Brian Mast

Mr. MAST

Mr. MAST. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, right now we have cartels operating in our backyard. They are kidnapping Americans, extorting families, trafficking women and children, and flooding our towns with fentanyl to maximize death and addiction on American soil. Someone tell me that I am wrong. I don't hear anything. Just look at the images next to me. It is not photoshopped. None of this is new. It is just new that it is being defeated by President Trump and brought to an end by President Trump. This violence comes from the Sinaloa and Jalisco cartels. It comes from Tren de Aragua, MS-13, and Cartel of the Suns, headed by Nicolas Maduro, just to name a few. The President has every bit of Article II authority to defend the United States of America from these imminent threats. These cartels that are doing this are an imminent threat. These cartels have tens of thousands of members who wake up every day and see it as their sole mission to flood the United States with lethal drugs. My Democrat colleagues want to ignore that. Sinaloa and Jalisco alone have 45,000 members combined. The Gulf Cartel has 50,000 members. MS-13 has another 30,000. They are coming across the Gulf constantly. Mr. Speaker, 365 days a year, 7 days a week, they are coming to the United States of America with their violence. That is the definition of ``imminent.'' These drug cartels are highly organized and militarized. They are terrorist networks that have convinced my colleagues they are nothing more than small street gangs. They control territory, run armed convoys, use drones for surveillance, and communicate through encrypted networks like the military. They terrorize entire countries with extreme violence, and they terrorize the United States of America and our people. They spread carnage wherever they go, not just across the border but on our side of the border, as well, right here in the United States of America. Look at this morbid scene we will put up here. These two men are about to be decapitated literally out in the open by the Gulf Cartel. The tactics of these cartels are the same as those used by al-Qaida and ISIS. These are terrorist networks. Some are given safe haven by foreign governments. Others, like Tren de Aragua, take orders from Nicolas Maduro. Americans have paid the price for it. Laken Riley, a 22-year-old nursing student, was murdered in Georgia by a confirmed member of Tren de Aragua. Claretha Daniels and Justin Lawless were executed outside of their Bronx apartment by six Tren de Aragua terrorists. These were neighbors of my ranking member. Mr. Speaker, a 74-year-old American rancher was killed in Brownsville, Texas, when his truck hit an IED planted by the cartel. That is exactly the same kind of thing that took off my legs. Democrats don't want the President to be able to defend America from these terrorists. Even more tragic is the fact that nearly 80,000 Americans overdosed last year on fentanyl, cocaine, and other drugs trafficked by cartels. Democrats don't want to protect us from that either. In fact, yesterday, after we had a classified briefing, the gentleman on my left, the ranking member, went directly to the press to claim that these strikes were not protecting America. He literally said that these strikes were not stopping drugs. Everything that he said is very easy for me to prove wrong. Every drug boat sunk is literally drugs not coming to the United States of America. Every narcoterrorist killed is an American life, like Laken Riley or Claretha Daniels, saved. The threat is pressing, and it is frequent. In November, the Coast Guard announced it seized 510,000 pounds of cocaine in the eastern Pacific and the Caribbean since the start of 2025. This is enough cocaine to harm nearly 170 million Americans. Congressional authorization is not required to carry out precise, limited strikes. My colleagues did not object when prior Presidents conducted military operations in Yemen and Libya and Syria, operations which were also limited and successful. This resolution is also reckless and poorly written. It prevents the President from acting against any foreign terrorist organization in the Western Hemisphere. Under this resolution, the President could strike al-Qaida or ISIS in the Middle East. If those same terrorists came across into the Western Hemisphere, they could be untouchable and free to kill as many Americans as they want. Democrats are not putting forward an authorized use of military force, telling the President how to combat any of these issues. Democrats are putting forward a resolution to say the President cannot do anything about MS-13 or Tren de Aragua and every other cartel. That is giving aid and comfort to narcoterrorists. That is ignoring an imminent threat. The cartels are relentless and ruthless. They have military capabilities and use them every day against the American homeland. When a threat poses immediate danger to Americans, the Constitution gives the President the authority to act. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. MAST. Mr. Speaker, I would let the ranking member know that, just in the last year in his district, he has lost at least 140 people to overdose, which apparently he does not want to protect his community from those like the President wants to protect his community. Mr. Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Salazar), the chairwoman of the Western Hemisphere Subcommittee.

Mr. MAST. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, to Representative Himes, I tell him that he has had 182 overdoses in his district in the last year and lost somebody named Angel Samaniego by a suspected Tren de Aragua member. Voting for this resolution to limit the President absolutely is not standing with the United States of America. There are people deliberately targeting Americans, and he is saying the President can do nothing about it. That is what his vote will say today. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Self), the chair of the Europe Subcommittee.

Mr. MAST. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I think the other side should take a look at the chart. You can see when operations were kicking off in September, there were 3 strikes, going up in October to 11 strikes. Then it started to come down. Why? Because people started thinking about, am I going to push off the dock in this boat full of drugs and then take a Hellfire through the hull of my vessel sitting out here in the middle of the Gulf because I am transporting drugs to the United States of America? It dropped down to seven, dropped down to four, and it is going to continue to drop off because, finally, those that are shipping drugs to the United States of America are recognizing there are real consequences. Mr. Speaker, I am proud to yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. McCormick).

Mr. MAST. Mr. Speaker, I don't quite reserve yet. I would let the next speaker on the other side know that they lost 116--Ms. Kamlager-Dove had 116 overdoses in the last year. I can count at least six individuals killed recently by MS-13. The President is working to protect her district from MS-13. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. MAST. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Diaz-Balart), the chairman of the Appropriations Subcommittee on National Security, Department of State, and Related Programs.

Mr. MAST. Mr. Speaker, I would let Ms. Jayapal know that in her district they have lost 237 people in the last year from overdoses and had a number of people killed by MS-13 and Tren de Aragua. The President is working to protect her people. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Alabama (Mr. Rogers), who is the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee.

Mr. MAST. Mr. Speaker, I would let Representative Omar know that in her district, she lost 205 people in the last year from overdose and have had people killed by MS-13. Teenagers have been killed by MS-13. The President is working to stop that from happening. I would also remind the ranking member that just yesterday--he should know this, he was standing on stage with me--we had a classified briefing with the Secretary of War and the Secretary of State. His comments afterwards did not reflect the truth of what was said, but he was there. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Gimenez).

Mr. MAST. Mr. Speaker, I yield an additional 1 minute to the gentleman from Florida.

Mr. MAST. Mr. Speaker, may I inquire how much debate time remains.

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

Mr. MAST. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, the ranking member made the claim that nobody fights harder against drugs. He made a big speech. Nobody fights harder against drugs than the President of the United States of America. He is the one sinking the boats. Democrats are the ones saying any terrorist organization, no matter how many people they kill, behead, abduct, no matter how much drugs they traffic, the President shall not have the authority to go out there and combat them. If there is a boat coming across with anthrax in it, the President can't hit it. If there is a boat coming across that had something brought over from Iran, the President can't deal with it. Anything that comes across in the Western Hemisphere--that is literally what his legislation says--the President cannot go out there and defend the United States of America from imminent threats. How imminent is this threat of drugs? Mr. Speaker, 365 days a year, 7 days a week prior to President Trump starting to sink their boats that they were bringing to the United States of America, that is as imminent as it gets. It is as imminent as the Sun rising. That is how prevalent that threat has been. The President is finally bringing it to an end. Nobody fights harder than the President of the United States of America. Nobody is fighting harder to allow drugs into this country than Democrats with this reckless and ridiculous piece of legislation. Mr. Speaker, I have no further speakers. I reserve the balance of my time until the gentleman yields back his time.

Mr. MAST. Mr. Speaker, let me put this up. I was asked to take it down for a moment. Let me take a second and put this up. I will get to it. This resolution, plain and simple, is about telling the President he has no authority to combat terrorists in the Western Hemisphere. Those are the words of this resolution. It is not a secret. Anybody can read it. The President doesn't have the authority to combat MS-13, Tren de Aragua, Sinaloa Cartel, take your pick. If the President says they are terrorists, and they are in the Western Hemisphere, the President can't touch them. That is what they are trying to do. They want to tie his hands and not let him defend the United States of America. We are not talking about street gangs. They are militarized threats. They have taken over entire apartment complexes and neighborhoods in the United States. My colleagues say this resolution is just about putting Congress on record, so let's put Congress on record. If you stand with protecting the United States of America against narcoterrorists, then oppose this resolution. It is plain and simple. If you stand shoulder to shoulder with MS-13, Tren de Aragua, and Sinaloa Cartel, and the dictators who work hand in hand with them, like Nicolas Maduro in this photo, then this resolution is for you. Vote for it. We know exactly where some of my colleagues stand. You can look to see where they stand in this photo. Let's talk a little bit about that in a moment. I will touch on something else first. Since President Trump took office, we have seen our Democrat colleagues fight to unmask agents, to dox Border Patrol officers. We have seen them issue warnings ahead of immigration raids. They spent taxpayer dollars to keep illegal immigrants in the United States. Now, Democrats are going even further with this resolution and saying the President can't protect our country. I am going to show you this photo. I actually thought a lot about this photo as chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee because I take photos with foreign heads of state, diplomats, and other people from other countries on a daily basis. I shake hands and greet people. Whether I like them or not, I shake hands. It is something that I do, but I can tell you what I don't do. I do not let other people wrap their arms around me unless they are my kids, my friends, or my family. That is Nicolas Maduro's hand right there. I will put a little arrow there. That is Ranking Member Meeks, who has been arguing with me for the last little while, right here. That is his arm around the ranking member. I don't let people put their arms around me, especially not people like that. In this photo of Nicolas Maduro, you probably also recognize John Kerry. It is sad to see that. I think it says a lot about the origination of this bill, the heart of this bill. This is not a handshake. It is an embrace of somebody with a relationship. That is what happens. If somebody puts their arm around me, that means they have a relationship with me. To me, this says a lot about who this bill stands shoulder to shoulder with. Do you stand shoulder to shoulder with Nicolas Maduro, with his arms wrapped around you, or do you stand shoulder to shoulder to protect the United States of America and our people from the people who are murdering us and sending their drugs over? The choice is up to you. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. MAST

Mr. MAST. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to the order of the House of December 16, 2025, I call up the concurrent resolution (H. Con. Res. 64) to direct the removal of United States Armed Forces from hostilities within or against Venezuela that have not been authorized by Congress, and ask for its immediate consideration in the House.

Mr. MAST. 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 resolution under consideration.

Mr. MAST. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, this resolution is weak. It is unnecessary. It is dangerous. It is also not about oversight. It is not about the Constitution. Just like the last resolution, it is about tying the President's hands, specifically in Venezuela. It is about telling President Trump that he does not have the authority to defend the United States of America. This resolution is preemptive surrender. As written, it limits the President's ability to respond to future threats posed by Venezuela. If Russia delivers nukes there, the President cannot respond. If Iran delivers a dirty bomb there, the President can't respond. If China delivers anthrax or some other biological weapon, like they did with COVID-19, but far more deadly, the President can't respond. No matter what the threat, the President cannot respond. Additionally, this resolution to me doesn't make much sense because we are not in hostilities inside Venezuela. The Authorization for Use of Military Force process exists in Congress, but Democrats are not writing a scope of action for the President to defend the United States of America. This resolution is a blanket statement to say to the President that he cannot defend the United States of America. Mr. Speaker, no matter the threat emanating from Venezuela, you cannot defend. You cannot defend me. You cannot defend our country against it. This resolution is not stopping war. It is not stopping invasion. It is not stopping drug running. It is not stopping terrorism. It is not stopping the President. It is just stopping the President from acting decisively before Americans die. That is what it stops. Let's be clear about who we are dealing with. Venezuela is the largest and best-funded cartel in the world. We just saw the ranking member with Nicolas Maduro. Maduro had his hand around him. He is not a legitimate head of state. He is a legitimate narcoterrorist who is poisoning Americans. All the stuff we talked about in the last debate is Maduro. He is the head of a cartel who will abduct somebody, behead somebody, or torture somebody to support his political ends. Both Republican and Democrat administrations agree that Maduro is an illegitimate dictator who rules through repression, fraud, and violence. He uses the Venezuelan military to move cocaine into the United States. That is not theory. This is a state-run criminal enterprise. Venezuela is not a gang. It is a cartel state. It rakes in billions, moving more than 250 metric tons of Columbian cocaine through their country every year. The United States already has bipartisan sanctions on Venezuelan oil. President Trump supported them. President Biden kept them. Maduro is violating those sanctions. We just caught him doing it again. A ghost ship was intercepted, smuggling Venezuelan oil. Maduro admitted the oil was his. Here is the simple question: How do we enforce sanctions if we are not allowed to stop the shipments? The answer is that we cannot. Interdicting those Venezuelan oil shipments is not war. It is sanction enforcement. It is law and order. Given that it is the Venezuelan Government that is the cartel, the trafficker, the one moving these ships, that is why it requires the military to do so. This resolution reads as if Maduro wrote it himself. It gives a narcoterrorist dictator a free pass to keep trafficking drugs, funding criminal networks, and killing Americans because it appears Democrats hate President Trump more than they can love America. President Trump has the authority and the obligation to take limited and targeted action to protect the United States of America wherever those threats emanate from. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. MAST. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, this is serious. It is not a joke. It is not just about pictures, but pictures tell a thousand words. You came here to prevent the President from defending the United States of America, plain and simple. There have been deaths in Florida. There have been deaths in Representative McGovern's district: 262 overdoses in the last year, people beaten by MS-13, strangled by MS-13, stabbed 32 times by MS-13. The list goes on. That is what the President is trying to defend from happening in the United States of America. That is as serious as it gets, and it absolutely matters that Nicolas Maduro has his arm around the authors of this legislation that would prevent the President from defending against that country, their cartels, their terrorists, and the drugs coming through that country. What the President is doing in the Gulf is protecting the homeland of the United States of America, protecting the homeland. I would give this last comment to the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. McGovern): I never saw the things that I did as big or small. Risking my life for my country, I simply saw as my duty. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Self), the chair of the Europe Subcommittee.

Mr. MAST. Mr. Speaker, I yield an additional 30 seconds to the gentleman from Texas.

Mr. MAST. Mr. Speaker, I will give a lecture anyway to the Speaker in reference to what Mr. McGovern said. I shake a lot of people's hands that I don't like. I definitely don't let them put their arm around me. There is a big difference. People with common sense recognize that. I wouldn't speak for him, but I suspect he would live life in the same way. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. Crawford), the chair of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.

Mr. MAST. Mr. Speaker, for every one of my colleagues on the other side, it is about drugs. It is about the drugs being prevented from going into their community, like Representative Castro's, who had 101 people die last year from overdose and somebody murdered by Tren de Aragua on June 16, 2024. It is absolutely about preventing those things. It is about preventing those things, and they are going to allow it in. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. McCormick).

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

Mr. MAST. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentlewoman from South Carolina (Mrs. Biggs).

Mr. MAST. Mr. Speaker, I have three more speakers. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Gimenez).

Mr. MAST. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. McClintock).

Mr. MAST. Mr. Speaker, I yield 30 seconds to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Davidson).