Lauren Boebert

Mrs. BOEBERT

Mrs. BOEBERT. May I inquire as to how much time is remaining.

Mrs. BOEBERT. Mr. Chair, I would agree with my colleague on the other side of the aisle. We do want to sit down and have a conversation. We realize we are in divided government right now, and that is the process that we are currently working on. We are trying to avoid doing things as normal as they have been done since the mid-1990s here in Washington, D.C. We do not want to govern and fund the entire government with a straight up and down vote ``yes'' or ``no.'' We don't want continuing resolutions or omnibus bills. We want to go through the funding of the Federal Government bill by bill, sit down, and work with our colleagues on the other side of the aisle. This will be bipartisan. This will be bicameral. We do not have the majority in the Senate. We will have to come together in conference and hash out our differences and work with one another. I do agree with my colleague that we are going to have to work together in a bipartisan, bicameral way to fund the Federal Government. I understand that there are a lot of scary numbers of people who would be impacted by a shutdown, but that is why this week we are here, passing four appropriations bills to fund the Federal Government, to avoid a full government shutdown. There may be a partial shutdown for a short amount of time, but I believe that we can come together and alleviate that and come to a resolution soon. We can do our jobs. We are passing the Department of Defense bill. We have that on the floor. We are also bringing up the Department of Homeland Security bill, the State and foreign ops, and the ag bill. We can fund these parts of the Federal Government. Mr. Chair, again, I urge my colleagues to support my amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mrs. BOEBERT. Mr. Chair, I have an amendment at the desk.

Mrs. BOEBERT. Mr. Chair, I rise today to offer my amendment that utilizes the Holman Rule to reduce the salary of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Assistant Director, Office of Immigration Program Evaluation, Claire Trickler-McNulty, to $1. Ms. McNulty needs to be held accountable for her blatant disregard of our Nation's national security. Ms. McNulty is an advocate for open borders and is implementing policies that encourage illegal entry. Ms. McNulty admitted publicly that she stayed at the Department of Homeland Security during the Trump administration to sabotage border enforcement. Ms. McNulty worked for an organization known as KIND where she provided legal services for illegal aliens to fight deportation and stay in the country even though they broke our laws and entered America illegally. Now this open borders advocate is supposed to help protect America's cross-border crime and illegal immigration that threaten national security when she clearly has no interest in following the law and doing either of these things. The appointment of Ms. McNulty is a prime example of the Biden-Harris administration's ignorance to the importance of securing the border. Not only is she an open borders fanatic, but she was behind an $80 million no-bid contract that the DHS Inspector General criticized as improper. The Biden administration has essentially closed ICE down. They do nothing about people entering the country illegally, that has been shown repeatedly. Just look at the 151 terrorists on the terror watch list that have entered America on Biden and McNulty's watch. During Ms. McNulty's tenure at ICE, instead of protecting our borders and enforcing our laws, ICE now is acting more like a social service agency for illegals. ICE is even partnering with groups that campaign for ICE to be abolished, that give aid to illegal aliens, and that award contracts that strictly prohibit tackling the whereabouts of illegal aliens. Mr. Chair, I urge my colleagues to support my amendment and hold Ms. McNulty accountable for doing her job, or not, and for her role in facilitating the worst border crisis in our Nation's history. Mr. Chair, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mrs. BOEBERT. Mr. Chair, I would remind Members that Ms. McNulty only stayed in the Trump administration, as she was quoted, to sabotage border security efforts. That is not genuine. That is un-American. It is not dutiful. There are many things that we are doing right now to avoid a shutdown. I certainly do not want a government shutdown. That is why my colleagues do not want a government shutdown. That is why we are debating these four bills and why we are debating the amendments to these four bills. I agree with my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, and maybe many on my own side, that we should have done this sooner. We should not have waited until the deadline, but here we are, and we are all in Washington, D.C., working diligently to ensure that the debate is heard on these bills and we have an opportunity to fund these very important aspects of the Federal Government. Mr. Chair, I urge adoption of my amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mrs. BOEBERT. Mr. Chair, I rise today to offer my amendment that utilizes the Holman rule to reduce the salary for the Officer for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, Shoba Sivaprasad Wadhia to $1. DHS's Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties is staffed with people that literally want to abolish the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, an agency whose mission is to protect America from the cross-border crime and illegal immigration that threaten national security. The woman that leads DHS's Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties once said that illegal immigrant felons, convicted of murder and rape, shouldn't be eligible for deportation solely because of their crimes. Let me repeat that. Wadhia believes that illegal immigrant felons convicted of murder and rape should not be deported. She has also advocated for purging the term illegal immigrant and tried to humanize illegal immigration in order to allow mass illegal immigration. Throughout her career, this open border bureaucrat has aggressively pursued pro-amnesty policies and even defended illegal immigrants in court who should have been deported. In her current role, she is literally enabling and supporting the Biden border crisis. Since Joe Biden took office, more than 6 million illegal aliens have entered America. In August alone, there were 232,972 illegal aliens encountered at the southern border, and that does not include the got-aways who were not encountered by our brave Custom and Border Patrol agents. Customs and Border Patrol have seized 25,500 pounds of fentanyl so far in fiscal year 2023, a deadly drug that is literally killing our children. Mr. Chair, 25,500 pounds is only what was seized at the border, not what is still flowing freely into our country. Biden's bureaucrats are literally allowing deadly fentanyl to easily flow into our communities. She has also been a major part of the Federal Government's obsession with diversity, equity, and inclusion, consistently forcing woke policies down the throats of public servants. These woke Federal policies shouldn't be embedded in our Nation's border and national security policies. These misguided agency initiatives need to come to an end. My amendment is supported by the National Immigration Center for Enforcement, NumbersUSA, and the American Accountability Foundation. I urge my colleagues to support my amendment and hold Shoba Wadhia accountable for her going rogue in an administration that has ignored the rule of law and has facilitated the worst border crisis in our Nation's history. Mr. Chair, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mrs. BOEBERT. Mr. Chair, legislating is beautiful. It is great to actually be down here debating the real issues that Americans are faced with day in and day out. I do agree with my colleague on the other side of the aisle that we should have been debating this bill on June 22, but here we are. It is our responsibility to pass these appropriations bills, 12 individual appropriations bills in total, to the Senate. What the Senate does is up to them and their Chamber. This is our House and it is our responsibility to do our part of our jobs. That is exactly what we are doing tonight. I, too, would like to see our border secured. And I look forward to my colleague on the other side of the aisle joining us to support H.R. 2 to secure the border. I can tell he is very, very enthusiastic about actually accomplishing something rather than just throwing money at a problem and creating more processing agents. I can see the sincerity and hear the sincerity in his voice that he wants a secure Nation and secure borders, especially since he represents a district on the southern border and encounters our brave Border Patrol agents each and every day. My colleague has brought up several times tonight that you cannot have punishment without a trial. Well, this Holman rule is part of our House rules. We are a self-governing, majority rule body. The Holman rule is here in place to hold unelected bureaucrats accountable. If my colleagues on the other side of the aisle have any sort of qualm with punishment without trial, I would encourage them to visit our January 6 prisoners in the D.C. jail. Mr. Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mrs. BOEBERT

Mrs. BOEBERT. Madam Chair, this amendment decreases the salary of the Deputy Under Secretary of the Food and Nutrition Service. Madam Chair, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mrs. BOEBERT. Madam Chair, I have an amendment at the desk.

Mrs. BOEBERT. Madam Chair, one moment. My apologies. I do not have amendment No. 77 in front of me, but, Madam Chair, I urge adoption of amendment No. 77 to be considered to decrease the salary of the Deputy Under Secretary. Madam Chair, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mrs. BOEBERT. Madam Chair, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Harris).

Mrs. BOEBERT. Madam Chair, I rise today to offer my amendment that utilizes the Holman rule to reduce the salary of Deputy Under Secretary of the Food and Nutrition Services of the Department of Agriculture, Stacy Dean, to $1. As the Deputy Under Secretary for Food, Nutrition, and Consumer Services at USDA, Ms. Dean has spent her career helping bureaucrats use loopholes and gimmicks to gut requirements for able-bodied adults and bypass Federal eligibility requirements, even going as far as to help States make millionaires qualify for the program. The last thing Americans need are higher prices, fewer jobs, and the largest expansion of our welfare State in a lifetime. The Biden-Harris administration expansion of the welfare State abolishes work ethic and promotes a new generation of government dependency. I have lived under government dependency, and I am thankful that I have broken free of that cycle given my life experiences and developing work ethic. I am one of the few who was able to break free of that cycle of dependency. Stacy Dean, without Congressional approval, unilaterally increased Title IV of future farm bills by no less than $256 billion. Stacy Dean has spent her life's work concocting ways to expand the welfare State and was given latitude to do so under the Biden administration with no consequence, no oversight, and no boundaries. No amount of endless government checks can address the underlying challenges families face. The best way to help American families is with good-paying jobs, not endless government checks. Madam Chair, 25 years ago in the face of rising welfare caseloads, long durations in poverty, and no work for millions, Republicans and Democrats came together to reform the Nation's welfare system. These reforms were based on one simple idea: The best way out of poverty is a job. Even the Bible says if you don't work, you don't eat. Ms. Dean has also allowed a 25 percent increase to food stamp benefits, which was not only unprecedented, but abandoned the cost- neutral policy the Department had followed for 45 years. Madam Chair, 25 years ago, in the face of rising welfare caseloads, long durations in poverty, and no work for millions, we said this was enough. That cannot be reiterated enough. This move displayed Dean's blatant disregard for program transparency by failing to even consult USDA's own chief economist. Worse yet, this move went far beyond Congressional authority granted under the 2018 farm bill, all thanks to Ms. Dean. Ms. Dean even went as far as to expand woke LGBTQ+ free school lunch policies absent Congressional approval and direction. Madam Chair, I urge my colleagues to support my amendment and hold Ms. Dean accountable for going rogue in an administration that has ignored the direction of Congress. Madam Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mrs. BOEBERT. Madam Chair, I have an amendment at the desk.

Mrs. BOEBERT. Madam Chair, I rise today to offer my amendment to prohibit funding for the USDA's Equity Commission. Our farmers and ranchers are fed up with a government that is weaponized against them and are fed up paying for commissions that simply should not exist. The USDA Equity Commission was born out of a Biden executive order calling for Federal departments to address, ``racial equity,'' because they believe even agriculture is racist. This Commission made over 30 recommendations to make the USDA more woke. This includes diversity training for farmers and ranchers, expanding language access, and even supporting legislation that removes restrictions on food stamp eligibility based on immigration status, or even criminal records. This commission also opened up the door for Joe Biden's racist $4 billion plan for minority farmers and ranchers to pay their loans because the USDA is racist. Joe Biden's USDA is even holding school lunch money hostage to force a curriculum that sexualizes our children. This administration is acting like a schoolyard bully, saying, if you are not going to do what I want, I am going to take your lunch money. Quite literally. They are holding school districts hostage in order to shove their radical agenda down our throats to ensure biological men are allowed to use the same restroom as five-year-old girls. This is madness. This administration is so distracted by pandering to their own leftist agenda to prioritize diversity, equity, and inclusion that they simply cannot manage their policies that have driven the price of milk and eggs up over 50 percent for the average American family for those items. Let's return our focus to our USDA to what it should be--providing leadership on food, agriculture, natural resources, rural development, nutrition, and related issues based on public policy, the best available science--real science, please--and effective management, not pandering to the woke mob. I urge passage of my amendment and, Madam Chair, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mrs. BOEBERT. Madam Chair, I yield 30 seconds to the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Harris).

Mrs. BOEBERT. Madam Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mrs. BOEBERT. Mr. Chair, I have an amendment at the desk.

Mrs. BOEBERT. Mr. Chair, I rise today to offer my amendment that prevents USDA from using funds for woke extreme leftist courses, books, and study guides as part of this administration's woke LGBTQI+-- whatever other letter you would like to add for the flavor of the day-- Pride Month agenda. Biden's woke bureaucrats implemented woke courses, books, and study guides for Department employees' training that defy congressional intent and mandate leftist indoctrination. Mandated Department courses and curriculum for the Federal employees included topics like Pride Leadership: Strategies for LGBTQ+ Leader to be the King Or Queen of Their Jungle; the Queer Advantage: Conversations with LGBTQ+ Leaders on the Power of Identity; Out and Proud: Approaching LGBT Issues in the Workplace; Gender Ambiguity in the Workplace: Transgender and Gender-Diverse Discrimination; Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ+) Program. In total, there were more than 20 different LGBTQI+--add your letter--training sessions and courses required by USDA that cower to the left's woke indoctrination policies, defy congressional intent, and contradict the agency's mission. Federal employees devoted to public service shouldn't be forced to participate in extreme training sessions that contradict their own values. I urge my colleagues to support my amendment and prevent Federal employees from being forced to participate in extreme training sessions for the purpose of pandering to a woke agenda. Madam Chair, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mrs. BOEBERT. Mr. Chair, maybe the USDA should spend their time educating those on how to tell the difference between a heifer and a bull. Maybe then we can actually bring some common sense to this topic. Also, I would like to note that my colleague on the other side of the aisle, the gentleman, failed to mention some letters when referencing the LGBTQI+ community, which is not very inclusive for their party's agenda. I just wanted the record to reflect that there definitely were some letters missing from that description, which is extremely offensive. Mr. Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mrs. BOEBERT

Mrs. BOEBERT. Mr. Speaker, I rise to oppose the motion to instruct conferees to not include Representative Ronny Jackson's amendment in the fiscal year 2024 NDAA. This policy is a gross misuse of taxpayer dollars to circumvent State laws and violates the decades-old, bipartisan Hyde amendment. It is clear that Joe Biden and Lloyd Austin's Department of Defense is more focused on appeasing the woke mob of pink-hat-wearing feminists than focusing on keeping our Nation safe. This is the same DOD that surrendered to the Taliban, costing the lives of 13 brave servicemembers. This is the same DOD treating our military like a woke social experiment. This is the same DOD the House will vote to fund later this week. The Department of Defense should be focused on readiness and lethality, not spending taxpayer dollars to kill the lives of innocent, unborn babies. We are not going to give up on this cause that is righteous, and we are not going to stop fighting to give voice to the voiceless. Since Roe v. Wade in 1973, over 63 million lives have been lost to abortion. I personally have held a newborn baby born at 23 weeks old, 1 pound, 8 ounces. I know that her life has just the same worth and value as any one of us standing here today. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend and colleague, Congressman Ronny Jackson, for his leadership in restoring our military focus and protecting these precious unborn lives. I am proud to stand with my colleagues in defense of these children, as well as with millions of Americans across our Nation. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to oppose this motion to instruct.

Mrs. BOEBERT

Mrs. BOEBERT. Mr. Speaker, I hereby remove my name as cosponsor of H.R. 5081.

Mrs. BOEBERT

Mrs. BOEBERT. Madam Chair, I rise in favor of the en bloc amendment package, which includes six of my amendments that redirect funds from Biden's bloated bureaucracy to actually help our Nation's veterans. Our men and women in uniform and our Nation's veterans put everything on the line to defend this great country and our freedoms. They deserve the best care that America has to offer. Caring for our veterans should be a priority in our annual funding bills. That is why I drafted these amendments that transfer dollars from the Federal bureaucracy to provide additional resources for veterans, including veteran mental health programs, medical and prosthetic research, the Board of Veterans' Appeals to help reduce its backlog and process veterans claims more quickly, gravesites for veterans in areas where a veteran cannot be buried in a VA national cemetery, construction of State extended care facilities, the Staff Sergeant Parker Gordon Fox Suicide Prevention Grant Program, and veterans telehealth and rural health. Don't believe the lies on the other side of the aisle. The Republican majority is committed to fully funding our veterans healthcare programs and funding veterans benefits and VA programs. Earlier this year, they falsely claimed that the Limit, Save, Grow Act would cut veterans benefits, even though it didn't even mention veterans in the bill. The White House and the leftists falsely tried to claim that this bill cut veterans benefits before it was even released. We didn't even have the text yet. Let me say this again: This bill fully funds our veterans and even provides an increase of $1.5 billion above the discretionary funding level contained in the fiscal year 2023 bill drafted by Democrats. The only thing this bill cuts is wasteful spending, and it ensures the Department can no longer be politicized by putting veterans and their needs above a rainbow flag or pronouns. My support for our servicemembers does not end when their service is complete. I am committed to ensuring that our Nation's most precious resource, its sons and daughters and mothers and fathers who answered the call to serve in uniform receive the essential healthcare and benefits they have earned. I applaud the committee for taking on this difficult task of prioritizing limited resources for our veterans. Madam Chair, I urge my colleagues to vote in favor of my amendments, as well as the underlying bill, which fully funds our veterans.

Mrs. BOEBERT

Mrs. BOEBERT. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of my bill receiving consideration on the House floor that would terminate the national emergency related to the Congo. National emergencies are supposed to be temporary by definition and limited to 6 months by law unless there is a justifiable reason for an extension. They aren't supposed to linger on for decades with no oversight from Congress or the executive branch. Clearly, this process is broken for national emergency declarations, and it needs reform. Having been in Washington, D.C., for over 2 years now, I clearly realize nothing gets accomplished here without force. Today, we are raising the issue of this broken system, and that should be something that Members on both sides of the aisle can all agree with. Congress needs to do its job. By law, Congress shall meet to consider a vote on a joint resolution to determine whether a national emergency shall be terminated after 6 months. Do you hear that? Congress shall do its job. Then, they should meet again for that same consideration of each extension of any national emergency every 6 months. Congress has been required by law to consider a joint resolution for the Congo since April 27, 2007, 16 years ago, and 31 more times since. Shockingly, Congress has never once reviewed the national emergency related to the Congo over that 16-year timeframe, despite the clear language in section 202 of the NEA requiring review every 6 months. Administration after administration just keeps on unilaterally rubberstamping these extensions without even providing a report or update to Congress on how much taxpayer money is actually being spent. What are they spending it on? What is the need to extend this temporary national emergency authority? These national emergency declarations have become the deep state's favorite foreign affairs slush fund. There is literally no spending transparency whatsoever out there on the 41 national emergencies currently in place. Congress is allowing the swamp to continue to shift and funnel an unknown amount of taxpayer dollars to an overseas dark hole. I know that some of my colleagues will argue that some of the national emergencies we are terminating today won't save that much money. If that is the case and we are only sending a couple hundred thousand dollars in aid and munitions to a particular country, then that country no longer meets the definition of a national emergency. If it is tens of millions of dollars or even hundreds of millions of dollars that we are sending to certain countries as a result of these 41 national emergency authorizations, then taxpayers have the right to know these costs, and Congress has a responsibility to provide oversight on these dollars. The current sanctions in the Congo have also not addressed the real issue that is there, which is the Congo mineral conflict. Nearly 40,000 children are estimated to be mining cobalt with their bare hands in the Democratic Republic of the Congo right now. They are working in unsafe conditions. This is the real humanitarian crisis taking place in the Congo. If we want to talk about sanctioning anyone for what is going on in the Congo, it should be China, which is exploiting these children and sucking up the Congo cobalt. Mr. Speaker, I have heard scare tactics that voting for this bill to end Congo's national emergency would unfreeze the assets of Viktor Bout, an arms dealer who was accused of supplying arms to al-Qaida. I encourage everyone on both sides of the aisle to not be tricked into voting against my bill based on this false assertion. Viktor Bout was never a citizen of the Congo or of the United States, and the current sanctions only apply to United States assets. Viktor Bout is currently living and running for political office in Russia. If the U.S. wants to impose further sanctions against him--and I think we probably should--it can do so under the same mechanisms it has imposed more than 2,200 sanctions against Russia in the last year and a half. This is not the only way to sanction a terrorist. We have many other avenues that we can go down, as is seen in these 2,200 sanctions from just the past year and a half. Mr. Speaker, I agree that Viktor Bout is a threat, so much so that I condemn the President's action and this administration for having traded him for a professional women's basketball player that was locked up for bringing marijuana into Russia. Mr. Speaker, I have not yet heard a compelling argument to vote against my bill. Mr. Speaker, I urge adoption of my bill. I urge Congress to actually roll up their sleeves and do the hard work of authorizing stuff like this or putting an end to it, exposing to the American taxpayer exactly where their tax dollars are going and what it is being spent on so we know if we are sending our tax dollars overseas to terrorists with no oversight. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Gosar), my colleague.

Mrs. BOEBERT. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, we have heard a lot about the forced termination of these emergencies as being reckless and dangerous because it would remove sanction designations from hostile foreign actors. I agree that the people who are on this list should be sanctioned, but also I see what is reckless and dangerous is continuing to funnel hundreds of millions of dollars to foreign countries, many with bad actors, over a 20-year period with no congressional oversight of how much taxpayer money the deep state is sending out the door. It is also irresponsible that Congress is ignoring the law and not reviewing these 41 national emergency declarations every 6 months as required by law. It is also reckless and dangerous that Congress is allowing Joe Biden to have unilateral authority from these national emergency declarations to draft Americans without consent into Active Duty, authorize chemical and biological weapons testing on humans--including Americans--and seize private property of the United States citizens. Joe Biden decided to release and trade Viktor Bout when he still had nearly 15 years on his sentence. We can find another way to sanction him rather than just giving him a free pass, like the other terrorists who are on this list, without going outside of the bounds of Congress' official duties. Mr. Speaker, I urge adoption of this bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mrs. BOEBERT. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.