it tells you something about the fisa courts. We learned, i believe it was 2007, that the National Security letters that give the f. B. I. The ability to just send a letter, like a warrant, saying produce all the records you have on this individual, that individual, and by the way, its a federal felony if you tell anybody that you got this letter, and the i. G. Did an inspection and ultimately said, nah, there are probably 3,000 or so National Security letters that were sent out by the f. B. I. When there was no case. There was no probable cause. They were just doing phishing expeditions. Thats unconstitutional. We would have hoped that got cleaned up, but we had an f. B. I. Director named mueller that kept adding to the problems. And instead of punishing the f. B. I. Agent that fabricated a case against ted stevens, the republican senator, the one that brought forward the fraud by the f. B. I. , he gets run out of the f. B. I. And the one that was involved in the fraud got promotion, got a better job. So that tells you, even back not long after mueller took over at the f. B. I. , he was involved in intimidation, and, really, i felt it ever since. We know with jefferson was a criminal that William Jefferson was a criminal, committed a crime and punished as he should have been, but when the f. B. I. , under mueller and he said, this is intimidation to congress. You better not counter me or have legitimate oversight over what im doing or i may just come search your office. Well, they did. Never been done before that. But it was all about members of congress concerned about what was happening at the f. B. I. Abuses of our constitution. So he shoves it right back in our face. Its intimidation. These are gestapotype tactics. And there was an article that was written in the eurasia review back in september 1 of this year and it expresses the concern that i have. Its entitled the f. B. I. s gestapo tactics hallmarks of an authoritarian regime. And it talks about with every passing the day the United States government borrows yet another leaf from the nazi germany playbook. Secret police, secret courts we have fisa. And im fine if we get rid of them. We have National Secrets that were kept before fisa. But the abuses and lack of concern about the abuses by the judges tell me we need to get rid of them. It says, secret Government Agencies surveillance, censorship, torture, brutality, widespread corruption and look, if that powers there and republicans take over and put staunch conservatives in there, you know, we still would need very, very stringent oversight so that nobody did that to the democrats. Because when it happens to one side, it should concern everybody. I got really upset when i found out about the abuses of the National Security letter, and that was under the bush administration, and i was calling it out. I was angry about it. And im not hearing any democrats concerned about the abuses of the constitution that have gone on, the intimidation that borrowing pages directly from the gestapo. This is how this is very serious and i wont have time to go into all of this but its a good article, but it goes and documents what the gestapo did and what the f. B. I. Is doing and its scary. And i hope if democrats are not willing to address this issue now, then surely they will be when we have a Republican Administration because the abuse needs to stop. And with that, i yield back. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman yields back the balance of his time under the speakers announced policy of january 4, 2021, the gentlewoman from texas, ms. Jackson lee, is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader. Ms. Jackson lee i thank the speaker. And i thank the speaker for his yielding. And i thank my colleagues for giving me the opportunity to be able to speak this afternoon from the heart. Democrats have done great things. We certainly appreciated the members of the other side of the aisle who have joined us on some of those, those things include passing very effective chips bill, that i hope to bring thousands of jobs to my Congressional District through the production and manufacturing using Precious Metals in particular coming from the democratic republic of the congo. We now have families who suffer from diabetes who shockingly for the first time in their lives capped at 35. Im glad to be part of it. Medicaid recipients can have their insulin capped. Im glad working families through the Biden Administration get cheaper health care. And im glad that the flooding that is so intensive in places like houston can, in fact, now have the bipartisan infrastructure bill in isolated communities without transportation and transit, can, in fact, now have the potential of billions of dollars coming to those rural and urban centers, inner city centers that need an infrastructure rebuild. We need clean water in flint and jackson. Misshouldnt be the form and we have done great things. And as we go to work in our districts and listen to our constituents even more than we do when we have over the weebdz when we go home, we hold in our hands the destiny of democracy when we fight for reelection for the purpose of ensuring the value of this nation as i look in god we trust. We have done great things. The families of america should know that this leadership under nancy pelosi and steny hoyer and jim clyburn and the chair, mr. Jeffries and the vice chair of the democratic caucus, we should all know that there have been good things that are done. So when i go home, i have no hesitancy to be able to go and to champion the lives we have saved. The veterans who will get answers to their questions and health conditions. The people who suffered under the burn pit. They celebrated because of this Democratic Congress with our friends who wanted to do what is right, we have given hope to those burn pit victims. They cant blight and we have finally given relief. This body has determined that the electoral count should be accurate and electors giving false representation that they represent the states. Vice president cant do anything other than ministerial. If electors are elected to cast their vote for you which is a figment of our past, but lets make it perfect, you can trust that the electors will do right in 2020 and provided the final vote under the vice presidency of mr. Pence that elected joe biden and kamala harris. We pray to god we will never see january 6 again, never again, never the violence, brutality of our police officers, the death that occurred, the innocent lives lost. We hope never again. We have done some good things. There is such a lit annie of them. I am delighted to have passed the stop Human Trafficking school zones, legislation that i authored, that we have fixed the terry fix to ensure justice for those who were not able to come appropriately under the reduction of sentencing dealing with crack and cocaine. Im glad to have been able to push the violence against victims of crime act to ensure better handling of victims of crime. At the same time mr. Speaker, the house is not in order and off the floor, but it is certainly pretty loud i believe that it is important to assure that the American People know that we are, in fact, working hard for them. And so the many amendments to help hcbus that i offered, the many important elements of the appropriation including more dollars for post Traumatic Stress under the ndaa and helping those who are suffering from triple negative breast cancer, and working to ensure that the lives of our children are better by helping to create resources for safer schools, work still unfinished to get our storage laws in place, to ban assault weapons. But we have done a great thing in passing legislation to break the cycle of violence. Led by mr. Horsford. And to utilize the tools that have been given through this congress to make lives better for all americans. We have done some good things. As we have done some good things, theres more work to be done. I want to make sure that we see the passage of the Voting Rights so oppression of voting. Im so sorry the noes came from the other side of the aisle. And i want to thank my colleagues, 217 plus who have in fact supported the idea of a commission to study slavery and to look seriously and thoroughly at the proposals. I know we will Work Together going forward. It is the heart of america to cure racism and heal and bring people together. I have confidence. I feel well about our opportunity. I want to thank the speaker thats in the chair to join me in the crisis of reproductive freedom being taken away to support medical personnel who right now under the laws of the dobbs case in america are arrested, could be, nurses, Nurse Practitioners and doctors who are simply trying to help a desperate woman or a child that been raped. Protecting the medical personnel of america bill and the legislation that i introduced to stop the stalkers who would get a bounty on women by watching they do and calling up and saying she is over at this address and receiving 10,000, can you believe it. The law of the land in the state of texas. We have done some good things and we are doing good things. But if this special order is about one issue or item, this is what i want it to be about, i want it to be about something that our psyche is not used to. I dont know how many times we thought of the tens upon tens of americans that are held hostage around the world. We learned a little bit about m. I. A. , people and soldiers missing in action mainly through the vietnam war. I know there were missing in action in world war ii, but in this recent generation we learned about the heroic john mccain would remind us of the m. I. A. s. I put a flag out in front of the city hall in houston, texas, when i was a member of the city council, the first m. I. A. Flag, maybe in City Councils across america. I came here to the United States congress and outside my door is the flag of m. I. A. s. We understand that. But do we understand about americans who been plucked off the streets that are december potic and join the thousands of their own citizens thrown in jail with no real justice system. So if i come to you together, i want the title of this special order to focus us on where we need to go. And when i mention Brittney Griner, im thinking of paul wheel. D. M. Anand the journalists in iran and hostages, u. S. Citizens. Does anybody know we work hard on this, the administration works hard on this. I asked for more resources for the hostage finding team ill just call them that. I want to show you Brittney Griners life. Went to the schools, Public Schools in the area and high school in my Congressional District, i met some of her classmates and the students there want to do something to show their care and outrage about where she is today. Brittney griner, no, she was not in the United States military. I honor them, but she wore the uniform. He is an owe limb pi. D. M. Anand brought olympian, brought home a gold medal at the u. S. A. Number 42 and number 15, and number 1. In the blocks. Olympics. That is Brittney Griner, a good dunk maybe with her teammates. Brittney griner, an olympian, wearing that goodlooking gold medal. We like that because everybody watches the olympics. What an unbelievable basketball player. Thats a shock. I could almost dream about that shot. Brittney griner, an american, africanamerican young woman. I know the baylorites love the championships and her playing for them. Baylor university. Thats Brittney Griner. Had a life in front of her. Because of the very poor compensation of sorts of sorts compared to the nba, many women wnba players go off to Foreign Countries to play. She got drafted by phoenix and played stupendously. So many World Records in basketball as a professional. Big heart. Brittney griner. Teammates loved her. I visited the phoenix arena where her team plays. And of course, Brittney Griners locker was there waiting for her to come back. This looks like an exciting time. Some goodlooking pictures of our fellow american. Paul, a marine, had some good days serving his country. Its just an innocent civilian who the infractions of what shes charged with wound up suggesting and threatening and charging her as a drug trafficker, a bigtime drug trafficker. No sense but nonsense. Could have been released and directed back to the United States. But no, this is what mr. Putin wanted to do. He felt that after the olympics of 2022, the winter olympics, where his teams were embarrassed because of drugs, that he would show the United States, here she is. They put you in a cage. 69 in a cage. The beauty of her size was to recognize such a talented person playing a sport, doing well, giving joy to the fans and getting americans to cheer on during the olympics. 69. This is what they want to show americans. We got you now. In your eye. A young woman who long to be home who longs to be home, deserves to be home with other hostages who have been brutally treated. President biden has indicated as commander in chief that he wants all of the hostages home and that he is ready to speak to mr. Putin if hed only have a heart. If hed only recognize that there is no justice in his injustice. 99 of those who go to trial in russia are convicted. Are in fact held hostage. This is a direct result of putins interests in saying to the United States, i guess, we got you. Not respecting she has family, not respecting that she has done nothing wrong. Britney is an extension of us in houston. She represents the quintessential american stories and qualities. She is suffering after going through a trial, process of appeal, doing everything, offering doctor statements as to why certain items were with her, indicating a mistake, doing everything told by her lawyers. Nothing. The denial of basic rights of Brittney Griner offends all americans because they are the rights which we believe all are entitled. A trial by a jury of your peers and the right to be proven innocent. We do not accept the dehumanization thats commonplace in russia. And we seek justice for britneys Immediate Release and return to her family and friends. She cant speak for herself. She spoke eloquently by saying, im sorry. It was a mistake. It seemed to have fallen on deaf ears. Can it be nothing more than an attempt to humiliate her, her family, loved ones who cry out for the potential of what may happen . She cried out to the president of the United States, i fear that i may be here for the rest of my life. A young woman who gives away shoes and items to children without. Her basic rights, her basic rights. So we as americans cannot just go quietly. We got a lot on our plate. But the only lifeline they have is the United States of america. As a mother who watched my children grow up proud to see them excel, i can only imagine the gutwrenching pain of her mother and father and her wife, how hopeless they feel. Theres no worse feeling than when someone in your family is in imminent danger and they are beyond your reach to help. As a black woman, i can say theres no greater fear through the history of our time through slavery, through discrimination, through unequal treatment that we face in the justice system. Even here. To think that theres nothing we can grab at to be able to give the defense, the explanation. But i just want americans to think of the pain of losing their children to something that is so foreign to us. Theyre alive but theyre held hostage. Theres much pain in this country. Ive seen it through gun violence. And so i dont speak to the pain of those mothers and fathers. What i speak to is that we need to do something about it. Ive gone to the russian consulate in houston. Ive gone to the russian embassey. I embassy. I looked the ambassador in the eyes, huge complex, i said, send this message to mr. Putin. Let Brittney Griner go. Let paul whalen go. And let the russian people who are fighting this vial, vicious war against ukraine, let them go, too. But i cant leave silently to go back to houston without coming to this floor and saying, since february, about two weeks after the olympics, she has been held. Shes not a soldier. She had nothing to do with any government activities. And the only reason i say that is because her training does not lend herself in these dastardly conditions. A cage. Inhumane cage. Ultimately to go to a labor camp. Where trevor reed suffered. Paul whalen suffered. She had been denied access to counselor officials and she was dependent upon russian lawyers who mean well but simply go into the court and watch their client be convicted. As they faked the elections just the last couple of days, Brittney Griner is suffering from putins demonstration of power and control that stems from centuries of bigotry and hatred and embodied in an autocratic leader who is a very who is the very an thit cisof everything that ms. Griner represents. If you want to know why shes incarcerated and not released, its because of the country of her origin. Nothing she cant help. Americans blessed under this flag cannot help the values upon which we stand. We cannot help our pledge of allegiance of the United States of america. We cannot help our national anthem. It calls for victory. The starspangled banner. We cannot help that we are called by nations to defend them. Becannot help that we have the we cannot help that we have the freedom to travel and that we welcome people to this country, russian students, russian players. Even on the space station. Thats america. But now we find the dastardly acts of stealing land, calling it election, fighting people who want to be free, ukrainians, and in the midst of this turmoil a young woman graduating in my district from themities from nimitz high school, a bella university graduate, twotime olympian and, of course, all her friends in phoenix and just a basic human being. Now, i hope i made it clear. There are two teams in phoenix. Shes with the phoenix mercury. The wnba team. I couldnt leave this day without reminding america that if in god we trust give some hope to these people, lonely, all over the world, shocked that they were snatched off the streets or snatched from an airport, gave every explanation, created no outrageous, vial, terr terroristic act, did nothing with guns, drugs of any amount, was no detriment to anybody in that land, and here they are. So my colleagues, congressman stanton and allred, supported h. Res. 1132, led by congressman stanton out of phoenix, calling for the Immediate Release of Brittney Griner. And i will submit this into the record. And i i ask unanimous consent. The speaker pro tempore without objection. Ms. Jackson lee ask unanimous consent for this press statement, i ask unanimous consent. The speaker pro tempore without objection. Ms. Jackson lee an article written most recently about Brittney Griners conditions that she is facing and what she thinks is going to happen to her life, i ask unanimous consent. The speaker pro tempore without objection. Ms. Jackson lee and so mr. Speaker, let me express my appreciation to my colleagues. I hope they see the pain that her family is feeling. None of us can stand in their shoes. Because none of us can stand in their shoes, we have to plead for Vladimir Putin to let our important and Crucial Leaders listen to this plea. Listen to our anguish. Listen and see this picture. Versus the ones that ive shown. This picture. , just look at them. Olympian to a cage. The olympian, to a cage. Im going to do everything i can, ive asked the embassy, and i dont know what kind of shame theyre experiencing, not giving americans visas for us to go to our embassy in moscow. What are they thinking . They can live in the world like this . Locking people up . So they can play got you and be inhumane and stick it in the eye of the American People . Well, i will tell you, as i stand here today, let me take this fist, this fist, to make the promise that all of our hostages should be free. I hope the state Department Team of hostages get the additional funding to grow the team, unfortunately, but to the families of hostages in pain, some who dont know where their love whether their loved one is in alive and they live with the pain every day. Theyve not been able to honor them if theyre not. Mr. Speaker, i thank my colleagues for the time. And i hope that ive said something to ignite the conscience of the American People. And to ignite the conscience, if you will, of all of my colleagues, free Brittney Griner now. Free paul whalen, free Brittney Griner now. Mr. Speaker, i now yield back. The speaker pro tempore the gentlelady yielded back. Pursuant to section 1 of House Resolution 1230, the house stands adjourned until noon on tuesday, october 4, 2022