Bob Good

Mr. GOOD of Virginia

Mr. GOOD of Virginia. Absolutely.

Mr. GOOD of Virginia. Absolutely. And the four times that I have been to the border in the last 15 months, I have never seen a Democrat there. I have had Border Patrol, Texas State Police, sheriffs, and law enforcement who are working there at the border--not just Texas, but Arizona as well--where they tell me they never see Democrats at the border. We only need seven Democrats to join our discharge petition to get a vote on maintaining title 42, but we can't get one Democrat, one majority Member, to do this. One would hope that just in the States of Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, and California--the border States--that we could get, just in the State of Texas, in particular, that we could get Democrats to say, Hey, don't mess with Texas. We are going to join our fellow Republicans, and we are going to support Texas' efforts to stand in the gap and do what the Federal Government will not do in violation of the Constitution and protecting the State from invasion.

Mr. GOOD of Virginia. Happy birthday to my brother Steve who is 55 today, April 7.

Mr. GOOD of Virginia. That is right.

Mr. GOOD of Virginia. Naming names.

Mr. GOOD of Virginia. Not one.

Mr. GOOD of Virginia. There is no excuse for it. If this President was doing everything else right--just use your imagination and just allow for a moment--if he was doing everything else right and some of his other policies were working--let's pretend some were working--what he has allowed to happen at the border as the head of the Democratic Party, never in the history of the country has our own President done more to intentionally harm the United States in what he has done in his first year. So it is no wonder that not one Democrat will join us in standing up for border security. How did that become a partisan issue? As you know, we were in an off-the-record meeting with Secretary Mayorkas so I can't share what he said. I can share what I said. I asked him: What is the end game? Here we are going to take it from some 7,000 a day--it is estimated 18,000 a day--that means every 3 days you will have the equivalent population of my home county, Campbell County, Virginia, 56,000 people, in 3 days we will have that many illegal border crossings. By the way, in my hometown of Lynchburg, Virginia, right outside Campbell County there, we just had a murder conviction of an MS-13 gang member who came across illegally. Again, demonstrating that every town is a border town under this President. Every State is a border State under this President. I appreciate you leading on this issue, Mr. Roy, so passionately and so consistently and so faithfully. Specifically, you helped lead that letter that we sent to leadership of both the House and the Senate on the Republican side, just 2 or 3 weeks ago, saying no Republican should support any government funding that does not secure the border. So what did we do with the potential leverage that we had that was before us, if all Republicans would refuse to fund a government that doesn't secure the border?

Mr. GOOD of Virginia. Who also didn't vote for that bad bill, by the way.

Mr. GOOD of Virginia. That is right.

Mr. GOOD of Virginia. That is right, for 2 years.

Mr. GOOD of Virginia. Into the interior of the country.

Mr. GOOD of Virginia. Yes. The illegal drugs that are pouring in across the country, fentanyl and other dangerous drugs, at record levels, is the reason why we had 100,000 overdose deaths last year in this country. In 2021, the number one cause of death for individuals between 18 and 45 was not COVID; it was overdose. On the border trips that I have been on--again, a couple of those with you--when you meet with the folks who live there, who live on the front lines, and they talk about these illegals, they will find the carpet shoes. We saw them. You see the carpet shoes and the camos. Once they get picked up by their crime cartel contact and picked up to go wherever they want to go in the interior of the country, you find the carpet shoes and you find the camos left behind. You will have those folks who live there tell you they are coming onto their property, they are knocking on their doors, they are threatening them and making demands of them. These folks who live on the border are finding dead bodies. The previous trip I was on in Arizona, they said they apprehended 30 Chinese nationals on their property. They are from 160 different countries, not just Central and South America, as if that wasn't enough. But to your point, 160 different countries are making every town a border town and every State a border State. It is a dereliction of duty on behalf of this President's administration. It is a threat to the national security of our country, to the sovereignty of our country, to the health and security of our country, and to the financial security of our country. I appreciate your leadership on this issue.

Mr. GOOD of Virginia

Mr. GOOD of Virginia. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to call up H.R. 471, the PAUSE Act, to protect all Americans from Biden's border crisis.

Mr. GOOD of Virginia

Mr. GOOD of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I have been there four times in my first year, the first 14 months here in this Congress. February a year ago was the largest February in terms of illegal border crossings in the history of the country. We had 101,000 cross, some 3,000 a day, in February a year ago. We exceeded that by 64 percent this most recent February. We went from 101,000 to 165,000. Now, it is so bad with what this President has allowed to happen in the last year that 165,000 in a month doesn't sound like a really bad month for this President. That is because, again, it was 101,000 last February, but it increased as the year went on to where it was some 200,000 a month later on into the year, as we know, and 2 million in the first year this President was in office. As others have already pointed out, with him rescinding title 42, I guess he was afraid that is a policy, a law, that might help repel some illegals back across the border, might allow us to return some if we actually would enforce the law. So, we are rescinding title 42, which, as already has been said, will take it from 7,000 to 2\1/2\ times as large. Mr. Speaker, 18,000 a day is the average, 500,000 in the first 30 days. This President is on pace for some 10 to 15 million illegal entries into our country in his first and hopefully only term. I was in a Budget Committee hearing today with Congresswoman Boebert. We had Secretary Becerra there, the HHS Secretary. HHS has been called in not to help stop the border crossings but to help facilitate those. Mr. Speaker, I asked him today, I said: Who do you think should be let across our border, or who should be prevented from going across our border? Are there any restraints you would put upon anyone who wants to come across our border, or do you think everyone should be able to come across illegally? He said: Well, we are talking about violating the law. You are saying it is illegal. Why would we permit anyone to violate the law? Our President is violating the highest law of the land. The Constitution that we all and he swore to uphold, Article IV, Section 4 says: ``The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a republican form of government and shall protect them against invasion.'' As we look to next year, I want to go on record and say--some of you were on the articles of impeachment with me. Congresswoman Boebert drafted those. How do we declare this the public health emergency that it is, the national security crisis that it is, the health crisis that it is, the social services crisis that it is, the education crisis that it is, and the unlawful process that it is and not hold this President responsible when we have the House majority, Lord willing, a year from now? How can we not impeach this President?

Mr. GOOD of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, it is simple. Complete the wall. End catch and release. Reinstate remain in Mexico and title 42. Require E-verify. Take amnesty off the table. Speaker Mrvan, we would love to have you on that petition.

Mr. GOOD of Virginia

Mr. GOOD of Virginia. Madam Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. GOOD of Virginia

Mr. GOOD of Virginia. Madam Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. GOOD of Virginia

Mr. GOOD of Virginia. Madam Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. GOOD of Virginia

Mr. GOOD of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Oregon for yielding. Our country continues to suffer under the many crises created by the Biden administration and Democrat policies; you know, the border crisis, the crime crisis, the inflation crisis, the energy crisis. And yet, the priority of this Congress now turns to expanding access to addictive, behavior-altering, recreational drugs at a time when our country is also experiencing increased addiction, depression, and suicide. What is worse, we want to target those individuals and communities who are historically most impacted by the harm of illegal drugs and provide Federal funding to help enable criminals to open and operate now legal drug businesses. We have rising violent crime in Democrat-run cities across the country. More drug use won't help that. We had 100,000 Americans die of overdoses last year, the leading cause of death in Americans ages 18 to 45. More drug use won't help that. Our government, schools, and our education systems are failing us. More drug use won't help that. But, in fact, this legislation has no prohibitions on edible forms of marijuana, flavored vape products, or other efforts to target, specifically, teens and young people. Meanwhile, we have surrendered operational control of our southern border to the Mexican crime cartels, and we have got fentanyl and other dangerous drugs streaming into our country at historic levels because of this President's open border policies. Of course, what is his solution? Let's end Title 42 which is predicted to increase the daily crossings from the current 7,000 a day to as much as 18,000 a day. That is over half a million a month. How might this impact the illegal drug trade across our country? Law enforcement tells me that legalizing marijuana will force the criminal element to redouble their efforts into hard, more dangerous drugs to replace the profit that has been lost from marijuana. You can also look at the States that have already legalized it, and you can see the increased addiction, dependency, and homelessness that this has cost. We should be ashamed of ourselves for this legislation, and I oppose this bill.

Mr. GOOD of Virginia

Mr. GOOD of Virginia. How many Democrat Members have we got from Texas?

Mr. GOOD of Virginia. That would get us past 218, wouldn't it, 13 plus 8, 208?

Mr. GOOD of Virginia. Yes.

Mr. GOOD of Virginia. Yes, but they are turnarounds coming right back.

Mr. GOOD of Virginia. Since 2019 when that was instated, right?

Mr. GOOD of Virginia. That is right.