Jim McGovern

Mr. McGOVERN

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

Mr. McGOVERN

Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I demand a recorded vote.

Mr. McGOVERN

Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, nobody is defending the Ayatollah. There is no love lost for a brutal government that sponsors terror and murders their people. Iran has been doing this for decades. Everybody knows that. So my question is this: Why wasn't Donald Trump in favor of regime change until this weekend? Why did he campaign on swearing he would never send American kids to fight and die in the Middle East? Republicans can't answer because they were against war with Iran until exactly the second Donald Trump decided to go to war. Now, they are all running around sounding like neocon lunatics. America can't take this level of gaslighting. I went to the classified briefing. There was no imminent threat, I guess unless Republicans want to redefine the word ``imminent'' to mean stretching back 47 years. This whole thing is just so transparently built on lies. Republicans went from imminent threat to regime change to nukes back to imminent threat in the last 24 hours. I will tell you what this is, Mr. Speaker. This is Iraq 2.0. I still remember the lies about WMDs. I voted against that war, too. At least George Bush had the decency to lie to people's faces. By the way, no congressional vote can legitimize this because there was no imminent threat. There was no U.N. Security Council resolution. This war is illegal, no matter what you want to call it. It is not Donald Trump's kids that will have to fight and die for their draft-dodging dad. It is not the children of the billionaire Epstein class. It is working-class kids who are going to put their lives on the line. Shame on Republicans. I am sick of this bs. We are spending billions of dollars a day on a war, and we can't even get Republicans to join us to expand healthcare in America. How the hell is this America First? You guys broke your top campaign promise. Good luck with that. I hope the defense contractor money was worth it. Shame on you all. The mask is off. You are all just a bunch of pathetic neocon warmongers.

Mr. McGOVERN

Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, as part of my statewide End Hunger Now tour, I recently visited Growing Places in Gardner, Massachusetts, with my friend Representative Lori Trahan. Under the incredible leadership of Ayn Yeagle, Growing Places is building a regional food system in north central Massachusetts. By utilizing its new commercial kitchen to clean, chop, and dehydrate local produce, the food center is helping farmers bring their fruits and vegetables to market while also expanding access to nutritious food across our region. Lori and I heard directly from community members that Growing Places is helping them eat more nutritiously, particularly amid sky-high food prices caused by Trump's awful economy. That is why it is hard to understand why the Trump administration has slashed local food programs that make local food more accessible. Mr. Speaker, if we want to make food more affordable, if we want to support our farmers, if we want to make the lives of working families easier, it is time to reverse the devastating cuts to SNAP and reinstate local food programs that help to end hunger now.

Mr. McGOVERN

Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Griffith) for yielding the customary 30 minutes. Mr. Speaker, you have to love these Republicans. I mean, they have no problems with subsidies for Big Oil, Big Tech, Big Ag, or big tax cuts for multimillionaires and billionaires. Yet, when it comes to helping consumers afford electric water heaters or stoves, all of a sudden, they have a big problem. I just don't get it. I mean, that is where their attention is, on going after consumers, making life more difficult for everyday working families. Mr. Speaker, tonight is the State of the Union, and I am sure that the President is going to come here and paint a very rosy picture, indeed. He is going to say that the economy is great and that tariffs are working. He is ending wars, not starting them. He is going to spew all kinds of nonsense. Mr. Speaker, the problem is that the facts are the facts. The fact is that his economy sucks. I just spent the last week at grocery stores, senior centers, and townhalls. I went to food pantries and Boys and Girls Clubs across Massachusetts. I spoke with people who are working hard and getting crushed. They are paying more for food, more for rent, more for utilities, and more for healthcare. They are struggling, and they are watching Donald Trump pump the rich with more tax breaks and more giveaways to the billionaire Epstein class while the rest of America struggles just to get by. With all of that going on, with families begging for relief, this is what Republicans bring to the House floor today: more bills about appliances. This Republican majority has brought up more than a dozen appliance bills. The lobbyists for the appliance manufacturers sure must be getting paid well. The worst part of these bills is that these bills would actually raise utility costs for consumers. Who asked for that? I mean, one of these bills is H.R. 4626, the Home Appliance Protection and Affordability Act. That is not the original name of the bill, though. No. The original name is the Hands Off Our Home Appliances Act. Republicans changed the name to slap the word ``affordability'' on there, but they didn't change a single word of the actual bill. All of this is slapping on a word to pretend that they are doing something. It is window dressing masquerading as an attempt to help real people because Trump and the Republicans know that their economy sucks. They know that the public perception is that all they care about is helping Wall Street to get richer and helping billionaire CEOs rip people off because, to be honest with you, Mr. Speaker, that is all they seem to care about. Guess what. These bills are worse than doing nothing. They would make utility costs go up. I mean, Republicans are trying to gut popular energy and cost-saving programs at the Department of Energy. They would lower efficiency standards and prevent consumers from choosing the best products for their households. Mr. Speaker, last night in the Rules Committee, I was chastised by the gentleman from Virginia, who was upset with me because I was asking questions that he said were too hard. He said that the witness wasn't prepared and that I was cross-examining him. He said that my questions weren't fair. Mr. Speaker, let me explain for the gentleman why I asked so many questions last night. It is because this House has been turned into a place where you can hardly ask questions at all. This majority locks down the process, shuts out amendments, shuts down debate, and then acts offended when somebody tries to get a straight answer about what the hell is going on around here. This rule that we are debating today officially breaks the record. This is now the most closed Congress ever--ever, in the history of the United States of America. Mr. Speaker, 117 times in this Congress, Republicans have advanced bills to the floor with no amendments allowed, including today. They just broke the record for the whole Congress, and we are barely halfway through. Mr. Speaker, that is insane. More than 8 out of 10 times when we consider legislation under this majority, Republicans lock down the floor and allow zero amendments--zero. That is stunning. Mr. Speaker, that is a stunning, stunning break from normal. Speaker Johnson promised transparency and more debate, but the numbers tell a different story. Under Speaker Johnson, the Rules Committee has helped to block 82 percent of all amendments this Congress--82 percent. That is over 3,300 amendments blocked so far in just over a year, including 95 percent of Democratic amendments, 57 percent of Republican amendments, and even 63 percent of bipartisan amendments. Think of that. When a Democrat and a Republican decide to work together to improve a bill, they are told no. Mr. Speaker, that is the exact opposite of what the people in this country are asking for. Republicans blocked votes on tariffs. We had to move Heaven and Earth. We had to finally force a vote after months and months of getting blocked. Republicans blocked votes on releasing the Epstein files. I mean, they sent us home early because they didn't want the Rules Committee to take another vote on whether or not to release the Epstein files. We had to use a discharge petition. That is unprecedented. We had to go around the Speaker of the House simply to get a vote. Right on brand, Republicans blocked votes on thousands and thousands of amendments designed to make bills better. Under this Republican majority, the Rules Committee has basically become a place where democracy goes to die. Mr. Speaker, what is this all about? What is this all about? It is all about turning Congress into a giant rubberstamp for you know who: Donald Trump. Nobody in the House of Representatives is allowed to change a comma unless Donald Trump gives Mike Johnson permission. It is embarrassing. It is embarrassing, and it is a stain on this institution. Clearly, the Speaker of the House thinks that he works for the White House and not for the American people. He has diminished Congress and turned his position into a pathetic echo of what it used to be. Shame on him, and shame on Republicans who go along to get along, even though their amendments are blocked and their voices continue to be silenced by their own leadership. This is now the most closed Congress in the history of the United States of America, and it is happening right here, right now, in real time, because Republicans want to protect Donald Trump by blocking votes instead of doing the job that they were elected to do. It is pathetic. Mr. Speaker, this economy is a mess. Look at the polls. There is like a 30 percent approval rating for this President. People are hurting. They want us to be on the floor legislating. They want us to be deliberating. They want us to be finding solutions, and that means voting on amendments to try to get this economy on the right track. Instead, we are shut out. Everybody is shut out because they are all too afraid of the guy in the White House. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I am really at a loss for words. I am just trying to contain myself because I have never heard such nonsense in my life. The gentleman speaks about Thomas Jefferson. He is looking at us right up here, and he is rolling over in his grave right now at the way this House is being run. My friend should be ashamed of it. They should be ashamed of it. He is talking about the amendments that were offered in the Committee on Rules last night were dilatory. Let me read one of them. It says: ``This act, and the amendments made by this act, shall not take effect until the date on which the Secretary of Energy publishes a certification that the implementation of this act would not result in increased costs for homeowners and renters.'' What the hell is dilatory about that? The yada, yada, yada that the gentleman is talking about is affordability. The gentleman can say as many times as he wants, and my Republican friends can say as many times as they want, that somehow this economy is great and doing much better. That doesn't make it so. Look at the polls. The majority of the American people think that they are driving this economy into a ditch. People told me this last week when I was going throughout my district: What the hell is going on in Washington? Because all the Congress and this President seem to care about are the well-off and the well-connected, the Epstein class, if you will, the people who have lots of money, the big corporations. They get protected. They get tax breaks. They get all the benefits. The rest of the people in this country get screwed. They are sick of it. That is why they are losing so miserably in the polls. People have had it. To come onto this floor and defend not only this lousy economy, but to defend this rotten process, I have got to say, I have heard a lot. This is indefensible. Again, if they don't like the amendments that are being brought to the Committee on Rules, vote against them when they come to the floor. If they don't want to debate, then stay in their office; but let the rest of us be able to debate. Now, they have crossed the line. This is the most closed Congress in the history of the United States of America, and all they can say is: Well, we have an obligation to block amendments to the Committee on Rules I guess that we don't like, that are inconvenient. I don't know what the hell is wrong with saying to the Secretary of Energy: If these bills add costs to average consumers, then we shouldn't move forward with them. That is all. If the Secretary of Energy says: Oh, they won't, then they can move forward with them. That is what the gentleman is calling dilatory. I mean, God Almighty, what is going on around here? People are disgusted with what is happening here in Washington, and they have a right to be disgusted. Mr. Speaker, if we defeat the previous question, I will offer an amendment to the rule to bring up H.R. 7615, the RELIEF Act, to force the Trump administration to give back the money it illegally stole through its unconstitutional tariff scheme. Mr. Speaker, since the beginning of last year, President Trump has declared a series of bogus emergencies as a pretext to pickpocket more than $165 billion from American consumers and businesses of all sizes, including small businesses, family-owned businesses, farmers, and everyday citizens. In response, several small businesses sued the President, arguing that the President does not have the power to arbitrarily tax American businesses and consumers without an act of Congress. Last Friday the Supreme Court finally--finally--ruled that a large portion of the President's tariffs are unconstitutional. While, as Chief Justice Roberts wrote in his majority opinion that the power to impose tariffs is supposed to be controlled by Congress, Speaker Johnson and the vast majority of congressional Republicans have continued to rubberstamp President Trump's disastrous tariffs, even though they know that they are raising the prices of groceries, housing, and other everyday goods. In response to the Court's decision, President Trump lashed out at the Justices who ruled against him, even the ones he himself appointed, saying they are: ``unpatriotic and disloyal to our Constitution,'' ``swayed by foreign interests,'' and ``an embarrassment to their families.'' Who the hell speaks like this? What other President talked like this? It is shocking that anyone can defend these shameful words by this President. Department of Justice lawyers, in briefs filed during the case, promised more than once to repay the tariffs if they lost. We have that in writing. I am happy to share it with the gentleman and any of my Republican colleagues. They stated: ``If tariffs imposed on plaintiffs during these appeals are ultimately held unlawful, then the government will issue refunds to plaintiffs, including any post-judgment interest that accrues.'' That is the Justice Department's own legal brief. Well, Mr. Speaker, the Trump administration lost. They lost big time. Now the President is trying hard to break yet another promise. Get this, when he was asked about the refunds, do you know what the President said? He said, ``. . . We will end up being in court for the next 5 years.'' Again, not trying to help average consumers or small businesses. We are going to stay in court so you don't get anything. You don't get a refund. However, if the Republicans were to join with Democrats to defeat the previous question, we will offer an up-or-down vote to require the Trump administration to pay out tariff refunds that he owes in the next 90 days. Voting with us is a vote to ensure that President Trump follows through on earlier promises to give back the stolen money. The main issue that Americans are struggling with is the affordability crisis. People cannot afford food. They cannot afford rent. They cannot afford utility bills, and the basics. Tariffs are one of the primary causes of these rising prices. Republicans are always willing to bend over backward to give tax breaks to their multimillionaire and -billionaire donors, but when we talk about helping regular people, Republicans are nowhere to be found. It is never too late to do the right thing. I urge my colleagues to work with Democrats to ensure that the money that was illegally stolen is returned, that in the future we return the money directly into the pockets of working families who have had to pay more for everything because of these damn tariffs. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to insert the text of my amendment into the Record along with extraneous material immediately prior to the vote on the previous question.

Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Nevada (Mr. Horsford), the sponsor of this bill, to discuss our proposal.

Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I yield an additional 30 seconds to the gentleman from Nevada.

Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I yield an additional 30 seconds to the gentleman from Nevada.

Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I can hardly believe my ears. The gentleman said that he wants to legislate. He could have fooled me, because as far as I can tell, the gentleman has voted for virtually every single, if not every single, closed rule that has come out of the Rules Committee. There were 117 closed rules he voted for in the Committee and on the floor. There were 117 closed rules, no amendments allowed at all, no amendments, and a lot of them were germane. Now we are hearing that, oh, well, you know, we are just trying to manage this House better. My Republican friends now regularly do not even call for amendments. They basically let everybody know that whatever you submit, we are going to turn away and we are going to block because we don't want any amendments at all. Really? Is that the process that my friends are defending? I think I just heard the gentleman say for several minutes a lot of words basically trying to justify why the American people don't deserve a refund as a result of Trump's illegal tariffs. Okay. If that is their position, fine. I actually think the American people deserve a refund. They deserve a check. Small businesses deserve a check from this President's illegal tariffs. That is what the Supreme Court has said. They are illegal. The gentleman has talked a lot about appliances as if that is what is on everybody's mind. I don't know about his district, but when I do townhalls, the first words out of my constituents' mouths are not showerheads or water heaters or stoves. They are worried about prices rising all across the board. They also want us to talk about real, serious challenges that we are faced with here, not just issues of affordability. That is because right now, right as we gather here today talking about appliances, President Trump is ramping up toward a strike against Iran, a war. Reports say that his national security team is telling him that the U.S. military could be ready to hit Iran within days, and they are openly talking about a massive, weeks-long campaign. Why? They are suddenly claiming that Iran is a mere week away from having the material to make a nuclear bomb. It sounds like what happened last year if you remember, Mr. Speaker. In June of 2025, Trump said that Iran was weeks away from getting a nuke. What happened? The administration proceeded to bomb Iran. The White House spent the entirety of last summer telling the world that Iran's nuclear facilities had been obliterated in a strike that the U.S. conducted. Those aren't my words. Those are the words of this administration. They said ``obliterated'' over and over and over again--obliterated. It is still up on their website. So which is it? If Iran's nuclear facilities were obliterated, then why are we sprinting toward another war based on false claims about weapons of mass destruction? They weren't obliterated. If that was all political spin to make their strike sound more successful than it actually was, then why should anyone trust the judgment of the people now pushing us toward escalation? This is how disasters start, not with a clear plan, not with honesty, but with a President who thinks foreign policy is a reality show and human lives are props. Let's be clear about what is at stake: Americans in uniform, American families, a region that could explode, an economy in which working people are already struggling to survive, and where a wider war could set energy prices soaring and make life even more expensive for everybody back home. Congress is not a rubberstamp. It should not be a rubberstamp. The Constitution does not give one man the power to drag this country into another war on a whim. De-escalate. Get serious about diplomacy. Tell the truth. If the President thinks he needs a war, then he can come to the people's House, and he can make his case out in the open where the American people can see, hear, and judge it. Then, let's wait to let us vote on it, because it is Congress, after all, who decides where and when to go to war. It is not the President; it is Congress that is to decide that. Again, given what is potentially about to happen, you would think that we would want to have that debate here, Mr. Speaker. I don't care which side, maybe even if you want to go to war with Iran, Mr. Speaker, you would think you would want to have that debate to convince the American people that it is the right thing to do. Mr. Speaker, you would think you would want to go on record as voting for that war. I think it is a terrible mistake, but I would think if you felt the opposite, Mr. Speaker, you would want to be transparent and open about it. Guess what. Nothing. We are debating phony bills on appliances, on stupid stuff, when people are hurting every day because they can't afford the basics. We are on the verge of going to war, and this is what we are doing? This is what we are doing, appliances? Give me a break. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, may I inquire as to how much time I have remaining.

Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time to close because I assume the gentleman has no further speakers on his side. Mr. Speaker, what we are really voting on here is not just a rule. It is whether the House of Representatives is going to act like a real legislature or whether it is going to keep acting like it works for Donald Trump. Closed rules have become the norm around here. As I said earlier, 3,300 amendments have been blocked, and many of them have been germane. In fact, most of them have been germane. It has just become a habit for the gentleman and other Republicans on the Rules Committee to vote ``no.'' They vote ``no.'' I don't want to hear an argument about germaneness because when amendments are germane--again, most of those that have been offered have been germane--up to 3,300 amendments have been blocked. That is what is happening here. We are getting lectures and lectures and lectures about legislating, and the bottom line is that this Republican majority basically has thrown the rule book out. To hell with Jefferson. To hell with this institution. To hell with the Constitution. We are just going to shut everything down. That is what we are doing here. If the gentleman or anybody on the other side thinks that appliances are the most important thing in the world, fine. They can bring them to the floor. But let us offer amendments and respect us and, by the way, other Republicans who want you to bring more important matters to the floor. Whether it is votes on war and peace or votes on affordability or votes on the tariffs, we ought to have those debates on the floor. They are always blocked. We can't talk about those things. It is so disappointing and so sad, Mr. Speaker. The bottom line is, it is not just Democratic amendments, but Republican amendments, bipartisan amendments. Anything that might force a real debate or real vote is blocked. The message that it sends is simple: The leadership doesn't want accountability. They want control, total control. That is why the exchange with my colleague from Virginia that we had last night is so important. If Republicans are mad because Members are asking hard questions or we are talking about issues that may not be necessarily relevant to the bills we are talking about, it is because we don't have any other chance to do so. I get it. My Republican friends don't want scrutiny. They don't want daylight. They want us to sit down, shut up, and vote for Trump. Guess what. We are not going to do that. We are not going to do that. The bills before us today are a perfect example of what happens when you silence regular people and empower those at the top. Working families are getting squeezed by Trump's economic mess. Costs are up. People can feel it every time they swipe a card at the grocery store or open their checkbook to pay a utility bill. Instead of bringing serious cost-of-living relief to the floor-- housing, healthcare, childcare, prescription drugs, cracking down on price gouging--Republicans bring bills like this so that we can pretend that we are doing something when we are not. That is the scam: Protect the people at the top. Stage a few votes for press releases. Then lie to the American people and tell them that the economy is going great. The people I represent are not buying this bs. They are asking us to take on the folks rigging the economy against them. They are asking for a House that debates and approves legislation, not one that takes orders and acts like a rubber stamp for the White House. They are asking for real relief from Donald Trump's awful economy, which is making life harder for regular families. Mr. Speaker, we have a President who wants to be king, and unfortunately, we have Republicans in this House who bow down to him. We have officials in this administration who have compared the House of Representatives and Congress to the Russian Duma, a legislative body in name only, a body that just rubberstamps whatever the Russian leader, whatever Putin, says. I don't want to be the Russian Duma. I want to adhere to the ideals of Thomas Jefferson. We ought to be debating. We ought to have amendments made in order. We ought to legislate. We ought to behave like we are the United States House of Representatives, and we are not. It is so disappointing. The precedents that are being set here are so disappointing. It is depressing what has happened to this House. I say to my colleagues: vote against this rule. Another two closed rules, that is what we are getting here. No amendments at all, nothing, two closed rules, take it or leave it. We have to do better. I am so disappointed with my Republican colleagues who go along to get along, who are so afraid of being punished by the bully in the White House, who are so afraid of even changing a comma in a bill because there might be retribution. We are all elected by the people of this country. We ought to start acting like it. We ought to start fighting back. We ought to start legislating and deliberating. We ought to restore some dignity to the House of Representatives. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

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

Mr. McGOVERN

Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I recently had the pleasure of visiting Refettorio Harlem, an incredible nonprofit restaurant and food pantry in New York City. Refettorio Harlem is housed in the historic Emanuel AME Church and is run by Free Food Harlem. With incredible partners like Food for Soul, 2 nights a week, chefs transform perfectly good but unused food into multicourse fine dining dishes, served free of charge to anyone in need. On Wednesday and Friday evenings, Refettorio is bustling with community and conversation as neighbors come together for a shared meal and a welcoming space. During my visit, I tasted a delicious bowl of zero waste ramen with glazed chicken and bok choy, perfect for a cold winter day. Mr. Speaker, I thank Jill, Matt, and Bob, and everyone at Refettorio for taking a few minutes during meal prep to show me around. Refettorio Harlem is a spectacular example of what is possible when dedicated, like-minded people come together to not only fight hunger but also combat food waste. We need to uplift more innovative models like Refettorio Harlem to end hunger now.

Mr. McGOVERN

Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I demand a recorded vote.

Mr. McGOVERN

Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, this morning I am honored to have my dear friend, Father Jonathan Slavinskas, pastor of St. Bernard's Church of Our Lady of Providence Parish in my hometown of Worcester, Massachusetts, give today's opening prayer. Father Jonathan, as he is known by his parishioners, is a true force of good in the Lincoln Street area. He is always a welcoming and friendly face who is known for buying pizza for the neighborhood kids or opening up the gym for pickup basketball games. He is also the chaplain for both the Worcester Police Department and the Worcester Fire Department. He cares deeply about our immigrant community. Day in and day out, Father Jonathan lives out his Catholic faith in big and small ways. He shows up for his community and is always there for his people, especially when they are going through rough times. Father Jonathan has long been a cherished friend of the entire McGovern family, especially of my daughter, Molly, who sadly passed away last April. Lisa and I will forever be grateful to him. Mr. Speaker, with a friendly smile and a touch of humor, Father Jonathan goes out of his way to make those around him welcome both in the church and in the neighborhood. We should all be inspired by his remarkable example.

Mr. McGOVERN

Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Texas for yielding me the customary 30 minutes, and I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, we have four bills in this rule today. All of them are completely closed--no amendments, no debate, completely closed. I feel like I am in Russia. Three of them are from the failed rule last night, which was the third failed rule in this Congress, the seventh under Speaker Johnson, and the tenth of the reigning Republican majority. That alone demonstrates Republicans' inability to govern. Then we have the so-called SAVE America Act. The gentleman from Texas is going to spend today's debate trying to convince you that this is a commonsense, simple bill, but I want you to remember a very few important facts while he is talking. First of all, it is already illegal for noncitizens to vote in Federal elections, period, full stop. If noncitizens are voting in Federal elections, they should be prosecuted. We don't disagree on that. Second, nobody disputes the fact that voters should follow the law and indicate who they are. We agree on that, too. Nobody is debating that on the floor today. What we are debating is whether we are going to believe the BS conspiracy theories cooked up by Donald Trump and MAGA Republicans about whether or not elections can be trusted in this country. What we are debating is whether, in response to those lies, we are going to require Americans to go down to their county clerk, to take the train to city hall, or to drive down to the registrar's office and jump through bureaucratic hoops just to register to vote. Who asked for more red tape? Did Jim Crow call? I mean, that is what this bill is about. It is not about voter ID. It is about voter registration, and it is about voter suppression. We always tell people to vote, make their voices heard, participate in our democracy, right? Those are supposed to be good things. Why are Republicans passing a bill that makes it as hard as possible to vote? I will let them answer that question, but I guess it is about what I have come to expect from a party that no longer believes in democracy, though. Yesterday, in the Rules Committee, I asked the chairman of the Committee on House Administration a simple question: Did Donald Trump win or lose the State of Minnesota in the last three Presidential elections? It is not a curve ball; not a difficult question. Of course, anyone living in reality knows the answer to this--Donald Trump lost Minnesota three times--but not Donald Trump. He continues denying election results. He said just last Friday that because of voter fraud, he feels he won Minnesota. The Republican chairman of the House Administration Committee, the congressional committee which regulates Federal election laws, couldn't give me a straight answer, couldn't answer that question. He couldn't tell me if he agreed with Donald Trump. He wouldn't say who won Minnesota. He went through all kinds of contortions to avoid answering the question. I mean, this is a simple question. That is shocking, Mr. Speaker. I mean, you guys want America to trust you to write our election laws? Americans can't even trust you to tell us who won the election. Oh, and then here is another thing: One of the changes that were made--by the way, this bill didn't go through committee process. I mean, this was kind of rushed to the floor. All kinds of major changes have been made in the last week, but here is one of the major changes: This bill, if passed, was supposed to take effect in the year 2027. There is a change in this bill. It takes place immediately, for this election. I mean, how is that going to happen? We have elections beginning in a matter of a few weeks, and you are expecting every State to be able to comply with all these new rules and regulations, like, immediately? This is about sowing chaos and confusion. My friends on the other side know they are probably going to lose the next election, and they are going to lose big. Rather than live up to the reality or respect the voters, they are going to try to make up some conspiracy theory that the election was stolen or undocumented migrants came in and voted against them. Here is the hard truth: If Republicans want to know why people are losing faith in our elections, they ought to look in the mirror. They ought to look in the mirror. People are losing faith because Donald Trump, the election denier in chief, can't admit he lost. People are losing faith because Tulsi Gabbard and Kash Patel's FBI raided an election office in Fulton County, Georgia, based on recycled conspiracy theories. They seized 2020 election results, even though it was Donald Trump who asked the Georgia Secretary of State to find 11,780 ballots so that he can win, even though he lost, and that is on tape. They are losing faith in our elections because they saw Pam Bondi trying to shake down Minnesota's State government, saying the administration would only withdraw ICE if Minnesota handed over their voter rolls to Trump's DOJ. They are losing faith because of bills like this, which force every State in America to give their voter rolls over to DHS Secretary Kristi Noem. Let that sink in. She is probably one of the least trustworthy people in the country right now. I wouldn't trust Kristi Noem to tell me the correct time, and we are asking States to turn over their voting rolls to her. Give me a break. We don't need any more lectures from Republicans about the sanctity of democracy or why people are losing faith in our democratic institutions. We know why, and we know what this bill is. This is Jim Crow 2.0. Republicans think that when fewer Americans vote, they win. It is as simple as that. I am so sick of the other side just making things up. This widespread voter fraud conspiracy is all part of the same election denialism that goes right up to the Oval Office. The other side has been making these claims for years now. We have heard about this for over a decade. They claim that massive numbers of noncitizens are voting, swaying elections, and that rampant voter fraud is changing results. Every single one of those claims, Mr. Speaker, has been investigated again and again by Republican Governors and Republican Secretaries of State, by journalists, by academic researchers, and by President Trump himself, whose own voter fraud commission was disbanded because he couldn't find enough evidence to warrant the absurd allegations that he was making. Every time these claims are investigated, they disappear like a mirage. This entire bill is fundamentally predicated on a lie. In fact, when you crunch the numbers, you are more likely to be struck by lightning than to successfully impersonate someone at the polls. Enough already. The SAVE America Act is a terrible bill that makes it harder for American citizens to participate in our democracy. That is it. America does not want to be saved by a Republican Party that spent a year propping up Trump's tariffs, which have driven costs through the roof. We don't want to be saved by the people who continue covering up for pedophiles in the Epstein files. America certainly doesn't want to be saved by the same people who still can't get over losing the 2020 election so they are going to try to rig the next one. Go save somebody else, but we don't want this garbage. We will fight like hell to stop you from making it harder for millions of Americans to register to vote. We know why you are doing this. It is because you are afraid that you are going to lose in November. Well, too bad. Too bad. Either change your crappy policies or face the voters and deal with the consequences of your own actions. Those are the only two options in a democracy. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, let me first correct the gentleman from Texas, who mischaracterized deliberately my remarks. I made it very clear in my opening, and I will read it again to him, that if noncitizens are voting in Federal elections, they should be prosecuted. We all believe it. He doesn't have to listen if he doesn't want to, but please don't mischaracterize what I said. Mr. Speaker, I am looking over to the other side of the aisle and can't help but be stunned by the number of people over there who I remember coming on this floor and denying the election results in the year 2020 because they didn't like the results. Mr. Speaker, I am going to urge that we defeat the previous question. If we do, I will offer an amendment to the rule to make in order amendment No. 10 to the SAVE America Act, which prohibits Members of Congress, the President, the Vice President, their spouses, and dependents from owning or trading stocks. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to insert the text of my amendment into the Record, along with extraneous material, immediately prior to the vote on the previous question.

Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, to discuss our proposal, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Morelle), the sponsor of the amendment and the ranking member of the Committee on House Administration.

Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Let's talk about common sense for a second. When the gentleman from Texas introduced this bill, the effective date was in 2027. All of a sudden, because, I think, a right-winger on their side did a tweet that caused all kinds of chaos, they moved for it to take effect immediately, notwithstanding the fact we have primaries beginning in some States in a matter of just a few weeks. I would just point out to the gentleman who just spoke that we have this thing called a Real ID. For 20 years, we have been trying to implement it. We spent billions of dollars trying to implement it and still not everybody has it. It has taken 20 years. My colleagues are pushing all these new changes on States. They have to do it in a matter of a couple of weeks? We all know what this is about. We all know what this is about. People see through this. This is not about protecting our democracy. It is not about preventing undocumented immigrants from voting. That is already illegal in this country. This is about sowing confusion and chaos because they know they are going to lose the next election. What an underhanded way to deal with elections in our democracy. What an insult to the American people. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Simon).

Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to include in the Record an article from ``ABC News'' titled: ``Election Fact Check: Noncitizens Can't Vote, and Instances Are `Vanishingly Rare.' ''

Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to include in the Record an article from NPR titled: ``Despite grand claims, a new report shows noncitizen voting hasn't materialized.''

Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to include in the Record an article from the Cato Institute titled: ``Noncitizens Don't Illegally Vote in Detectable Numbers.''

Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to include in the Record another piece from the Cato Institute titled: ``Trump's Claims About Noncitizen Voting Are False. We Can Prove It.''

Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to include in the Record an article from the American Immigration Council titled: ``Unpacking Myths About Noncitizen Voting--How Heritage Foundation's Own Data Proves It's Not a Problem.''