Guy Reschenthaler

Mr. RESCHENTHALER

Mr. RESCHENTHALER. Mr. Speaker, no objection.

Mr. RESCHENTHALER. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, my colleague from Maryland said that we just can't help but to disagree. Nothing could be further from the truth. This bill could be passed on the suspension calendar. This is going to pass by well over two-thirds vote. It passed, I believe, unanimously in the Senate. The fact that we are here debating a rule on this instead of just passing this on suspension is a waste of time. This bill will pass. But we have got a real crisis at the southern border. We have got inflation. Even the Biden administration said we are expected to have food shortages. We also are failing to project American power abroad, which is leading to chaos all over the world. We agree on the issue with Ukraine, yet we are still here wasting valuable time that we could be using to address real problems. But let's just go back to the southern border. As I mentioned earlier in my remarks, just in March, encounters at the southern border hit a new Biden-era high of over 200,000 individuals encountered at the southern border. In addition to apprehending individuals from the terrorist watch list, Border Patrol agents are seeing an increase in illicit drugs, including deadly fentanyl. Alarmingly, fentanyl border seizures increased by 134 percent in fiscal year 2021. President Biden and House Democrats had this open border policy that is creating a humanitarian and a security crisis both at the border and in our communities where people are literally dying from fentanyl overdoses. With all that in consideration, the Democrats and the left still want to do away with title 42 and lift it. That is why, Mr. Speaker, if we defeat the previous question, I will personally offer an amendment to the rule to immediately consider H.R. 471, the PAUSE Act of to 2021. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to insert the text of my amendment in the Record along with any extraneous material immediately prior to the vote on the previous question.

Mr. RESCHENTHALER. Mr. Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the gentlewoman from New York (Ms. Stefanik), who is the Republican Conference chair. She will explain the amendment.

Mr. RESCHENTHALER. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Just two quick points in rebuttal for my friend from Pennsylvania. First off, if there is concern about the humanitarian crisis on the southern border, the best thing you can do is try to bring order to that southern border. The trek that these individuals have to take is incredibly dangerous. Women and children are often exploited. Coyotes are making literally millions of dollars. Oftentimes, when the illegal immigrants come to the United States, they are put in sort of indentured servant status to the drug cartels and the coyotes. The perverse thing about arguing that you care about people is that if you really did care about the humanitarian crisis, you would share the Republican viewpoint of law and order. Secondly, to the fact that we need to act quickly on the bill regarding Ukraine, my colleagues across the aisle could have passed this bill on Tuesday. The fact that we are here wasting time on a bill that could have passed by suspension just shows the lack of seriousness on the other issues facing the American people. To act quickly, my colleagues should have been advocating this bill be run on Tuesday on suspension. Here to talk more about these issues is the Republican leader of the Oversight and Reform Committee, Mr. James Comer of Kentucky, who recently led a delegation to the southern border. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Kentucky (Mr. Comer).

Mr. RESCHENTHALER. Mr. Speaker, I yield an additional 30 seconds to the gentleman from Kentucky.

Mr. RESCHENTHALER. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from Georgia (Mrs. Greene).

Mr. RESCHENTHALER. Mr. Speaker, I would request to have words taken down.

Mr. RESCHENTHALER. Mr. Speaker, I would tell my colleague across the aisle that I still have several speakers, just so we are on the same page. Mr. Speaker, there were comments made prior regarding why we, on our side of the aisle, are not talking about the underlying bill. The answer to that is very simple. Let's put this into perspective. We are here debating the rule. We are not debating final passage. In fact, we don't need to debate final passage because the vast majority of my colleagues agree on this particular bill. We are not here debating final passage of the bill. We are debating, in essence, the rest of the legislative calendar for the day. We simply are arguing that in this calendar and in the agenda for the rest of the day, we should be considering other important matters, such as the crisis at the southern border. So I just felt like I needed to put that in perspective. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Mississippi (Mr. Guest), my good friend.

Mr. RESCHENTHALER. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Green), my good friend, to rebut the gentleman from Maryland.

Mr. RESCHENTHALER. Mr. Speaker, let me just be clear. We are not going down several roads. We are going down one road with this argument and that is the southern border. I am willing to bet that this vote will pass, the underlying bill will pass with over a two-thirds vote. We could have tried to run this on Tuesday. Even if it did fail, we could have been here running it today. We have delayed this when we have serious business to discuss, particularly the southern border. And that is what we are debating; the fact that the legislative business for today should include the crisis at the southern border. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Carter), my good friend, and a good pharmacist, to talk more about the crisis at the southern border.

Mr. RESCHENTHALER. Mr. Speaker, I am prepared to close, and I yield myself the balance of my time. Mr. Speaker, let me just start by reiterating that I and the vast majority of my colleagues support S. 3522, and we look forward to voting on that bill later today. We need to bolster Ukraine's defense capability and protect vulnerable civilian populations in Ukraine. However, we are debating the rule right now. The rule before us extends Speaker Pelosi's authoritarian COVID lockdown that has stripped rank-and-file Members of their ability to advocate for the people they represent. Let's just look at the stats. Ninety percent of the country is in a low-risk community level. That is according to the CDC; over 90 percent of the country. So why is the Speaker so afraid to let the House get back to work? If the Speaker followed the real science, not the political science the left has followed through this entire pandemic, the Speaker would allow the people's House to resume regular business. Further, this rule is a missed opportunity to address the serious issues that are facing American families. American families are getting hammered by inflation. Gas prices are out of control. The border crisis is raging, and we are being told by President Biden that we are expected to face food shortages in future months. On top of all that bad news, just this morning, we learned the GDP decreased at an annual rate of 1.4 percent in the first quarter of 2022. Our GDP is decreasing. This is the weakest showing since the pandemic recovery began and this falls well below the projections of economists. So, instead of passing legislation to address the serious economic crisis we are facing and the serious security issue we are facing at the southern border, Democratic leadership is sending the House home a day early. We were supposed to be here tomorrow. Yet, we are getting sent home early, despite all these issues facing the American people. We can do a lot more for this country and the American people. For that reason, I urge my colleagues to vote ``no'' on the previous question and ``no'' on the rule, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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

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

Mr. RESCHENTHALER

Mr. RESCHENTHALER. Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Bost) for the purpose of a unanimous consent request.

Mr. RESCHENTHALER. Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Rutherford) for the purpose of a unanimous consent request.

Mr. RESCHENTHALER. Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Joyce) for the purpose of a unanimous consent request.

Mr. RESCHENTHALER. Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from the great State of Texas (Mr. Jackson) for the purpose of a unanimous consent request.

Mr. RESCHENTHALER. Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Kansas (Mr. LaTurner) for the purpose of a unanimous consent request.

Mr. RESCHENTHALER. Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Oklahoma (Mr. Cole), the Rules Committee ranking member, for the purpose of a unanimous consent request.

Mr. RESCHENTHALER. Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Idaho (Mr. Fulcher) for the purpose of a unanimous consent request.

Mr. RESCHENTHALER. Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Baird) for the purpose of a unanimous consent request.

Mr. RESCHENTHALER. Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Iowa (Mrs. Hinson) for the purpose of a unanimous consent request.

Mr. RESCHENTHALER. Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Burgess), a Rules Committee member, for the purpose of a unanimous consent request.

Mr. RESCHENTHALER. Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Illinois (Mrs. Miller) for the purpose of a unanimous consent request.

Mr. RESCHENTHALER. Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Biggs) for the purpose of a unanimous consent request.