Debbie Lesko

Mrs. LESKO

Mrs. LESKO. Madam Speaker, I rise today to recognize the Transportation Security Officers at the Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport for their bravery and dedication to their mission to keep our airports safe. Last month on June 18, a man rushed a TSA security checkpoint at the Phoenix Airport, injuring and knocking over several TSOs in the process. I would like to thank the following TSOs who showed courage in subduing the attacker, even as he attempted to hurt and push past the officers: Donna Potts O'Brien, Cynthia Baker, Christopher Cotton, Sandra Thompson, Patricia Miller-Davis, Gladys Recinos, Michael Malloy, Melvin Gorham, Adam Ervin, Kenneth Fetter, Robert Morelos, Michael Wilmoth, and Roberto Lopez. I am grateful to these heroic officers and commend their actions to keep the Phoenix Airport secure.

Mrs. LESKO

Mrs. LESKO. Madam Speaker, well, here we are again, and I talked on this before. I am from the State of Arizona, so border security is top and center of the discussion in Arizona and it has, quite frankly, been for years. We have all known there has been a crisis at our border for many, many years, and that is why I am at least hopeful and inspired a little bit that my Democratic colleagues are actually admitting--finally--that there is a crisis at our border. So that is good. The thing that is bad about this rule today is that I just don't understand. I guess some of my Democratic colleagues are just being stubborn because, on the one hand, you have the Senate that already passed an overwhelmingly bipartisan bill, where Senator Schumer voted for it. You have a President who said we are not in favor of this House version of the bill. So here you have a President who, seemingly, is willing to sign the Senate bill; you have a Senate bill that has vast bipartisan support, even with the top leadership in the Democrat Party; but, yet, here we are in the House, and I guess Members just want to make sure they have what they want in their bill, even if it is not going to pass and even if the money isn't going to actually get to solving the problem. And so I ask my Democrat colleagues to put your stubbornness a little bit aside, because if we all have the goal, as has been said on both sides, to help solve this problem, to help with the children who are dying at the border, you know--what was it? Yesterday we saw the picture of the father and the daughter, and then June 14, we had a story in Arizona of a young 7-year-old girl who died, and the Arizona Air National Guard helped find and rescued other members of the party. I think we are united in trying to solve the problem, and I am glad that my Democrats finally say there is a crisis, to have acknowledged it. But if you really want to help, let's stop this. Okay. Let's stop what you are doing, because I don't think you are going to win. You have the President on one side, the Senate on one side with bipartisan support, including Mr. Schumer, and yet we are here today, right before the July Fourth recess, and instead of giving in and saying let's just put up the Senate bill that we know is going to pass, that we know is going to help, you continue to, I guess, try to make a point.

Mrs. LESKO. Madam Speaker, I sincerely hope the Members have made their points, have made their talking points. Now let's get down to the business of doing what we are supposed to do in Congress: Pass a bill, pass the bipartisan Senate bill, but, also, let's work together on actually reforming our immigration laws, the root of the problem that is causing this problem, so we are not back here in 6 months or 1 year doing this again.

Mrs. LESKO

Mrs. LESKO. Madam Speaker, I rise today to recognize some of the incredible work our VA centers are doing. Joseph Faranda is a U.S. Navy veteran who served for almost nine years. During his service, he was diagnosed with cancer. Joe was able to beat cancer the first time, but 17 years later he was diagnosed with cancer again. When Joe reached out to schedule an appointment at the VA, the team urgently placed an order for an ultrasound and for him to be seen by the end of the week. When Joe went for his ultrasound, his doctor immediately recommended he check himself into the VA's Emergency Room--advice that would ultimately save his life. Joe received treatment and support from his care team and is now recovering quickly. Joe said, ``I can confidently say that if I need to return to the Phoenix VA, I will be in good hands.'' I want to recognize Doctor Ronald Jacoby and Nurse Shauna Fox for their exceptional care and dedication to Joe and all of our Arizona veterans. Thankfully, Joe's prognosis is very good, and I have full faith he will beat cancer once again.

Mrs. LESKO

Mrs. LESKO. Mr. Speaker, being from Arizona, this issue is very important to me, and it has been for years. I am glad that my Democratic colleagues are finally acknowledging that there is a crisis at the border, because we have known there was a crisis for, what, 20 years now, and it keeps growing and growing. The reason I say that: I know, today, everyone is standing up and saying, ``Let's help everyone.'' And I am glad of that, but it wasn't that long ago, on national TV, that Speaker Pelosi and Senator Schumer went in front of the public and said: This is a manufactured crisis. Trump and the Republicans are making it all up. Well, if anyone goes to the border, like I have gone to the border, you will see that it is a real crisis and it is growing each and every day. That is why President Trump asked for humanitarian aid on May 1. Then, the Department of Homeland Security and HHS sent all of us this letter--all of us Congressmen and Congresswomen--saying: We need help now. We are running out of funds. This is a crisis. So, the Republicans made motion after motion after motion--17 times-- asking for humanitarian aid. And what did my Democrat colleagues do? They said no. No. They rejected every one. So, here I am in Rules Committee last night--it is almost midnight-- and we thought we were going to vote on this bill, on the humanitarian aid. Nope. Pulled out. Nope. I guess they couldn't get the votes over on the Democratic side. So, then they did a change. From what the media said, some of their more progressive members demanded some requirements and changes. So we were supposed to meet at rules at 11 a.m. this morning with a new bill. Nope. That was pulled. So, here we are. We got the new version of the bill at 5:00 tonight. We had the rules meeting at 5:30. Then we started the rules debate at 6:00. We didn't even have time to read the bill. So, I have some major concerns with this bill. I wish we had worked on a bipartisan basis. To give you one example, there was a young girl who died in Arizona-- actually, was found dead--7 years old. And guess who helped rescue the other members of the party? It was the Arizona National Guard. Yet, the bill prevents any funding from going to the Department of Defense that will help with the Arizona National Guard and other national guards that are helping at the border. I really wish that we could work together in a bipartisan fashion, get something done, go back to rules. Let's do a clean bill. Let's send it to the Senate tonight. Let's help solve this crisis now.

Mrs. LESKO

Mrs. LESKO. Madam Chair, I am proud to sponsor an amendment that will help women veterans. My amendment would ensure that no less than $3 million under the Veterans Health Administration should be directed toward women-only inpatient clinics for mental healthcare. The current system could force women suffering with PTSD caused by military sexual trauma to be admitted into a male-dominant ward, which could further traumatize or revictimize them. The veteran suicide rate is, sadly, only increasing, and we need to protect our veterans when they are feeling vulnerable. Women veterans should not be humiliated, marginalized, traumatized, or victimized to the point of giving up and believing that suicide is the only way out. We need to protect them.

Mrs. LESKO

Mrs. LESKO. Madam Chair, this amendment prohibits funds under this act from being used to enforce two rules under Obama's so-called Clean Power Plan. This plan was administrative overreach, plain and simple. It would have mandated the shutdown of power plants and increased energy costs for families across the country. The Clean Power Plan is just another example of Obama-era regulations killing American jobs, strangling our economy, and destroying our domestic energy industry. The proposed Clean Power Plan would have required Arizona, my State, to achieve a 52 percent reduction in the CO2 emissions rate for affected power plants and to achieve about 90 percent of that reduction by next year, 2020. That was totally unrealistic. Arizona has Palo Verde nuclear plant. It is the largest producing nuclear plant in the entire Nation. Often Arizona produces more energy than it consumes, and so we sell our energy and our electricity throughout the Southwest. So Arizona energy is American energy. The regulations that strangle Arizona power generating stations harm American consumers well beyond our borders. I applaud the Trump administration for recognizing the harm of the Clean Power Plan and repealing and replacing it with the Affordable Clean Energy rule.

Mrs. LESKO

Mrs. LESKO. Madam Chair, my amendment would strike the requirement that at least $750 million of Global Health Programs shall be made available for so-called family planning, a funding stream that can support domestically-based, nongovernment organizations that support the global abortion industry. Regard for human life has never been higher. Polling statistics indicate that Americans are as likely to identify as pro-life as they are pro-choice. A Marist Poll shows that 75 percent of Americans would limit abortion to the first 3 months of pregnancy. Further, Americans oppose taxpayer funding for abortion in the U.S., 54 percent to 39 percent. Madam Chair, 75 percent of Americans oppose using tax dollars to fund abortions in foreign countries. That is 75 percent. Our policies reflect these views through the Hyde amendment, which has protected Federal tax dollars from funding abortions in the United States for the last four decades, and the Helms amendment, passed in 1973, to protect tax dollars from being spent on abortions through U.S. foreign assistance. Most recently, President Trump has committed to Congress and to the American people that he will veto any legislation that encourages the destruction of innocent human life at any stage. Our President has also courageously reinstated the Protecting Life in Global Health Assistance policy, which prohibits foreign nongovernment organizations from performing and promoting abortion as long as they are receiving U.S. tax dollars. However, domestic nongovernment organizations are still using Federal tax dollars to perform and promote abortion abroad. In the State and Foreign Operations appropriations language, we use the word ``family planning'' and ``reproductive health'' to disguise giving grant recipients license to permeate foreign countries with abortion. Promoting abortion in poor, developing nations undermines our purposes in providing lifesaving assistance and, I believe, disrespects the cultures and, sometimes, the policies of those nations. It encourages the idea that having fewer children reduces poverty and economic instability instead of promoting real solutions to those problems, like more human rights and liberties and helping women be self-employed. Stopping domestic nongovernment organizations from using American tax dollars for abortions is consistent with our other policies, like the Hyde and Helms amendments, and the PLGHA that limits government funding for abortions, and is consistent with the views of 75 percent of Americans. These policies save lives. In the case of my amendment, thousands of children all over the world can be saved. To be clear, my amendment does not eliminate, nor does it reduce, funding. My amendment aims to ensure that, instead of investing funds in promoting and performing abortions abroad, the valuable dollars that fund our global health programs are vested in reducing maternal and infant mortality, treating birth complications and enabling access to safe blood, nutrition, and antibiotics. These dollars should be used to provide quality obstetric care and true humanitarian assistance to those in need. My amendment ensures that our Nation's policies align with the views of the vast majority of the American people. We must not allow this onslaught on children to continue being promoted in foreign nations, and especially not with our tax dollars. Children are a source of hope, prosperity, and development. They must be treated as such from the very beginning of their lives, here and everywhere. I urge my colleagues to support this amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mrs. LESKO. Madam Chair, I have an amendment at the desk.

Mrs. LESKO

Mrs. LESKO. Mr. Speaker, as a Congresswoman from the border State of Arizona, I ask unanimous consent to call up H.R. 3056, an emergency supplemental to provide critically needed funding for the humanitarian crisis at our southern border, and I ask for its immediate consideration.

Mrs. LESKO

Mrs. LESKO. Mr. Speaker, I yield an additional 15 seconds to the gentleman from Arizona.

Mrs. LESKO. Mr. Speaker, I yield an additional 1 minute to the gentleman.

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

Mrs. LESKO. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I am going to use my 1 minute to actually refute these blatant allegations and fantasies, I believe, by my fellow Democrats, and that is how somehow the President and the Department of Justice has been stonewalling them. Let me go over the timelines really quick. On March 22, the Attorney General immediately notified the chairmen and the ranking members of the House and Senate Committees on Judiciary that they had received the confidential report from the special counsel. The next day, the Attorney General informed Congress of the special counsel's principal conclusions. March 29, he updated the Congress on what could be done and what redactions had to be made. Then on April 18, less than a month after receiving it, the Attorney General made the redacted confidential report available to Congress and the entire public. The same day, the Attorney General released the confidential report and made the minimally-redacted version of the confidential report available for review. Mr. Speaker, I would urge a ``no'' vote on this resolution, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mrs. LESKO. Mr. Speaker, may I inquire how much time I have left and how much time the other side has left?

Mrs. LESKO. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, the Committee on the Judiciary is one of the most venerable in the House of Representatives, and I am honored to have been selected to join its ranks. It has jurisdiction over intellectual property, during a time of exponential scientific breakthroughs. It has jurisdiction over election interference, during a time when we are concerned about Russians interfering with our election. It has jurisdiction over immigration issues, during a time of an unprecedented security and humanitarian crisis on our southern border. I am disappointed to see how the Democratic majority has chosen to waste this authority. I am disappointed to see that it has chosen to ignore its responsibilities to the American people in favor of sound bites and photo ops. Instead of legislating, the Democratic majority prefers posing with buckets of fried chicken for the national media in crude attempts to undermine our President and his administration. Really? It is time to move on and tackle the real issues that Americans care about. The American people elected us, they elected me, to Congress to get things done. Let us secure the border. Let us improve healthcare. Let us improve education. Let us stop this political theater that happens meeting after meeting and hearing after hearing in multiple committees in what I believe is a blatant attempt to influence the 2020 presidential election using taxpayer resources. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mrs. LESKO. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Cline), a fellow Judiciary Committee member.

Mrs. LESKO. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Gohmert).

Mrs. LESKO. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in opposition of H. Res. 430. It is disappointing that we are here again debating a measure that will have absolutely no impact on the lives of our constituents. Instead of fixing pressing issues like the security and humanitarian crisis at our southern border, the Democrats continue their focus on influencing the 2020 election at taxpayer expense. Americans are tired of this witch hunt. For nearly 2 years, Democrats claimed that the President colluded with the Russians to interfere in the 2016 Presidential election. After 22 months, 2,800 subpoenas, 500 warrants, 40 FBI agents, and spending $35 million, Special Counsel Mueller concluded there was no collusion between President Trump and Russia and did not charge him with obstruction. Yet, my Democratic colleagues continue to attempt to undermine the President of the United States because, all I can think of is, they haven't accepted the fact that he won the election. It is clear to me that the Democrats are trying to influence the 2020 Presidential election at taxpayer expense. Americans have real problems that we can and should be tackling instead. In May, the U.S. Border Patrol apprehended a jaw-dropping 133,000 people at our southern border. That is only the people they caught. Yet, we are here debating subpoenas targeting the President, probably because it will provide Democrats free airtime. This unprecedented resolution should not even be on the House floor today. It has never been done before in the entire history of the United States. The House has only sued for documents twice before. In both cases, the individuals in question were first found in contempt of Congress at both the committee level and by the full House. This has not happened here. On top of that, the relevant subpoenas seek material that includes grand jury materials that, by law, cannot be made public. The Democrats are asking Attorney General Barr to violate the law. When my colleagues and I tried to improve this resolution, the Democrats blocked us at every turn. I offered an amendment that would let the American people know how much money this resolution would cost taxpayers. Democrats blocked it. Republicans offered amendments to prevent taxpayer money from going to lobbyists, to disclose contracts with lawyers, and to disclose where this taxpayer money was coming from to fund this witch hunt. Democrats blocked each and every one. One amendment in particular highlights the partisan political, media- grabbing motives of this resolution. Republicans offered an amendment requiring the Judiciary Committee chairman to certify that he made a good faith effort to negotiate with the Attorney General, but the Democrats blocked that amendment, too. The Attorney General has been transparent, and the Department of Justice has attempted numerous accommodations, including just yesterday when the Department of Justice agreed to let members of the committee view an unredacted report excluding grand jury material, which, by law, cannot be released. But even as the Attorney General has attempted to work with the Committee on the Judiciary, Chairman Nadler has moved at unprecedented speed, moving from a demand for an unredacted report to subpoena to this resolution in a matter of mere weeks. From the Democrats' actions and prior statements, it is difficult not to view the purpose of this resolution and this debate as anything but political. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mrs. LESKO. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from California (Mr. McCarthy), our Republican leader.

Mrs. LESKO. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Chabot), who is my fellow Judiciary Committee member.

Mrs. LESKO. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Woodall).

Mrs. LESKO. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. McClintock).

Mrs. LESKO. Mr. Speaker, I yield 7 minutes to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Collins), ranking member of the Committee on the Judiciary.

Mrs. LESKO. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Biggs), my friend.