Andy Biggs

Mr. BIGGS

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

Mr. BIGGS

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

Mr. BIGGS

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

Mr. BIGGS

Mr. BIGGS. Mr. Speaker, Biden's team of neighborhood, basically, disturbers, showed up at a constituent's house this past weekend demanding that they reveal their vaccine status, after asking for them by name. Our agents on the border cannot test the tens of thousands that are being released into the country on a monthly basis, and tens of thousands are going in without COVID testing and without vaccines. But Biden-Harris, the first President with a hyphenated named, is going door-to-door in an Orwellian fashion to pester Americans about vaccines. Welcome to the authoritarian turn of the new Democrat party.

Mr. BIGGS

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

Mr. BIGGS

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

Mr. BIGGS

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

Mr. BIGGS

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

Mr. BIGGS

Mr. BIGGS. Madam Speaker, I rise today in honor of a longtime friend, Wendy Baldo, who will soon begin her well-deserved retirement. Wendy first came to work in Arizona state government in 1988, during the administration of Governor Rose Mofford. In 1993, she began her long and distinguished career with the Arizona State Senate. In 2009, Wendy was hired as chief of staff for the legislative body, a role in which she has now served for more than 12 years. I came to know Wendy while serving in the Arizona state legislature from 2002 to 2016. My election to the Arizona Senate in 2010 provided me the opportunity to work under Wendy's guidance, and she continued to serve as my chief of staff for the four years I served as Arizona Senate President. Wendy was always a trusted advisor. She staunchly protected the institution of the Senate and was the fierce, loyal ally every leader needs. It is a rare occurrence in the Arizona Senate for a chief of staff to serve multiple Senate presidents. Wendy's service to five presidents is a true testament to her character and caliber. The knowledge and expertise Wendy has accumulated in her years in the Arizona Senate are an invaluable resource. Her retirement, while well- deserved, will undoubtedly be a loss for the Senate. I thank Wendy for her many years of service to the people of Arizona and wish her well in this next phase of her life.

Mr. BIGGS

Mr. BIGGS. Madam Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 256, the repeal of the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002. For too long, Congress has abrogated its Constitutional obligation to declare war. The founding fathers knew that the executive branch was the most prone to war. That is why they gave Congress the power to declare war. By assigning this power to Congress, our founders ensured that issues of war would be properly debated before our brave service members are sent into harm's way. We have allowed Presidents of both parties to disregard the proper Constitutional order and engage in forever wars. This AUMF has been in place for nearly 20 years and the situation in Iraq is vastly different than at its onset. Allowing the AUMF to remain in place will not make America safer. However, it will allow for the President to keep us in a state of perpetual war. Repealing the AUMF will not endanger our troops overseas. However, repealing the AUMF will begin the process of restoring Congress to its proper role of deciding when our country goes to war. This Congress, or any future, must be a part of any decision to reengage in hostilities in Iraq. In Congress does not find the courage stand up to the President and say, ``No Mr. President, we decided when to go to war,'' then thousands of young lives will be lost in unconstitutional wars. It is time for Congress to reassert itself over war powers and restore the proper Constitutional order. I urge my colleagues to stand up for the Constitution. To stand up for Congress by supporting H.R. 256. I urge my colleagues to vote yes.

Mr. BIGGS

Mr. BIGGS. Madam Speaker, on Tuesday, June 15, 2021, I missed the vote on passage of H.R. 239. Had I been present, I would have voted NAY on Roll Call No. 160 (H.R. 239).

Mr. BIGGS

Mr. BIGGS. Mr. Speaker, on rollcall No. 143 on H.R. 1065, I am not recorded because I had to return home to my district to attend the funeral of a close family friend. Had I been present, I would have voted ``nay'' on rollcall No. 143.

Mr. BIGGS

Mr. BIGGS. Madam Speaker, there is no greater love than to lay one's life down for another. Officer Christopher Farrar of Chandler, Arizona exemplified that love when he was killed in the line of duty on April 30th of this year. Officer Farrar gave his life on behalf of his community and indeed, the entire State of Arizona. By all accounts he was a great police officer who served his community every day. He leaves behind a grieving family and his fellow officers of the Chandler Police Department. I thank his family and loved ones for their sacrifices and his. Our prayers are with you. We also join in prayer for Officer Rico Aranda, of the Gilbert, Arizona Police Department who, alongside Officer Farrar, put his life on the line while responding to the same call on April 30. Although he was critically wounded, he was fortunate enough to survive the attempt on his life. We express our hope for a speedy and complete recovery for Officer Farrar. Both these men and their families will remain in our hearts. Serving in law enforcement takes a special kind of person. One who leaves the house each day knowing he may not return. Police officers all across this country have been vilified over the last year but I challenge you, Madame Speaker, to find a group of individuals more noble, more selfless, and more interested in serving their fellowman than police officers. Instead of the hyper-critique they have received of recent times, they deserve the praise and admiration of this body. Police officers routinely face grave threats with great courage. Madam Speaker, over the last year we have seen Liberal organizations and leftist cities call for the defunding of our police. I urge elected officials and the American public to support those who keep our communities safe. Let's increase our respect to our police force. Let's increase our gratitude by giving a positive comment, a helping hand, or saying a prayer when you see those flashing red and blue lights on the way to an emergency. I am grateful to be participating in National Police Week so I may pay homage to the brave men and women who run towards danger when most retreat. We may never know the pressure and the courage it takes to wear the badge and don the uniform, but we can always show the respect and honor our police officers deserve. To those officers who demonstrated the greater love by making the greatest sacrifice we say, ``Thank you.'' We offer our grateful support to those they left behind.

Mr. BIGGS

Mr. BIGGS. Madam Speaker, I rise in honor of Mesa Police Sgt. Brandon Mendoza who was tragically killed by an illegal alien 7 years ago. In the early morning hours of May 12, 2014, Sgt. Mendoza was driving home from his shift when he encountered an illegal alien driving under the influence of alcohol and meth. The illegal alien drove at high speeds in the wrong direction for 35 miles on four freeways in the Phoenix metro area. Despite law enforcement efforts to catch up to and stop the illegal alien, he ultimately collided head-on with Sgt. Mendoza, killing them both. Sgt. Mendoza's death was untimely and preventable. But it requires Democrats to get serious about enforcement of our immigration laws and putting American families first. Sgt. Mendoza's illegal alien killer had previously pled guilty to criminal conspiracy charges in Colorado, but, despite his illegal presence, he was not removed from the United States. Instead, he roamed free in our communities, ultimately choosing to drive without a license and while severely intoxicated. Today, there are more than 3 million illegal aliens with final orders of removal, many of whom are suspected or convicted criminals, living in American communities. President Biden should prioritize removal of these individuals before they can do any additional harm. I am enraged by President Biden's nonchalant attitude towards illegal immigration into the United States. In April, U.S. Customs and Border Protection apprehended a near record number of aliens attempting to illegally enter the United States, more than 173,000. President Biden's refusal to acknowledge the crisis at the border is a bold attempt to mislead the American public. Last week, I traveled to the southwest border with 10 fellow members of Congress to again see firsthand the damage of President Biden's new border policies. Sgt. Mendoza's mother, Mary Ann, joined us for a portion of the tour. Since her son's death, Mary Ann has been a fierce advocate for border security, pleading with the Obama and Biden Administrations to protect other American families from experiencing the same pain and suffering. During our visit, Mary Ann expressed concern that government leaders have forgotten families like hers and instead placed the interests of illegal aliens ahead of the interests of our nation. Families like Sgt. Mendoza's deserve to have their stories remembered. They deserve a government willing to protect them from the hands of illegal aliens. I will continue to fight for border security and enforcement of our immigration laws. Sgt. Mendoza and other victims of crime by illegal aliens deserve no less.

Mr. BIGGS

Mr. BIGGS. Cancel culture is eroding the very foundation of who we are as an American people. Rowan Atkinson, the star of the British TV series ``Maigret'' said that it is like a medieval mob coming to burn witches. That is what the cancel culture is all about. How about taking an analogy from George Orwell's ``Nineteen Eighty- Four'' novel where they take history and they throw it into the chute. They revise history constantly, and you can't even control what you think anymore, Mr. Speaker. That is what cancel culture is becoming. How about from a book called ``The Girl With Seven Names'' about a courageous young woman who escaped from North Korea and she tells us how North Korea did the same thing? How about China under the Chinese Communist Party as reported in ``The Hundred-Year Marathon'' by Mr. Pillsbury who wrote that book? That is what we see happening, this attempt to erase who we are as individuals and then replace them with something else. Let me give you some other examples. Pepe Le Pew is no longer tolerated by the left and by the woke mob. Miss Piggy is canceled. Dr. Seuss books are canceled. Here are some others. How about this one: Goya Foods, because this guy had the temerity, Robert Unanue, who is the CEO of Goya Foods, had the temerity to support President Trump so people attempted to boycott and cancel his business. Senator Josh Hawley wrote a book. He is canceled because he says that he wants election integrity. How about Washington, Lincoln, and Jefferson? San Francisco erases those schools named after Washington, Lincoln, or Jefferson. Matthew Yglesias, the liberal opinion writer who resigned from Vox, a company that he cofounded, because his woke staff says he is too center right. How about Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, and Laura Ingraham? They were all attacked for being conservative voices. The attack is to silence conservatives' voices. The new rule is we will only be tolerant if you are accepting of our views--not just accepting--if you comply--not just comply--you bow to the tyrannical rules of the left. Gina Carano, the ``Mandalorian'' actress, was fired by Disney because she says that being a Republican in 2021 is like being a Jew in Nazi, Germany. So she has got to go. They canceled the action figure named after her. Adam Rubenstein, a former New York Times reporter and editor, has got to go because he lets Tom Cotton's piece get published in The New York Times. Oops. We can't have that. J. K. Rowling, the very successful author of the Harry Potter series, is canceled because she has the temerity to suggest that transgender rights might endanger women's rights. You can't have any conflicting view out there, Mr. Speaker. No, you can't do that. Then Mike Lindell, you know him, he is the My Pillow guy. He is on TV all the time advertising. You can't have him because he is a friend and supporter of Donald Trump and questions the election results. We have reached the point in our society where the left says that if you do not bow your knee to what we say is the new norm--and the only acceptable dogma--if you are a heterodox in any way, Mr. Speaker, we will cancel you, we will dock you, and we will erase you. That cannot stand, and it will not stand. This group and the gentleman from Colorado will continue to fight. I thank the gentleman for yielding. We will continue to fight this outrageous attack on who we are as American people.

Mr. BIGGS

Mr. BIGGS. Mr. Speaker, let me tell you what Democrat support is really about on H.R. 51: Democratic partisanship, Democrat power, Democrat policy, Democrat progressive issues. No State has been admitted by the Constitution. No State was created from a territory, which was crafted in the Constitution. That is what you want to obviate. Even our Founders understood this very clearly, as they iterated, in Federalist No. 43, ``The indispensable necessity of complete authority at the seat of government carries its own evidence with it. It is a power exercised by every legislature of the Union, I might say of the world, by virtue of its general supremacy. Without it, not only the public authority might be insulted and its proceedings interrupted with impunity; but a dependence of the members of the general government on the State comprehending the seat of the government, for protection in the exercise of their duty, might bring on the national councils an imputation of awe or influence. . . . `' That is what is at stake here. H.R. 51 is bad, according to the Founders, but it also violates the 23rd Amendment. That is clear as well. It is time that the Democrats realize it and quit trying this power grab and vote this thing down.

Mr. BIGGS

Mr. BIGGS. Madam Speaker, this individual has not been to the border once, but the solutions are not a mystery. President Biden has to stand up and make a statement: You have to continue construction of the wall; reinstate the MPP program; reinstate the 12 international agreements that were in place that were slowing this down. That would have stopped it. The last thing is, move your asylum courts down to the border to deal with current asylum cases.

Mr. BIGGS. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding. When I hear that, oh, this bill simply is just trying to give a phone call, well, then why didn't it say that? Why didn't it say that in the bill? It didn't say that. It talks about access to an attorney. I am an attorney. I did court-appointed attorney work. I did it all the time. Madam Speaker, this may not give someone a court-appointed attorney, but what it does is, you open it up. If Democrats don't think that consumes resources, then I just wonder if Democrats have ever been to a port of entry and watched people coming through and seen the secondary inspection process. This is going to bog down your ports of entry, and it is going to lead to litigation. This is a trial lawyer's blessing, a trial lawyer's dream, I can tell you that, because that is what is going to happen. There are going to be mistakes made, and even if there aren't mistakes made, there are going to be lawsuits. This is not designed to facilitate border ingress and egress. This is not designed to help commercial traffic. This is going to bog down our system. While that is going on, Democrats say this is not going to be a problem. It will redirect and redeploy Border Patrol agents and Customs agents to deal with this. That means it is going to really slow things down, and everyone knows what that means. That means that all the people who are coming are going to have an even wider open field. In February, over 101,000 aliens were encountered. In March, over 172,000 aliens were encountered at the border. The number is going up. It is not going down. It is going up. Do you know why? Because the policies of this administration draw people in. They have done absolutely nothing to slow this down. Madam Speaker, do you know what the number one most important thing would be? How about the President of the United States of America stand up and say: No. We will send you back. Our border is closed. If you want to come in, come in legally through the ports of entry. How about doing that? Well, he has not done that. That is why you see people showing up with Biden campaign T-shirts on the border. That is why the Mexican President said this is Biden's border crisis. That is why the El Salvador President has expressed the same. And that is what Border Patrol agents also understand. Ranchers and people in my district and those who live on the border, that is why they will say: This is Biden's problem. He created it. He inherited a solution and created a crisis. The person who he has tapped to lead the efforts to address this surge at the border has been all over the place, just hasn't been at the border.

Mr. BIGGS

Mr. BIGGS. Madam Speaker, if this bill passes, the President may only act if the Secretary of State allows him to act, and that is backward. The Secretary of State should not be authorized in statute to tell the President, the Secretary of State's boss, that the President may act. It is antithetical to the executive powers as set forth in the United States Constitution. Let me say that again. H.R. 1333 gives the authority to initiate a suspension of entry not to the President but to the Secretary of State in consultation with the Secretary of Homeland Security. But it is the President, in whom all executive power vests, who should determine whether to suspend entry and not just in consultation with or the permission of the State and Homeland Security Departments. While we are discussing this, we have a crisis on our border, a crisis created by this President. For months, he refused to acknowledge the crisis. When he accidentally slipped and said it was a crisis, we were later told he didn't really mean it was a crisis. Well, here is the deal. You are housing illegal aliens in hotels. That is the kind of crisis this has become. The situation is so bad that the Biden administration has reopened and expanded facilities to house illegal aliens who have surged across the border. President Biden inherited a secure border and policies that were working and, instead, has created an inhumane border crisis. If he wants to solve the crisis, he needs to finish construction of the wall; reinstate the migrant protection protocols; reinstate the asylum cooperative agreements with Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador; and remove the other incentives to come, like $1,400 from the COVID package that was just recently passed. He can bring it under control, but the best way to bring it under control is to move immigration judges to the southern border to deal with asylum cases that are occurring today, not the backlog. Those people are already in here. Deal with those cases today. Getting back to this bill, it is representative of an executive branch that is willing to give over and cede Presidential authority to Cabinet members instead of the President himself. This bill should not be passed. It should not even be considered.

Mr. BIGGS

Mr. BIGGS. Madam Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. BIGGS

Mr. BIGGS. Madam Speaker, I object.

Mr. BIGGS

Mr. BIGGS. Madam Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. BIGGS

Mr. BIGGS. Madam Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. BIGGS

Mr. BIGGS. Madam Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. BIGGS

Mr. BIGGS. Madam Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.