Mike Johnson

Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana

Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Mr. Speaker, I rise this morning to introduce my longtime friend, Bishop Larry Lawrence Brandon, who I have the honor of hosting as our guest chaplain in the House today. Bishop Brandon is the senior pastor of Praise Temple Missionary Baptist Church, which has faithfully served the people of the Shreveport-Bossier area for over three decades. In 1992, Bishop Brandon and six others founded Praise Temple. They met in the homes of local church leaders for prayer offerings and Bible study until they eventually moved into a worship space in Shreveport. Under his dutiful stewardship, the church flourished. They have built the ``church where the doors swing on the hinges of love,'' as their motto states. Last year, he moved back to his hometown of Oakland, California, to expand his ministry, but he holds deep ties to our area back home and is a beloved member of our community. Bishop Brandon has been a trusted leader in the Shreveport-Bossier area. He has served in leadership roles in local nonprofits, civic organizations, faith-based ministries, and still serves as president of the Northwest Louisiana Community Development Corporation. Bishop Brandon has been a great advocate for the sanctity of human life, and his work in the community and in biblical scholarship has served as an important reminder of the eternal hope that we have in Christ. I am grateful that he is joining us as our guest chaplain.

Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana

Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Thank you all. First, a few words of gratitude. I want to thank Leader Jeffries. I do look forward to working with you on behalf of the American people. I know we see things from very different points of view, but I know in your heart you love and care about this country and you want to do what is right. We are going to find common ground there. I want to express my great thanks to our Speaker Emeritus, Kevin McCarthy. Kevin has dedicated over two decades of his life to selfless public service; 16 of those years in this House. You would be hard- pressed to find anybody who loves this institution more or who has contributed more to it. He is the reason we are in this majority today. His impact can never be overstated. I want to thank him for his leadership, his friendship, and the selfless sacrifice that he and Judy have made for so many years. You helped build it, Kevin, and we owe you a great debt of gratitude. I want to thank the dedicated and overworked staff of this beleaguered House. They accept praise so stoically. Ms. Susan Cole, our House Reading Clerk--yes, all the clerks and all the staff, they are terribly overworked. This has been a grueling process, but they have served an integral role in keeping our Republic. We thank them for that service. I know we all do. I want to thank my dedicated wife of almost 25 years, Kelly. She is not here. We couldn't get a flight in time. This happened sort of suddenly. We are going to celebrate soon. She spent the last couple of weeks on her knees in prayer to the Lord, and she is a little worn out. We all are. I want to thank our children: Michael, Hannah, Abby, Jack, and Will. All of our children sacrifice. All of them do, and we know that. There are not a lot of perks to being a Member of Congress' kid. I want to thank all of your families as well for what they endure and what they have had to endure for the last few weeks. We have been here awhile. I want to thank my faithful mother, Jeanne Johnson, who bore me at the age of 17; my brothers, Chris and Josh; my sister, Laura; all their families and all of our extended family. In Louisiana, family is a big deal, and we have a bunch of them. I especially want to thank all the extraordinary people of the great State of Louisiana. We have never had a Speaker of the House hail from our State, and they have been lifting us up. I thank the people of Louisiana for the opportunity to serve you in Congress, and I am humbled by your continuous support. We will make you proud. To my colleagues, I want to thank you all for the trust you have instilled in me to lead us in this historic and unprecedented moment that we are in. The challenge before us is great, but the time for action is now, and I will not let you down. I want to say to the American people on behalf of all of us here: We hear you. We know the challenges you are facing. We know that there is a lot going on in our country, domestically and abroad, and we are ready to get to work again to solve those problems, and we will. Our mission here is to serve you well, to restore the people's faith in this House, in this great and essential institution. My dad, it was mentioned my dad was a firefighter. He was an assistant chief of the fire department in my hometown of Shreveport, Louisiana, a little town in northwest Louisiana. On September 17, 1984, when I was 12 years old, he was critically burned and permanently disabled in the line of duty. All I ever wanted to be when I grew up was the chief of the fire department in Shreveport. After the explosion on that fateful day, he nearly died and it was a long road back. It changed all of our life trajectories. I am the oldest of four kids. My dad lived with pain all the rest of his life, for decades more. I lost my dad to cancer 3 days before I got elected to Congress. He wanted to be there at my election night so badly. I am the first college graduate in my family. This was a big deal to him. Several weeks after that, in early 2017, it was my freshman term, and it fell to me to be in the rostrum one night to serve here as Speaker pro tempore. I thought that was a big deal until I figured out that is what you do for freshmen late at night. I think, if my memory serves, Ms. Jackson Lee was winding down one of her long, eloquent speeches--not that I was not enraptured by her speech. I looked up at the top of the Chamber there and I saw the face of Moses staring down. I just felt in that moment the weight of this place, the history that is revered here, and the future that we are called to forge, and I really was just kind of almost overwhelmed with emotion. It occurred to me in that moment that it had been several weeks, and I had not had an opportunity yet to grieve my dad's passing. I just had a sense that somehow he knew. I had tears come to my eyes, and I was standing here, and I am wiping them away, and then it suddenly occurs to me the late-night C-SPAN viewers are going to think something is very wrong with the new, young Congressman from Louisiana. It wasn't Sheila's speech, I am sorry. I just knew in that moment that my dad, my father, would be proud of me, and I felt that he was. I think all of our parents are proud of what we are called to do here. I think all the American people at one time had great pride in this institution, but right now, that is in jeopardy. We have a challenge before us right now to rebuild and restore that trust. This is a beautiful country. It is the beauty of America that allows a firefighter's kid like me to come here and serve in this sacred Chamber, where great men and women have served before all of us and strived together to build and then preserve what Lincoln did refer to as the last, best hope of man on Earth. We stand at a very dangerous time. I am stating the obvious. We all know that. The world is in turmoil, but a strong America is good for the entire world. We are the beacon of freedom, and we must preserve this grand experiment in self-governance. It still is. We are only 247 years into this grand experiment. We don't know how long it will last, but we do know the Founders told us to take good care of it. I want to tell all my colleagues here what I told the Republicans in that room last night: I don't believe there are any coincidences in a matter like this. I believe that Scripture, the Bible, is very clear, that God is the one that raises up those in authority. He raised up each of you, all of us. I believe that God has ordained and allowed each one of us to be brought here for this specific moment and this time. This is my belief. I believe that each one of us has a huge responsibility today to use the gifts that God has given us to serve the extraordinary people of this great country--and they deserve it--and to ensure that our Republic remains standing as the great beacon of light and hope and freedom in a world that desperately needs it. It was in 1962 that our national motto, In God We Trust, was adorned above this rostrum. If you look at the little guide that they give tourists and constituents who come and visit the House, if you turn in there to about page 14 in the middle of that guide, it tells you the history of this. It says very simply: These words were placed here above us. This motto was placed here as a rebuke of the Cold War-era philosophy of the Soviet Union. That philosophy was Marxism and Communism, which begins with the premise that there is no God. This is a critical distinction that is also articulated in our Nation's birth certificate. We know the language well, the famous second paragraph that we used to have children memorize in school, and they don't do that so often anymore, but they should. G.K. Chesterton was a famous British philosopher and statesman. He said one time: ``America is the only nation in the world founded upon a creed.'' He said it is listed with almost ``theological lucidity in the Declaration of Independence.'' What is our creed? ``We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal,'' not born equal, created equal, and they are endowed with the same inalienable rights--life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness. That is the creed that has animated our Nation since its founding, that has made us the great Nation that we are. We are in a time of extraordinary crisis right now. The world needs us to be strong. They need us to remember our creed and our admonition. Turmoil and violence have rocked the Middle East and Eastern Europe. We all know it. Tensions continue to build in the Indo-Pacific. The country demands strong leadership of this body, and we must not waver. Our Nation's greatest ally in the Middle East is under attack. The first bill that I am going to bring to this floor in just a little while will be in support of our dear friend Israel, and we are overdue in getting that done. We are going to show not only Israel but the entire world that the barbarism of Hamas that we have all seen play out on our television screens is wretched and wrong, and we are going to stand for the good in that conflict. We have a catastrophe at our southern border. The Senate and the White House can no longer ignore the problem. From Texas to New York, wave after wave of illegal migrants are stressing our communities to their breaking points. We know that our streets are being flooded with fentanyl, and in all of our communities, children and even adults are dying from it. The status quo is unacceptable. Inaction is unacceptable, and we must come together and address the broken border. We have to do it. The skyrocketing cost of living is unsustainable, and Americans should not have to worry about how they are going to feed their family every week because they can't afford their groceries anymore. Everybody in this room should think about this. Here are the stats: Prices have increased over 17 percent in the last 2 years; credit card interest rates are at the highest level in nearly three decades; and mortgage rates are now at a peak we haven't seen since 2001. We have to bring relief to the American people by reining in Federal spending and bringing down inflation. The greatest threat to our national security is our Nation's debt. While we have been sitting in this room, the debt has crossed to almost $33.6 trillion. In the time that it is going to take me to deliver this speech, it will go up another $20 million in debt. It is unsustainable. We have to get the country back on track. We know this is not going to be an easy task, and tough decisions will have to be made, but the consequences if we don't act now are unbearable. We have a duty to the American people to explain this to them so they understand it well. We are going to establish a bipartisan debt commission to begin working on this crisis immediately. We all know that we also live in a time of bitter partisanship. It was noted, and it has been on display here today. When our people are losing their faith in government, when they are losing sight of the principles that made us the greatest Nation in the history of the world, I think we have to be mindful of that. We are going to fight. We are going to fight vigorously over our core principles because they are at odds a lot of the time now in this modern era. We have to sacrifice sometimes our preferences because that is what is necessary in a legislative body, but we will defend our core principles to the end. In his farewell address, President Reagan explained the secret of his rapport with people, and I like to paraphrase his explanation all the time. He said: You know, they call me the great communicator, but I really wasn't that. I was just communicating great things, and they are the same great things that have guided our Nation since its founding. What are those great things? I call them the seven core principles of American conservatism, but let me concede to you all, I think it is really quintessentially the core principles of our Nation. I boil them down to individual freedom, limited government, the rule of law, peace through strength, fiscal responsibility, free markets, and human dignity. Those are the foundations that made us the extraordinary Nation that we are. You and I today are the stewards of those principles, the things that have made us the freest, most powerful, most successful Nation in the history of the world, the things that have made us truly exceptional. In this time of great crisis, it is our duty to work together, as previous generations of great leaders have, to face these great challenges and solve these great problems. I will conclude with this: The job of the Speaker of the House is to serve the whole body, and I will, but I have made a commitment to my colleagues here that this Speaker's office is going to be known for decentralizing the power here. My office is going to be known for Members being more involved and having more influence in our processes, in all the major decisions that are made here for predictable processes and regular order. We owe that to the people. I make this commitment to you, to my colleagues here and on the other side of the aisle, as well: My office is going to be known for trust and transparency and accountability, for good stewardship of the people's treasure, for the honesty and integrity that is incumbent upon all of us here in the people's House. Our system of government is not a perfect system. It has got a lot of challenges, but it is still the best one in the world, and we have an opportunity to preserve it. The last thing I am going to say is a message to the rest of the world. They have been watching this drama play out for a few weeks. We have learned a lot of lessons, but do you know what? Through adversity, it makes you stronger. We want our allies around the world to know that this body of lawmakers is reporting again to our duty stations. Let the enemies of freedom around the world hear us loud and clear: The people's House is back in business. We will do our duty here; we will serve the people well; we will govern well; and we will make everyone proud of this institution again. We are going to fight every day to make sure that is true. I look forward to the days ahead. I genuinely believe in my heart that the best days of America are still ahead of us. God bless you, and God bless the United States of America. I am now ready to take the oath of office. I ask the Dean of the House of Representatives, the Honorable Hal Rogers of Kentucky, to administer the oath of office.

Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana

Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Mr. Speaker pro tempore, pursuant to clause 7 of rule XX, I move a call of the House.

Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana

Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Mr. Speaker pro tempore, pursuant to clause 7 of rule XX, I move a call of the House.

Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana

Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Mr. Speaker pro tempore, pursuant to clause 7 of rule XX, I move a call of the House.

Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana

Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Texas for all of his hard work here. I just heard one of our colleagues over here suggest that somehow Republicans are in favor of a government shutdown. No one desires a government shutdown. What we desire and what we are working towards is changing how Washington works. That is the commitment that we made to the American people. That is why they gave us the majority. How do we do that? We have to change the decades of reckless spending and corruption. We have to change the weaponization of the Federal agencies that are designed to protect and serve the American people instead of being used against them. We have to change the opening of the borders that is destroying our communities contributing to the rising crime wave. We have to change the way that the Biden administration is administering the economy. We have to change the radical shift, the forced transition that they are trying to push us into, this radical green energy transition. It is nonsense. The American people have had enough. They see the Democrat policies destroying our economy, destroying our security, destroying opportunity for their children and grandchildren. We are taking a stand here. We are operating in good faith. We are negotiating together for the best outcome for the people, and we do not desire a shutdown.

Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana

Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Mr. Speaker, I thank Chairman Rogers and Representative Jackson for their important work on this really critical issue. Mr. Speaker, historically, Americans have transitionally held the most positive view of the U.S. military among all of our institutions, but something changed last year. Right now, less than half of Americans now have a great deal of confidence and trust in the military. You want to know why? The reason stated is because the military leadership has become overly politicized. They are addressing issues that don't have anything to do with our national defense. The best example of that probably is Secretary Austin's policy of reimbursing travel expenses for servicemembers seeking an abortion. The law is clear, as the chairman has stated. Title 10, section 1093, explicitly prohibits funds available to the DOD from being used to perform abortions. The statute was drafted, passed, and signed into law by the people's duly elected representatives. This politicized Department of Defense has decided to create a workaround. Thankfully, the House-passed NDAA will end this lawlessness. We have to stand for that. The House has spoken on the issue, and the House's position is very clear. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to defeat this motion to instruct.

Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana

Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may 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 week House Republicans will pass a resolution condemning the actions of New Mexico Governor, Michelle Lujan Grisham, a former Member of this body. Late on a Friday night earlier this month, the Governor took action to suspend open carry and concealed firearms in her State. Yeah, you heard that right. She claimed so-called emergency powers to combat a public health crisis, she said, and on a whim, she attempted to restrict the Second Amendment rights of every law-abiding New Mexico resident, the citizens of her State, the citizens of this country. Her action, of course, was overtly unconstitutional. It is functionally useless, and it will only divide Americans further. Someone with elementary-level knowledge of the Constitution would, of course, know this. Fortunately, New Mexico residents and law enforcement openly defied her order, and it was panned by lawmakers across the country, even some of our Democratic colleagues in this body. Mr. Speaker, here is the interesting thing I wanted to note today: It is ironic that Attorney General Merrick Garland was here on the Hill and has been in the Judiciary Committee in an oversight hearing for the last several hours. He is America's top law enforcement officer in charge, of course, of our top law enforcement agency, the Department of Justice. One would think that this type of issue, this event in New Mexico, regardless of the politics, that that is something the DOJ might intervene in, but they haven't. Now, by principle, of course, we are conservatives, and we believe in less Federal Government intervention. The less the Federal Government is involved in State affairs, the better overall. But this is not the case. In this situation, the issue here is the DOJ's selective application of justice and its clear targeting of red States for passing laws that its duly elected Representatives voted for. Think about these few examples. In 2021, the DOJ sued the State of Georgia for passing election integrity reform. That suit failed, and Georgia had record voter turnout just a year later. Months later, the DOJ sued the State of Texas over laws--your State, Mr. Speaker--passed to protect unborn children. The Supreme Court refused to intervene, and statistics show that abortions in Texas have plummeted, thankfully, as a result. Earlier this year, the DOJ sued the State of Tennessee for a ban on child sex change procedures. The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the suit, and now it is State law. The DOJ, Attorney General Garland in particular, has displayed a penchant for filing public lawsuits against red States for passing conservative policy through their democratically elected legislature. They do so with weak charges, based on unconstitutional arguments on cases they know they cannot win, but that is not the point. They have politicized the DOJ. Here is the big question. Given those examples and the trend of this Department of Justice, why hasn't Merrick Garland hosted a press conference or announced a Federal lawsuit into the State of New Mexico for arbitrarily suspending the constitutional rights of its citizens? I will tell you why. It is no secret. It is because New Mexico's action serves the Biden administration's stated political goals. The DOJ will sue red States for passing conservative policy, while turning a blind eye to Democrat Governors who unilaterally curtail constitutional rights. They will put grandmothers behind bars for protesting abortion but refuse to prosecute violent offenders who actually attack the pro-life pregnancy centers. They will prosecute President Trump for allegedly mishandling classified documents, but they give President Biden a complete pass for even worse infractions. When we say the DOJ has been weaponized, this is exactly what we are talking about, and this is what the American people see. Mr. Speaker, today the House Judiciary Committee, as I mentioned, asked Attorney General Garland about these questions and many more. Right now, 65 percent of the American people have no faith in the Department of Justice. It is because of his leadership. He has eroded the rule of law. He has destroyed public trust in an essential American institution. I used my time this morning, I was the first questioner on our side in Judiciary, and I asked the Attorney General about the DOJ's Hunter Biden investigation. This is a big question on the minds of my constituents and most of ours around the country. I asked him plainly: Have you had personal contact with anyone at FBI headquarters about the Hunter Biden investigation?'' His answer was, I don't recollect the answer to that question. Really? Okay. Let me get this straight, I told him, the Attorney General of the United States cannot remember if he discussed an FBI investigation into the son of the sitting President of the United States? That is your testimony under oath? Yes, it is, he said. It is extraordinary. Mr. Speaker, frankly, we didn't expect full transparency today from this Attorney General. He and his top DOJ lieutenants have shown us, they have demonstrated over and over that they hold no regard for the rule of law and really are just acting as political hatchet men protecting their boss, President Biden. The Attorney General was clearly unwilling or unable to provide the essential answers that we needed today. We will continue to press for them. That is our job. That is our constitutional duty on Judiciary to provide oversight over the DOJ. Mr. Speaker, we have a great lineup of Members here to speak this afternoon on some very important topics to the country. I yield to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Van Drew).

Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend. He is exactly right. We had no choice but to proceed to the impeachment inquiry phase because that is where the evidence has led us, as you noted. We have a responsibility. Article II, Section 4 of the Constitution says very clearly that a President shall be removed from office on impeachment for and conviction of treason, bribery, high crimes and misdemeanors. We have credible allegations of a number of those infractions. Bribery is one of them. High crimes and misdemeanors are another. We have mounds of evidence now stacking up to support those allegations, so we do not have a choice under the Constitution but to proceed accordingly, and that is what we will do. We will do our constitutional duty. Mr. Speaker, I yield next to the gentleman from Utah (Mr. Owens), my good friend and Super Bowl champion.

Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman. That was well said. If time permitted today, I am sure we would have every Republican in the Conference come to the floor and speak to the same issue because it is so outrageous that we have this trampling upon some of our most fundamental freedoms; the Second Amendment, of course, being among them. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman and former mayor from Texas (Ms. Van Duyne).

Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend; that was well said. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from California (Mr. LaMalfa).

Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Mr. Speaker, very well said by the gentleman. Look, let's hasten to say we take no pleasure in this. There are a lot of big challenges that the country needs to fix. We don't want to spend time and resources investigating the President, impeaching a President. Next to declaring war, this is the heaviest power that we have in the House of Representatives, but Article I of the Constitution does give us the ``sole power of impeachment'' here. We have no choice in the matter. Given the evidence, given the allegations, we have to pursue it, and we will. We are often asked: Why is the House majority, why are the House Republicans spending so much time investigating? If we had not done these investigations, we wouldn't have all of this evidence. Why? It goes back to the theme of what I was saying earlier: The Department of Justice is simply not doing its job. Under normal circumstances, the DOJ would be investigating all these allegations of corruption but they simply looked the other way. As I noted earlier, Attorney General Garland, who is just now leaving the Committee on the Judiciary, he has been here all day, has abused the Department to pursue political agendas. He has sued conservative States over their local policies. He has raided the home of President Biden's main political opponent. The Department is obstructing at the same time the Hunter Biden investigation and impeding the House's impeachment inquiry into President Biden. What are we to do? I was home on the August district work period. I was doing townhalls in my district in Louisiana, and I will tell you that at every venue, the number one question everybody has is: When will there be accountability? I mentioned earlier that 65 percent of Americans now have no faith. They don't trust the Department of Justice. We are losing faith in our institutions because the people do not see accountability. They don't see a fair system of justice. They see a two-tiered system of justice. It is frightening. You cannot maintain a Constitutional republic if the people do not trust the system of justice. They don't believe it is fair. They don't believe that they are going to get a fair shake, that every American, regardless of who they are, is going to have equal justice under law. That is the threat right now. There is nothing more serious than that. Mr. Speaker, we will pursue the truth, and we will follow it wherever it leads and try to return that accountability to the people. Mr. Speaker, I end the Special Order hour here, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana

Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Exactly.

Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. 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 the subject of my Special Order.

Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Mr. Speaker, barring declarations of war, impeachment is the most awesome power that Congress has. It shouldn't be a threat. It shouldn't be a political exercise. It is certainly not a pledge to be made on the campaign trail. This is the most serious business that we can engage in. No one should want to impeach a President or take any pleasure in that. However, after months of blocked investigations by agencies in this administration, it became clear that an impeachment inquiry was the only course of action to complete our necessary and important investigations. Let me explain why because there has been some confusion and some controversy about this. Mr. Speaker, there are three irrefutable facts that have taken us to this point. One, President Biden lied directly to the American people. Two, President Biden's family and their associates profited millions through shell companies. Three, President Biden's Federal agencies are stonewalling our legitimate congressional inquiry. That is just the tip of the iceberg. There are so many scandals. There is so much corruption that is being uncovered. Every stone that we overturn leads to more and more corruption. Because of that, Mr. Speaker, a lot of the American people are simply getting lost in the barrage of evidence, in the barrage of allegations of corruption, and the evidence itself. Let me go through just a couple of highlights here to bring everybody's attention to this to help explain why we are doing what we are doing. In August 2019, President Biden said: ``I have never discussed with my son or my brother or anyone else anything having to do with their businesses, period.'' Two months later, he said: ``I never discussed a single thing with my son about anything having to do with Ukraine. No one has indicated I have. We have always kept everything separate.'' He then doubled down on those claims during the debates, and both Jen Psaki and Karine Jean-Pierre have echoed that straight from the White House press briefing room. Make no mistake about this: Everyone now knows those were all bald- faced lies. While President Biden was Vice President, we know now that he had dinner at least twice with his son, Hunter, and Russian and Kazakhstani oligarchs. He spoke on the phone at least 20 times with Hunter's associates. He met with CEFC, a Chinese energy company, while Hunter was working on their behalf. Here is a text message from Hunter Biden that alone is justification for an inquiry: ``Z--Please have the director call me, not James or Tony or Jim. Have him call me tonight. I am sitting here with my father, and we would like to understand why the commitment made has not been fulfilled.'' A confidential human source, known well to the FBI and relied upon often, alleged that President Biden received a $5 million bribe for services rendered. The House Oversight Committee investigation has been going on for a while, and the investigation has yielded many important facts. Here are a couple of examples the investigators have found. They found that Hunter Biden flew on Air Force Two at least 15 times and engaged in activities that Devon Archer testified were to sell the brand and enrich the Biden family. They found an email from Biden associate James Gillar that breaks down the profit agreement for a deal involving the Chinese Communist Party-linked CEFC, including ``10 held by H for the big guy.'' They found a text message later that month from Gillar to Tony Bobulinski, which read: ``Don't mention Joe being involved. It is only when you are face-to-face. I know you know that, but they are paranoid.'' This is just a sampling of what we already know. This impeachment inquiry will offer House investigators greater subpoena authority to receive information from evasive Federal agencies. We have been impeded in the collection of all this evidence because the Federal agencies under the executive branch are openly, aggressively trying to protect the President. We are going to have advanced authority now and a larger platform to share this information with the American people. Mr. Speaker, remember how we arrived here. When the New York Post reported the existence of the Hunter Biden laptop, now-Secretary of State Anthony Blinken organized a group of 51 former intelligence officials to claim the laptop was Russian disinformation. Social media accounts were banned from sharing the story, and individuals who believed it were labeled Russian assets and conspiracy theorists. We now know that not only was the laptop not Russian disinformation, of course, but it was known previously to the intel community and many of the individuals who signed that letter. They knew it was legitimate. They knew it was not Russian disinformation. They knew it came from Hunter Biden, and they hid it from the American people. On July Fourth, just a couple of months ago, the Federal district court in the Western District of Louisiana, my home State, issued a 155-page court opinion. The State of Louisiana and State of Missouri sued the Biden administration because they had a hunch and knew that the White House and its agencies, including the FBI, the DOJ, and other Federal agencies, were engaged in a coverup. They were censoring and silencing the viewpoints of Americans they disagreed with. They would not allow conservative speech on the social media platforms. We know from the evidence produced in that case and listed in the 155-page court opinion that issued an injunction against the White House. By the way, just last Saturday, that was upheld by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. The court points out that Elvis Chan, the FBI official in the San Francisco field office, was meeting regularly with the Big Tech platforms in Silicon Valley leading up to the election and telling them things that they had to pull off the internet, conservative voices and social media postings that they didn't want people to see. The FBI coerced, the court said, and then coordinated with the Big Tech giants to make sure that on Facebook, Google, and Twitter at the time, and all these other platforms, you couldn't see that information. It wasn't just the Hunter Biden laptop story. It was a lot of categories of things. It included negative information about the economy. It included people's opinions, conservative's opinions about the efficacy of COVID vaccines and the lockdowns, how crazy that was, and what they were doing to schoolchildren. All that was censored. They even took down jokes about the President. If you posted a parody about President Biden, even as a candidate or after he was elected, it was pulled off the internet. It is unbelievable. It is staggering. The judge's words in the court that this is arguably the largest and the greatest attack on free speech in U.S. history. He called it Orwellian. He said it was dystopian. This is what we are facing. This is what this White House has been involved in. They did not want the American people to have the facts, and that is one of the reasons that we have to go to this next step. That is why, Mr. Speaker, we have to follow these facts where they lead. The facts are irrefutable. They have understandably set Washington ablaze, even though the American people weren't able to see it. The judge said that millions of free-speech-protected postings were taken down from the internet and not seen. Yet, it has set Washington ablaze. Why? Because we are bringing these facts to bear. We are laying them out for people to see. Our colleagues here, some of them, don't want to see it. As John Adams said, ``Facts are stubborn things.'' As expected, the D.C. and national press corps have blindly accepted the White House's spin and are trying to convince the American people that our inquiry, even the impeachment inquiry, is illegitimate just 3 years after they carried the water for Adam Schiff and the Democrats on their crazy impeachment quests against Donald Trump. Here is a sampling of the headlines so far. Now, remember, we just announced the impeachment inquiry step yesterday. Here it is so far. From Time magazine: ``Biden inquiry may be weakest in history.'' From CNN: ``The most predictable impeachment investigation in American history.'' From Reuters: ``McCarthy opens long-shot impeachment probe of Biden.'' From MSNBC: ``McCarthy's Biden impeachment inquiry is the Benghazi investigation on steroids.'' These headlines are going to increase. We know it is coming. We know that they are working against us, against the American people, in this case, and for the White House. They are on their team. We get it. CNN is reporting this week that the White House is urging news executives to ramp up scrutiny of our investigation. In fact, now there is a memo going around that they sent to all the big news agencies. As if weaponizing the Federal agencies wasn't enough, President Biden is now publicly directing the free press to play defense for him. Do you know what? They are willingly going along with it. Mr. Speaker, why? I am just going to ask this question. It is a rhetorical one. Nobody can answer it here, of course, but we are trying to seek the answer to this. I think we know. If there was no impropriety, why wouldn't the President provide congressional investigators with all the information we have requested? What do they have to hide? The President could make the short trip from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue tomorrow. He could sit down with our committees. He could clear his name. We could do that behind closed doors. We could do it very discreetly, with all the protection he needs. In fact, we would welcome it. Let this be an open invitation to President Biden. I know the White House is recording all this. They are watching what we do here. Here is the open invitation: President Biden, Secretary Blinken, any of the Biden family members and associates, or anyone who seeks to clear their name, anybody involved in this investigation at all, you can come right here. You are welcome here in Congress to our committees. We on the House Judiciary Committee, House Oversight Committee, Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, the Ways and Means Committee, any of them--pick your committee--and we will bring you in and you can clear your name. Mr. Speaker, we would love to return our full focus to our regular and important work here, but the fact is our sworn oath to defend the Constitution requires this inquiry. I will close with this--and I am going to bring up a couple of my colleagues who will share their thoughts, as well-- but remember that Article I, Section 2 of the Constitution itself expressly states that the sole power of impeachment belongs here to this House. Then Article II, Section 4 says--listen to the language carefully. It is expressly written in the Constitution. These are not political talking points. We are not making this up. It says in Article II, Section 4 that the President shall be removed from office on impeachment for and conviction of treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors. Mr. Speaker, I listed just a small sampling, just the tip of the iceberg of the credible allegations and the mounting evidence that shows that Joseph Biden has engaged in bribery schemes, pay-to-play schemes. This is what the evidence shows. We have to follow it. We took an oath to uphold the Constitution. The Constitution requires this action. The inquiry is the appropriate step. We have no choice but to pursue the facts wherever they lead, and we will leave no stone unturned. Mr. Speaker, I yield next to the great gentleman from Utah (Mr. Owens), not only a Super Bowl champion but also a wonderful Congressman.

Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Idaho (Mr. Fulcher).

Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Mr. Speaker, I ask the gentleman before he leaves the podium today: I was told by automobile dealers who were in my office from the district that the State of California has banned the combustion engine. Is that a rumor or is that true?

Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. I yield to the gentleman from Idaho.

Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Isn't it true then that if California, which is one of the largest markets for vehicles, bans the sale of the combustion engine, then the car manufacturers, if they want to do business in California, are going to have to shift lots of their production lines to these vehicles that, by the way, no one wants, and they are not affordable or maintainable. As I understand it, if the battery goes it costs you another $100,000 for an already overpriced vehicle that no one wants or can charge up. Isn't that then going to affect the automobile market in every other State, and your ability to get a truck or a car?

Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Mr. Speaker, I think the people are calling upon us to bring common sense to this equation because this team on the other side who is pushing this radical climate agenda is engaged in fantasy economics. The people in my State of Louisiana need their trucks and cars. They are not going to buy electric vehicles. They can't afford them, first of all. It is not practical because there is nowhere to charge them in my State. If we have a shortage of vehicles on the market that is going to be a real problem. I am told delivery trucks are involved in this in California, and if you can't get the fruit shipped from California, that means the prices at the grocery store are going to go up, as well. Everyone is going to suffer from this; isn't that true?

Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Mr. Speaker, it is about government control. I thank the gentleman for his work on that, and we urge our colleagues to support the bill. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from California (Mr. LaMalfa), the gentleman from the northern portion of California.

Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend for his remarks. Sadly, what happens in California, that giant market out there, affects the entire country. I appreciate him shining light on that. Mr. Speaker, I will wind down our Special Order hour just by returning to the issue of the impeachment inquiry. Even as I have been sitting here, I got a question from a Hill reporter about some of the Senators in the other Chamber and their reaction to our bringing forward the impeachment inquiry. I just want to say that, to speak very frankly, whether or not the Senate is courageous enough to confront the alleged corruption of President Biden is not really the House's concern. As I mentioned earlier, it is Article I of the Constitution, Section 2, that gives the sole power of impeachment to us in the House. We are supposed to investigate these things. We have to do it. It is our constitutional responsibility. They will later try the matter, if it comes to them. If our committee uncovers evidence, if our investigations uncover evidence that lead to an impeachment vote indeed, then it will be incumbent, when we send it over to the Senate, to decide if they want to engage with those facts. They will have to answer to their own constituents and voters and the American people, but we will have done our job here. If the inquiry comes up fruitless, say some evidence is determined and uncovered that completely exonerates President Biden, then we will have concluded a legitimate congressional inquiry as directed by the Constitution, and we will be satisfied with that and the American people will be satisfied. Some will be frustrated whatever happens at the outcome of this, but the Constitution will have been followed and upheld. On our side, that is the most important thing here. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana

Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor and thank Louisiana's brave first responders who valiantly rose to the occasion this summer as our State was hit with unprecedented wildfires, the largest of which is still burning today. We had tens of thousands of acres that have been charred. Nearly half of the parishes in my district were ablaze. At one time, parts of Sabine, Beauregard, Allen, Vernon, Natchitoches, Grant, Caddo, and DeSoto Parishes were all on fire. Our communities received support from the State fire marshal, the State police, the National Guard, as well as nearly every local police and fire department in the region. The U.S. Forestry Service dispatched firefighters from many States around the country to help. Many of the first responders have been volunteers, Louisianans who donated time, money, and shelter to their neighbors in need. This disaster tested our State more than ever, but we responded. Louisiana is home to the most resilient people you will ever meet, and we will bounce back from these wildfires just as we have done after every disaster we have ever faced. It is a great honor to represent so many of these heroic individuals in Congress.

Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana

Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Mr. Speaker, on July 26, 2023, I was unavoidably detained. Had I been present, I would have voted YEA on Roll Call No. 372.