Jim Jordan

Mr. JORDAN

Mr. JORDAN. Mr. Speaker, I was absent from the House during yesterday's two roll call votes. Had I been present, I would have voted in favor of both H.R. 8371 (Roll Call No. 466) and H.R. 5658 (Roll Call No. 467).

Mr. JORDAN

Mr. JORDAN. Mr. Speaker, I join my colleagues from Ohio and across the country in paying tribute to our friend, former Congressman David L. Hobson, who died on October 6. Dave was one of the Buckeye State's most respected public servants. He worked on behalf of the people of the Seventh Congressional District for 18 years--and served in the State Senate for eight years prior to that. He took great pride in solving problems great and small on behalf of his constituents. A longtime member of the Appropriations Committee and a Military Construction cardinal, Dave was a champion of our state's military installations of all types, ensuring that they were in the best position possible to contribute to our national defense. Dave was himself a proud Ohio Air National Guard veteran, serving during the Berlin Wall crisis. In recognition of his service in and out of uniform, in 2022 he was inducted into the Ohio Veterans Hall of Fame--a high honor accorded to no more than 20 Ohioans each year. Mr. Speaker, we are grateful that men like Dave Hobson are willing to enter the arena and commit their lives to public service. Our prayers are with his wife, Carolyn, their three children, and their grand- and great-grandchildren at this time of sorrow.

Mr. JORDAN

Mr. JORDAN. Mr. Speaker, I am honored to commend to the House the important work of the Lima Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution. On November 6, the chapter will rededicate a historical marker in honor of Private Elijah Stites, Lima's sole veteran of the Revolutionary War. Elijah Stites was born in Essex, New Jersey, in 1758. During the American Revolution, he fought for the Essex County Militia, serving as color bearer at the Battle of Yorktown. In 1788, he and two of his brothers took part in an expedition along the Ohio River, helping to found the settlement of Columbia (modern-day Cincinnati). Later, he settled in Warren County with his wife, Rhoda, and their fourteen children. Following his death in 1843, Stites was buried in Old Lima Cemetery in Allen County. Seventy years ago, the Lima DAR erected a plaque at the site of the cemetery recognizing him as the city's only Revolutionary War veteran. The organization will rededicate this plaque at a special ceremony on November 6. Mr. Speaker, on behalf of the people of Ohio's Fourth Congressional District, I thank the women of Lima's DAR Chapter for putting together this rededication ceremony and for all they do to promote civic education. They are true examples of the DAR's high calling to ``cherish, maintain, and extend the institutions of American freedom.''

Mr. JORDAN

Mr. JORDAN. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 9106) to direct the Director of the United States Secret Service to apply the same standards for determining the number of agents required to protect Presidents, Vice Presidents, and major Presidential and Vice-Presidential candidates, and for other purposes, as amended.

Mr. JORDAN. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on H.R. 9106.

Mr. JORDAN. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Lawler), my friend, who is the sponsor of this critical legislation.

Mr. JORDAN. Mr. Speaker, let me get this straight. Some crazy guy on the left tries to assassinate President Trump, and it is Republicans' fault? That is what we just heard. Next thing they are going to say is, oh, some crazy guy on the left tries to assassinate President Trump, and it is President Trump's fault. Oh, wait a minute. They said that, too. This is ridiculous. We have a bipartisan bill that Representative Lawler went to Democrats to work with them on, something that everyone knows needs to happen, and what does the ranking member do? He says it is Republicans' fault. What do Democrats do? What does the left do? They say it is President Trump's fault. You cannot make this stuff up. After all that President Trump has been through, they go to that. After they spied on his campaign, after Mueller, after impeachment, after they raided his home, after they tried the crazy 14th Amendment idea that the best way to beat him is not let him play the game, not let him go on the ballot--thank goodness the Supreme Court decided 9-0 that was bogus. That is what they do. I wasn't even going to talk. I was going to let Mr. Lawler, who has done the work on this, handle all this. His remarks were totally bipartisan, not partisan at all. I was just going to let this good piece of legislation that is going to go on suspension--everyone is going to vote for it--just let it happen, but no, they cannot help themselves. It is ridiculous. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Lawler), who is working in the proper fashion on a good piece of legislation that will protect, as he indicated in his opening remarks, both former President Trump and Vice President Harris. That is what we want in America.

Mr. JORDAN. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. JORDAN. Mr. Speaker, I urge a ``yes'' vote on this commonsense, good legislation that is designed to protect our Presidential candidates, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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

Mr. JORDAN

Mr. JORDAN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairman for yielding. Mr. Speaker, go to any community anywhere in this country and walk up to someone on the street and say: Do you think it makes sense--in light of the fact that 10 million migrants have come into the country in 3\1/ 2\ years and 99 of those individuals are on the terrorist watch list-- do you think it makes sense before a new voter registers to vote that they demonstrate they are a citizen of this great country? Any person you ask that question to will say: Well, of course, of course that makes sense. Every Democrat and Republican district will all say the same thing. Everyone will agree with that except Democrats in the United States House of Representatives. They disagree with that. They say: No, no, no. We can't have that requirement on a bill that spends what we are already spending. We can't put that requirement on a bill. That is ridiculous. As Sarah Huckabee Sanders said a couple of years ago in response to the state of the Union, the divide in America today is normal versus crazy. It is a crazy policy position not to agree with that, not to put the SAVE Act on this bill. Think of the positions the left now takes. It is crazy to defund the police, it is crazy not to have a border, and it is crazy to say that men can compete against women in sports. Those are all positions that the left takes, and they take the position that in light of the 10 million people coming into our country in 3\1/2\ years you shouldn't have a requirement to demonstrate you are a citizen before you register as a new voter. The people see this. The people understand in this country that this is crazy. Support this legislation. This is a good bill with a commonsense, normal policy that we are putting in the legislation that makes absolute sense. Nonetheless, they are going to vote against it. Mr. Speaker, I urge a ``yes'' vote.

Mr. JORDAN

Mr. JORDAN. Mr. Speaker, by direction of the Committee on the Judiciary, I call up the report (H. Rept. 118-527) and accompanying resolution recommending that the House of Representatives find United States Attorney General Merrick B. Garland in contempt of Congress for refusal to comply with a subpoena duly issued by the Committee on the Judiciary, and ask for its immediate consideration in the House.

Mr. JORDAN. Mr. Speaker, by direction of the Committee on the Judiciary, I call up the resolution (H. Res. 1292) recommending that the House of Representatives find United States Attorney General Merrick B. Garland in contempt of Congress for refusal to comply with a subpoena duly issued by the Committee on the Judiciary, and ask for its immediate consideration in the House.

Mr. JORDAN. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and to insert extraneous material on this measure.

Mr. JORDAN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, on page 1 of his report, Special Counsel Hur said: ``President Biden willfully retained and disclosed classified materials after his vice-presidency when he was a private citizen.'' Joe Biden not only kept information he wasn't allowed to keep, he shared it with people who weren't allowed to get it. On page 231, the special counsel told us why President Biden did this. He said: ``Mr. Biden had strong motivations to ignore the proper procedures for safeguarding the classified information in his notebooks. He had decided months before leaving office to write a book,'' a book for which he got paid $8 million. So we have motive, an $8 million motive, and we have the elements of the crime, knowingly keeping classified information, knowingly disclosing classified information. Despite all this, Special Counsel Hur declined to recommend prosecution for President Biden because Joe Biden is ``a sympathetic, well-meaning elderly man with a poor memory.'' On page 207 of his report, Special Counsel Hur said: ``Mr. Biden's memory also appeared to have significant limitations, both at the time he spoke to [the ghostwriter], Mr. Zwonitzer in 2017, as evidenced by their recorded conversations, and today, as evidenced by his recorded interview with our office.'' The committees need the audio recordings to determine whether the Justice Department appropriately carried out justice by not prosecuting the President. Remember what they told us. The Justice Department said we are going to operate independent of the White House. They said we will be impartial, independent arbiters of the facts. Maybe so, but what we do know is this: One former President is being charged; Joe Biden is not being charged. We think we are entitled-- actually we know we are entitled to all the evidence and the best evidence. The transcripts alone are not sufficient evidence of the state of the President's memory, especially since the executive branch has a history of changing transcripts. We saw this in late April. The transcript the White House put out didn't match the video and audio recording of President Biden's speech, and only after the White House was caught did they change the transcript. In that case and in this case, the audio recording is the best evidence of the words that President Biden actually spoke. Following the release of Special Counsel Hur's report, both the Judiciary Committee and the Oversight Committee issued subpoenas requiring Attorney General Garland to turn over the transcripts of the audio recordings of Special Counsel Hur's interviews with President Biden and his ghostwriter. To date, the Attorney General has failed to produce those recordings. In fact, he told us last week he wasn't going to do it, and that is why we are here. Despite the committee's best efforts, the Department has continued to withhold the audio recordings of those interviews without providing any constitutional or legal basis to do so. Just hours before the committee was set to meet and consider the contempt resolution, the Department notified the committee that President Biden had asserted, at the Attorney General's urging, executive privilege over the audio recordings. It is simple. Attorney General Garland holds information vital to the committee's legislative oversight and the House impeachment's inquiry. Remember, this body voted December 13 of last year to enter that phase of our oversight duty and impeachment inquiry. The Department has a legal obligation to turn over the requested material. Attorney General Garland's willful refusal constitutes contempt of Congress. This resolution upholds the institutional power of the House by recommending that the House find Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt of Congress for failing to comply with the committee's subpoena. Our oversight and impeachment responsibilities are too important to allow the Attorney General to willfully disregard this. I urge my colleagues to support this resolution, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. JORDAN. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Kentucky (Mr. Comer), the chairman of the House Oversight Committee and a good friend.

Mr. JORDAN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. First of all, I never said I wouldn't testify in front of the January 6th Committee. I just wanted to know what the parameters of that testimony were going to be. I never did say ``no'' to that. Second, the speaker before just said we don't know what we are looking for. We are looking for equal treatment under the law. Special Counsel Hur found that Joe Biden knowingly kept classified information and that Joe Biden knowingly disclosed classified information. He told us that on the very first page of his report, and then he told us later why he did so. He said he had strong motivation for ignoring classified procedures because he was writing a book for which he got paid $8 million. Again, we have motive, and we have him knowingly disclosing classified information. He doesn't get charged, yet President Trump does. President Trump gets charged by Jack Smith, the guy who had to file with the court a notice saying that he actually altered the order of the documents he seized in the raid of the President's home. He had to tell the court that. The physical documents don't match up with the scanned documents. You are not allowed to change the sequence of the documents you seize, but Jack Smith did. Jack Smith mishandled the documents he is accusing President Trump of mishandling. You can't make this stuff up. That is what we are focused on. By the way, we are in the midst of an impeachment inquiry. We are entitled to the best evidence. That is why we want the audiotape. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Biggs), the chairman of the Subcommittee on Crime and Federal Government Surveillance.

Mr. JORDAN

Mr. JORDAN. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the resolution (H. Res. 1215) calling on elected officials and civil society leaders to join in efforts to educate the public on the contributions of the Jewish American community, as amended.

Mr. JORDAN. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on H. Res. 1215.

Mr. JORDAN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Jewish American Heritage Month, first proclaimed by President George W. Bush and each President since, recognizes the contributions of the Jewish community to our country. Recognizing this month is particularly important following the October 7 terrorist attacks by Hamas on Israel and the flood of anti- Semitism that we have seen in its aftermath. Weeks after the October 7 attacks, the Judiciary Committee held a hearing on the topic of anti-Semitism on college campuses. We examined the slow reaction to the sometimes violent pro-Hamas rallies and encampments at top institutions across our country. One witness, a student from Cornell, testified that she had to think twice about having an outward sign of her Jewish faith because she feared for her safety on campus. Unfortunately, schools continue to see anti-Semitic and anti-American encampments and protests lasting months. According to the American Jewish Committee, nearly half of American Jews have altered their behavior due to concerns about anti-Semitism. Almost two-thirds of American Jews feel less secure in the United States than they did a year ago. Hillel International has reported 1,597 anti-Semitic incidents on college campuses since October 7, which is a 700 percent increase over the same period last year. Last month, the Judiciary Committee held a second hearing about anti- Semitism on college campuses with students and experts. One student testified that bigotry, violence, and harassment had become part of daily life as a Jewish student at Penn. Another testified that a university employee threatened him with a machete after the student denounced the defacing of campus posters that displayed the names and faces of Israeli hostages held by Hamas. Mr. Speaker, this is unacceptable and simply cannot continue. This House, elected officials at the State and local level, faith leaders, community leaders, and university administrators all have an obligation to confront this anti-Semitism. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this resolution. I thank the ranking member of the committee for his work, and I thank the sponsor of the legislation, the gentlewoman from the great State of Florida (Ms. Wasserman Schultz), and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. JORDAN. Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. JORDAN. Madam Speaker, the Jewish American people have done so much for our culture and our country as have the Jewish people all over our planet. I will also say that the Jewish nation has just done amazing things and they are our dearest and closest friend, the Jewish State of Israel. My wife and I have had the opportunity to travel there five times, and we have enjoyed every single visit. It is just a fascinating, amazing place, amazing country, with amazing people. We, as Americans, should do everything we can to help Israel win, as well as celebrate all the amazing contributions. We want to make sure they win this battle against a terrorist organization, not put limits on them, not tell them what they can and can't do, but help them win. I think this resolution is in support of that overall effort, and we strongly support it. Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to vote in favor of it, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. JORDAN

Mr. JORDAN. Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the concurrent resolution (H. Con. Res. 106) expressing support for local law enforcement officers and condemning efforts to defund local law enforcement agencies.

Mr. JORDAN. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extent their remarks and include extraneous material on H. Con. Res. 106.

Mr. JORDAN. Madam Speaker, I yield such time as he might consume to the gentleman from the great State of Mississippi (Mr. Ezell), who is a sponsor of the legislation).