Mike Johnson

Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana

Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Thank you, my friend, for your leadership. That was well said. As we say over and over and over, energy security is national security, and it is unconscionable that we are funding Putin's aggression in Ukraine. Madam Speaker, I am happy to yield next to the gentlewoman from Illinois (Mrs. Miller), my dear friend.

Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Madam Speaker, I thank Mr. Grothman. That was well said. There is lot. We know you can go all night because there was a lot to complain about. Madam Speaker, tonight you have heard the response of so many of my Republican colleagues to the lackluster State of the Union address that was held here last evening. Perhaps the most glaring problem with his speech is that the President tried to ignore the fact that it is his lack of leadership that is what has created this dangerous situation that we are all in right now. All the crises you have heard about, the American people know the facts. I grew up in the seventies and eighties. I was a child of the Reagan era, and we remember in the Cold War he reminded us we maintain the peace through our strength. What he communicated to us so clearly is weakness invites aggression. We have projected weakness on the world stage, and it is inviting Russian aggression. We pray and hope that we do not get a similar aggression from our other adversaries like China, North Korea, Iran, and the rest. The only thing holding back terrorists and tyrants and dictators and rogue operators around the globe is their perception of a strong America. That is what we stand for. We wish we could have heard that from the President in a more honest tone last night, but we didn't get it. So we are here. We are going to continue to work on this side of the aisle to fix these problems, and we look forward to the election cycle this fall where we believe the fortunes around here are going to change pretty substantially. Madam Speaker, I thank my colleagues for being here tonight, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana

Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Mr. Speaker, by direction of the Republican Conference, I send to the desk a privileged resolution and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana

Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Mr. Speaker, I am happy to yield next to a gentleman who has been on the front lines of all this as a retired police lieutenant. He is also a former professional hockey player, and that is pretty cool, too. He is a tough guy, but he knows the issue. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Stauber).

Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the subject of my Special Order.

Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Mr. Speaker, this evening we will have Republican Members from across this country to address the multiple crises that are facing our country, whether it is the economic crisis, the crime crisis, the energy crisis, the border crisis, the foreign policy crisis, or now the related issue of the staggering and ongoing crisis of fentanyl, a scourge upon this country. Mr. Speaker, I yield first to the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Griffith) to address this issue.

Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Mr. Speaker, I could not have said it better myself. I thank my friend for those comments. Mr. Speaker, what Mr. Griffith is explaining there is the magnitude of this crisis, and I have a number of colleagues here tonight who will speak to it. Illegal drug overdoses recently became the leading cause of death for Americans age 18-45; the leading cause of death. Today in America illegal drug overdoses are killing more people at this age demographic than car accidents, obviously, than cancer, more than COVID. In my home State of Louisiana alone, opioid deaths increased in 2021 by 40 percent; 40 percent in one year; mostly driven by an increase in illicit fentanyl. What is fentanyl? Fentanyl is this synthetic opioid that is 80 to 100 times stronger than morphine. It is created with chemicals shipped from China to Mexico. It is trafficked across our southern border. Its potency means the smallest amount, even to fit on the tip of a pencil, is considered a lethal dose, and now it is fueling one of the worst drug epidemics in American history. Mr. Speaker, the Biden administration's response has been nothing, passivity. They have been passive about securing our border, the entry point for all these drugs coming into our communities. They have been passive about prosecuting drug offenders. Many Democrat-led jurisdictions are lowering felony offenses to misdemeanors. They have been passive about preventing drug abuse. The Democrats' American Rescue Plan, so-called, even includes a provision, as you have already heard tonight, and you will hear it more, to distribute drug paraphernalia at taxpayers' expense. It is unbelievable. Mr. Speaker, fentanyl deaths are certain to increase unless we act with the same resolve that we have used to attack other less-deadly threats. If the Biden administration were serious about addressing this crisis, they would start by securing our turnstile at the southern border. It is time for the Democrats in charge here to wake up. To help address this problem, we have to take immediate steps. We have to secure our border. We have to prosecute criminals again. We have to work with localities to prevent drug abuse rather than accommodate it. Mr. Speaker, I have a number of colleagues, as I mentioned, who will address this issue in further detail. I am delighted that they have taken the time to be here. I am happy to yield to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. C. Scott Franklin).

Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend for that compelling message. He is right, every State is a border State now, whether you are on the coast or whether you are up north or anywhere in the country, and Tennessee is no exception to that. I yield now to the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Burchett), my good friend.

Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend. It is a serious issue. Every moment of levity helps us. I tell you what, if we can't work in a bipartisan fashion to prosecute criminals and stop the cartels, there may not be a lot of hope for this institution. I hope we can get back to that soon. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Arizona (Mrs. Lesko). Arizona is a State that certainly deals with this every moment of every day, and she has seen it up close.

Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Mr. Speaker, that passion is authentic. And as we said, from Arizona you see it every day. Mr. Speaker, I just received a text message from our colleague, Mr. Katko, and he is the lead Republican on the Homeland Security Committee, and he said make sure when we are talking about the cartels to point out they are getting magnificently enriched through this alien smuggling surge, and they are, therefore, flush with cash, and they are now developing their own ability to make fentanyl. That is a dangerous game changer for the country. This crisis gets worse and worse by the hour. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Van Drew).

Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Mr. Speaker, strong words on a very important set of issues. I yield to the gentleman from California (Mr. LaMalfa).

Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for his remarks. The Border Patrol agents are as frustrated as we are. Demoralized is exactly right. We have met with them and heard their stories. And the reason they are so frustrated, Mr. Speaker, is because all of this crisis is completely avoidable. These are the results of bad policy choices, and that is what is so outrageous. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Grothman).

Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for that forceful message. Mr. Speaker, may I inquire how much time is remaining?

Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend. I appreciate his words and his expertise on the issue. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Babin), who I think will address some of the other crises we are facing as well.

Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Mr. Speaker, that debt is so staggering. And Dr. Babin is right, so many people don't stop to think about the magnitude of it and what we are doing to our children, our grandchildren, every future generation of Americans. We better get control of it. Thank you for that insight tonight. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Carter), another gentleman with a lot of expertise, who will address some of the crime crises that we are facing.

Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend for his insights there. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Rose).

Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend. I think about the same thing, our children and what we are doing to them and their future. They will have less security, less financial stability, less opportunity. They won't have the great fortune that we have because we are making bad policy decisions right now. We are adding to the debt. We are compounding the problem day by day, and we just can't get anyone here to pay any attention to it. The Democrats in charge refuse to address the issue. In fact, they just continue to double down on bad policy, and it is just so frustrating. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Clyde) to talk about this energy crisis more.

Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Mr. Speaker, as we have illustrated tonight with so many Members coming in from all over the country to express our concerns about all of these crises--and we genuinely could go for hours upon hours. But the hour is getting late tonight, and our Special Order hour is running out. I just want to reiterate again some of the things we highlighted in this last hour on the floor here in the people's House tonight. We addressed this economic crisis. It is just staggering. A $30 trillion Federal debt is a number that previous generations of Americans couldn't even have imagined. We talked about the crime crisis and the utter lack of responsibility that Democrats in charge have shown and that the White House has shown to address this issue. The border crisis and now the fentanyl crisis that is directly related to that. It has become the number one killer of Americans aged 18 to 45 in this country. The energy crisis--because I come from an energy state, the State of Louisiana, I just want to conclude with a couple of remarks to put a fine point on that latter issue before we close this evening. Mr. Speaker, the problem here is that, as with all of these crises, all this is totally avoidable. All of this is the result of policy choices. It is bad decisions, bad policy by the White House and by the Democrats in charge. Mr. Speaker, on the energy crisis, President Biden's anti-energy agenda has caused the price of a gallon of gas to skyrocket to $3.42 nationally. Last week, oil prices hit $90 a barrel. Mr. Speaker, $90 is a 7-year high. In just the last month, oil prices have surged 37 percent. That is in 1 month, and it has been on a steady and rapid increase. Given this agenda and the rapid rise in prices, it is not surprising that, according to a recent Gallup poll, American satisfaction with our energy policies is the lowest in two decades. That is because Americans have paid at the pump more now than they paid since the Obama-Biden administration. U.S. households will also pay between $700 and $1,700 more for heat this winter, depending on where they live and what type of fuel they use. More than one in four Americans report now that they skipped basic expenses to pay their energy bill in the past year. One in five Americans report they could not pay their full energy bill. This is a crisis. Let me just tell you, and break it down in layman's terms, why this is happening. From the very beginning of the Biden administration, the first couple of weeks, as soon as he took office, he issued that slew of executive orders, a record number of executive orders. Among those early executive orders were his directions on energy policy. He reflexively did exactly the opposite of what President Trump had done and accomplished. We were energy dominant, not just energy independent. We were energy dominant because of the Trump-era policies. What does President Biden do? He does exactly the opposite, reflexively almost. President Trump moved us to domestic oil and gas production to increase that to make us energy dominant, to make us a net exporter. What does President Biden do? The opposite. He shuts down and puts a moratorium on drilling and exploration on Federal lands, including offshore, off the coast of States like mine, Louisiana. That was a killer for the national economy. It is a direct contributor to driving the costs up. He also killed the Keystone pipeline, of course. That was a big source, an artery, as it were, for domestic production and supply in our country. Here is the great irony. Ostensibly, the reason for doing all those things is he wanted to help the environment, I guess. I guess he owed it to some interest groups or something. They claim that that would be better for the environment if we moved away from fossil fuels, as we always hear. But here is the great irony--and I will close with this. When President Biden shut down domestic production, not only did he drive up the cost of all the fuel that we need to heat our homes and to fill up our gas tanks and all the rest, not only did he increase the pain on American consumers, but here is the irony. When they shut down domestic production, the demand for fossil fuels, oil and gas, in this country didn't go down. The demand didn't change nationally just because the President decided he didn't want to supply it anymore. In fact, the demand is at least stabilized and, in some cases, has gone up. So, what does that mean? Well, Americans have to get their supply from somewhere else. If we are not going to produce it here, the bountiful resources that God has given us beneath our own feet, if we are not going to do it here, we have to get it from somewhere else. The Biden administration turns to OPEC. They turn to Russia, Saudi Arabia, begging for more production and begging for our supply to be met from these overseas parties. Do you know what the greatest irony about all of this is? Ostensibly, they wanted to help the environment, but do you know what they do when we get more of our oil and gas from Russia and Saudi Arabia? We do exponentially more harm to the environment. If you believe their metrics, this is a terrible policy solution because--guess what?--we produce oil and gas in a much cleaner fashion in the United States than they do in those other countries. So, the great irony is not only do they drive up costs for American consumers, not only do they increase the pain for everybody; they are actually doing more harm to the world that they claim they want to help. It is truly unbelievable, not to mention it has destabilized us and put Russia in a better position. Now, we see the results of that on a whole different crisis that we didn't even have time to address tonight. Mr. Speaker, I am out of time. I would just close by saying that the American people cannot tolerate this for much longer, and they won't tolerate it for much longer. We cannot wait for this election cycle that comes up later this year when we get an opportunity to be returned to the majority to govern this place again and bring some sanity back to Washington. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana

Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Madam Speaker, I rise today to congratulate my good friends and community leaders who have been serving my hometown of Shreveport for a remarkable 75 years. The CPA firm of Heard, McElroy & Vestal has been an integral part of our community since 1946. In fact, founding partner Charles McElroy served as one of the first chairmen of the Louisiana Certified Public Accountants. From the very beginning, the firm has established itself as a pillar of trust, integrity, and competence. Their firm is now one of the largest public accounting groups in northwest Louisiana. This firm and its over 100 employees have worked faithfully for the people of Louisiana every day, and they have continued to be a cornerstone for our region. We are blessed to have their mission of accounting excellence and commitment to integrity as a part of our community. Thank you to my friends for serving so well for all of these years, and happy 75th anniversary.

Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana

Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Madam Speaker, once again, an opportunity for bipartisan work on behalf of the American people has been blocked by the House Democrat leadership. Madam Speaker, you might have seen last year, the Senate passed a bipartisan bill to help counter the rise of China, and we all recognize that this is the existential threat of our generation. The rise of China is something that should keep all of us up at night and we ought to be acting upon it. And you might have also seen this year that the House was negotiating in good faith a companion bill to that Senate bill that passed in bipartisan fashion last year. But that was all before the rug was pulled out from underneath all of us by the House Democrat leadership just a few days ago. And it is as if the Democrat leadership here has forgotten how a bill becomes a law. Now, look, these are the facts. There is not a mandate for radical legislation here. In the election cycle of 2020, what we got was a divided House. We got a divided Senate. The Senate is 50/50. The Democrat majority in the House has the slimmest margin since World War II, but they seem to have forgotten that. So they are trying to act unilaterally. They are trying to bypass regular procedure. They are trying to skip over the regular committee process to have amendment and debate to legislation. And they are defying the opportunity for Republicans to work with our colleagues to address these great crises. Madam Speaker, so we are here to remind the American people tonight-- my colleagues will be speaking over this hour--that there is a failure going on here and there are huge consequences to that for the American people. And of course, the failures are not limited to what is happening in this Chamber. It is the Biden administration itself. So we will be talking about these crises tonight. My colleagues will come up one by one representing people from all across the country to talk about these great dilemmas that we are facing, unprecedented crises because of the policy choices and the actions of the White House and the Democrat leadership in Congress. One of those that we will be talking about tonight is the passivity that we have seen in addressing the border crisis. Madam Speaker, I was in my office for the last couple of hours, I got multiple calls from constituents back home who are deeply concerned about what they are watching play out on the television in the news every night. They are seeing the border completely overrun. They are seeing the number of illegal crossings at the border, which has risen, at a faster rate under President Biden than at any time in recent history. The result is truly catastrophic for the country. We have an historic amount of illegal drugs coming across the border. That is just one aspect of this crisis that affects every American. Today, fentanyl overdoses--listen--fentanyl overdoses are now the leading cause of death for Americans age 18 to 45--the leading cause of death. What are the Democrats doing to address this? Nothing. They are not allowing us to do anything about it because we can't move our legislation. So we are here to talk about this issue and to raise the alarm, to let the American people know what it is we are facing. The Biden administration is asleep at the wheel when it comes to their number one job. The first job is to keep this country safe, to secure our borders, to maintain our sovereignty, to protect the American people. If you are an independent voter, it is becoming very clear that these Democrats cannot be trusted to fulfill even the most basic functions of government at any level. Many public schools remain closed or they are operating part-time. Defunding and demonizing police is leading to crime in our streets, and many Americans can't even get their own tax returns or Social Security checks or veterans benefits because of the Biden administration's Federal Government staffing policies. Democrats like to call themselves the party of competent government, but it is obviously clear to everyone who is paying attention that the last 12 months have shown us that unified Democrat control is just incompetent. If you put this simply, the Democrats have failed to do their job. I believe, we believe, we are certain, that there is going to be a reckoning for this in the election cycle before us. Madam Speaker, I thank all my colleagues for being here tonight to discuss this disastrous House Democrat agenda and the Biden administration's shameful management of our government. Madam Speaker, for the next hour you will hear about a number of crises. Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Clyde).

Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Madam Speaker, I am grateful for his recognition. The madness of this bill--it is a climate change bill that is masquerading as a China bill. It mentions coral reefs more times in the bill than the word China. Doesn't that say enough? I thank my friend for his comments. Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Tennessee (Mrs. Harshbarger).

Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Madam Speaker, West Virginia is a long way from the southern border, but these drugs make it all the way across the country, and it affects everyone in one way or another. We all know people who have lost their lives because of overdose. I thank the gentleman for his insight. Madam Speaker, I will go from West Virginia to the other side of the country. Madam Speaker, I yield to the distinguished gentleman from California (Mr. Garcia), who served this country so valiantly.

Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Madam Speaker, these are harsh words about China. The gentleman is correct. It is the number one threat. This bill that they are proposing and advancing right now--we call it the America concedes act--mentions climate change more than twice as often as the phrase ``national security'' in the bill. I think that says a lot. Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Washington (Mrs. Rodgers), who is our Republican lead on the Energy and Commerce Committee.

Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Madam Speaker, I thank my friend for his insight. We were told, and we heard this morning in a briefing, that there are more than 140 derivative drugs that this poisonous fentanyl is being used with, and it is such a crisis. Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Rose).

Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Madam Speaker, I thank my friend for highlighting this terrible tragedy. It is just unimaginable the scope and the scale of this, and it goes on every day. Madam Speaker, I am happy to yield to the gentlewoman from Iowa (Mrs. Miller-Meeks).