Guy Reschenthaler

Mr. RESCHENTHALER

Mr. RESCHENTHALER. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. We all know why we are here today. We are here to condemn socialism. Let's not play games. We know what socialism is. Despite knowing what socialism and communism is, you are going to see Democrat after Democrat come down here on the floor and refuse to vote to condemn socialism and communism. Let's talk about what that means. Mao Zedong, in the socialist revolution in China, you had 55 million people starve to death in the wake of famine and devastation caused by the so-called Great Leap Forward in China. You are going to have Democrats come to the floor and refuse to condemn that. Let's talk about Joseph Stalin. By the way, a history lesson: FDR, a Democrat, would refer to Joseph Stalin as ``Uncle Joe'' when he was trying to make this ruthless thug more palatable to the American people. Again, a Democrat praising Joseph Stalin; but I digress. Under Stalin, tens of millions died in the Bolshevik revolution. At least 10 million people were sent to the Gulags in the USSR; and millions starved to death in Ukraine due to forced famine. Pol Pot eliminated one-fourth of the population in Cambodia. Again, you are going to have Democrats come to the floor and refuse to condemn that. Due to socialist and totalitarian policies, over 75 percent of Venezuelans currently live in poverty. Only 3 percent of Venezuelans consider themselves food secure. This was the largest GDP in South America before Chavez took over, and now they are literally eating their pet dogs to stop starvation. Marxist socialist policies and communism regimes are responsible for hundreds of millions of deaths worldwide. Again, my Democratic colleagues will come to this floor later today and refuse to condemn it. It is truly astounding. Mr. Speaker, 3.5 million have starved to death in North Korea just since the 1990s alone. In the current Communist regime in Cuba, the government continues to repress and punish virtually all forms of dissent and public criticism as Cubans endure the worst economic crisis seen in decades. Again, Democrats will come to the floor and refuse to condemn that. During Castro's rule, thousands of Cubans have been incarcerated in abysmal prisons; thousands more were harassed and intimidated; and entire generations were denied basic freedoms. Again, my Democratic colleagues, some of them will refuse to condemn that. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Alford), my good friend.

Mr. RESCHENTHALER. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, it is nice to hear that people in Massachusetts are not talking about communism. Do you know where they are talking about communism? Places like south Florida. Places like Miami. It is because, unlike those in Massachusetts, they have experienced communism. They have experienced socialism. Ask any Cuban refugee. That is why you have individuals here like Mario Diaz-Balart, like Maria Salazar, like Carlos Gimenez who represent those districts. This is an issue for a lot of Americans because they never want to see the horrors of socialism and communism here on our shores. It is not just Cuba. Let's talk about China because my friends across the aisle always hesitate to criticize and condemn China. It is quite remarkable. China has deprived 1.4 billion human beings of their fundamental human rights. Since March 2017, China has detained and persecuted 1.8 million Turkic Muslims, the Uyghurs. They put them in so-called political reeducation camps. We all know what those are. Those are death camps. Those are gulags. The Chinese have them in their western province. The world is silent on it, and my colleagues from across the aisle refuse to condemn socialism. Those Uyghurs are being held in the western province without due process. They are being forced to engage in labor and forced organ harvesting. They are suffering atrocities like torture, and yet again, my Democrat colleagues will refuse to condemn socialism today. The CCP hasn't just violated the rights of the Uyghurs in western China. They have also subjugated Tibet. It used to be a cause celebre for my friends across the aisle to talk about freeing Tibet. When I was growing up in the 1990s, you saw the bumper stickers everywhere. Where is that outrage now from my Democratic colleagues? Why won't they call out China? In Tibet, the CCP has engaged in severe repression of the Tibetans' unique religious, cultural, and linguistic heritage and is engaged in gross human rights violations in Tibet, including but not limited to extrajudicial detentions, disappearances, and torture. Elsewhere, the CCP is widely alleged to be a major harvester and trafficker of forcibly acquired organs. Organ harvesting targets minorities, including the Falun Gong, Uyghurs, Tibetan Muslims, and Christians in China. Yet, where is the outrage from my friends across the aisle? Why won't they condemn socialism here today on the House floor? The CCP attempts to eliminate minority peoples through forced abortion and sterilization. Where is the outrage from across the aisle? There are 30 million more men in China than women due to forced abortions and the one-child policy, the result of Big Government socialism. Yet, again, my friends across the aisle will refuse to condemn socialism. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. McCormick), my good friend and a good doctor.

Mr. RESCHENTHALER. Mr. Speaker, I have no further speakers at this time. I am prepared to close, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. RESCHENTHALER. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time. Just in the spirit of rebuttal, I would like to address some of the comments made by my friend across the aisle. The spending under President Trump; there was spending under President Trump. But you know what? He also had a pandemic, a pandemic that we haven't seen in the last 100 years. So where is the excuse for the $1.7 trillion that was just rammed through? You want to talk about closed rules, things not going through regular order? That $1.7 trillion was rammed through. It was architected--didn't even go through the Senate Appropriations Committee. It was rammed through by two Senators that are no longer here who had zero accountability to the American public. What about Build Back Better? Where is the excuse for that? All Build Back Better did was increase inflation, hurt workers who have wages that aren't keeping pace with inflation. What about the Inflation Reduction Act? Where is the excuse for that and why we had rampant spending there? There is no excuse for it. Let's talk about China. To paraphrase Marcus Aurelius, it is not about one's words; it is about their deeds. Let's talk about the deeds of my friends across the aisle. Three years ago or so, my good friend, the Speaker of the House, put together--he wanted to put together a select committee on China, and he was strung along by my friends across the aisle. Finally, the Speaker had to move forward on his own as the minority Republican leader to put together the China Task Force. I was privileged to be on the China Task Force. You know how many Democrats were on that task force? Exactly zero. Zero Democrats joined that task force. So it is quite amazing how I hear that the Democrats want to condemn China; but when they had the chance to have a select committee to address the threat of China, they won't go along with. When they had the chance to join a task force explicitly put together to combat China and their malign influences on the world, zero of them joined that task force. So spare me the talk on China. We have seen how you treated China. Let's talk about definitions; playing these silly games that we can't define ``socialism'' and ``communism.'' We are all educated. We all know what socialism is. We all know what communism is. So spare me the fact that ``socialism'' isn't defined in this bill. This is especially rich from the party, my friends across the aisle who, for the last 2 years, couldn't even define basic terms like what is a woman. That is not just me saying that. Let's talk about Justice Brown Jackson. She was asked during confirmation to define a woman; and you know what her response was? ``No, I can't.'' So the party that can't define a woman now wants to sit here and say that we can't define ``socialism'' and ``communism.'' We all know what this is. Let's talk about, lastly, Representative Ilhan Omar and due process. I know there was a display put up regarding due process. It is quite amazing how my friends across the aisle have now discovered the principle of due process after 4 years--I'm sorry--2 years of one-party rule here in Washington, D.C., 2 years where due process wasn't followed at all. Where was the due process for my good friend from Georgia when she was removed from all her committees? Again, that is all her committees. We are only removing Representative Ilhan Omar from the Committee on Foreign Affairs. Where was the due process for my good friend, Dr. Gosar, when he was removed, again, from all his committees? There wasn't one Democrat who stood up and talked about due process. But miraculously, now we have found due process when the Republicans are removing somebody from a committee, one committee, for anti-Semitic remarks, and a pattern of anti-Semitic remarks for that. But let's just go back and talk about socialism. Let me be clear. Socialism must never take root in America. President Trump himself said America will never be a socialist Nation. These are words we should all rally around. We should all support that. But for too long, Democrats have fought this far-left authoritarian agenda, regardless of the regimes across the globe that commit acts of violence and oppression against their own people in its name. Experiments with socialism have led to painful human tragedy. We are talking about starvation, imprisonment, imprisonment without due process, I might add, and mass murder. Capitalism has lifted more people out of poverty than any other system. It is capitalism that is the way out of poverty, not socialism, not communism. Two hundred years ago, at the birth of capitalism, there were only about 600 million people in the world who were not living in extreme poverty. Today, due to the advance of capitalism, there are more than 6.5 billion people who are not living in extreme poverty. It was free- market capitalism that led the way here, not government-controlled socialism. Since 1970, the percentage of the world's population living on the equivalent of less than $1 a day has fallen by more than 80 percent. Instead of millions starving to death due to socialism and communism, capitalism has pulled hundreds of millions of people out of despair. Socialism and anti-Semitism have absolutely no place in America. For those reasons, I urge my colleagues to vote ``yes'' on the previous question and ``yes'' on the rule.

Mr. RESCHENTHALER. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time, and I move the previous question on the resolution.

Mr. RESCHENTHALER

Mr. RESCHENTHALER. Mr. Speaker, by direction of the Republican Conference, I send to the desk a privileged resolution and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mr. RESCHENTHALER

Mr. RESCHENTHALER. Mr. Speaker, I rise with deep concerns regarding big technology companies' ongoing efforts to silence conservatives on media platforms. In the wake of the 2020 New York Post's Hunter Biden Laptop story censored by social media platforms and news stations, Americans saw firsthand the government and media collaborating to silence the truth to influence a presidential election. As a pillar of the U.S. Constitution, free speech is critical to our civil discourse, and denying viewers access to a wide array of news opinions and stories is a dangerous precedent. Further, I am deeply troubled on February 22, 2021, some Democrat members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee used their power to push for censorship of television networks like Newsmax, Fox News, and One America News Network. This was a blatant attempt by Democrats to silence conservatives and push their thumb to influence free speech and the upcoming midterm election. I believe all voices and political views should be fairly represented and accessible so my constituents can access a wide variety of content. That is why, on January 20, 2023, I wrote to DirecTV's Chief Executive Officer, Mr. William Morrow, regarding their contract negotiations with Newsmax to ensure both parties come to a solution. Sadly, last week, the contract between Newsmax and DirecTV expired. I urge both parties to return to the negotiating table, so Pennsylvanians do not lose access to this vital cable news channel. Mr. Speaker, this dangerous trend and bias towards conservatives can no longer last in the public sphere. Television providers like DirecTV are uniquely positioned to ensure fair consideration in programming distributions regardless of political affiliations.

Mr. RESCHENTHALER

Mr. RESCHENTHALER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the distinguished gentleman from Massachusetts, the chairman of the Rules Committee for yielding me the customary 30 minutes, and I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, when I joined the Rules Committee, Chairman McGovern was incredibly welcoming and has been totally aboveboard. It has been a pleasure to work with Mr. McGovern, and it is a pleasure that he and I get to debate the last rule here for the 117th Congress. It is an honor, and I thank the gentleman from Massachusetts. I look forward to continuing to work with him on the Rules Committee. Mr. Speaker, the rule before us today provides for consideration of a 4,000-page omnibus package that puts America last. This bill was crafted behind closed doors, it was released in the middle of the night, and it received absolutely no input from House Republicans. So, instead of responsibly governing, House Democrats are trying to ram through trillions of dollars in new spending in the final days of this lameduck session. No Congress in recent history has passed an omnibus appropriations bill during a lameduck session following a shift of power in the House. To do so this year would be a violation of congressional precedent and a flagrant disregard for the American people who voted in new leadership in the House. This omnibus package will not unleash American energy. It won't reign in out-of-control inflation, which is caused by reckless spending. Here we are just 3 days away from Christmas, and more than one- quarter of Americans are expected to go into debt over Christmas costs, and about half are saying that they are going to cut back on holiday shopping altogether. Sadly, this comes as the majority of Americans have already reported an increase in personal debt this year as inflation outpaces their income. So instead of working on providing Americans with relief, this legislation is a last-ditch effort by Democrats to force their far left radical agenda on the American people before the clock runs out on the one-party rule that we have come to know in Washington. Further, despite the ongoing border crisis and Democrats' eagerness to let title 42 expire, this package effectively reduces funding for border enforcement and fails to include tougher policies that would actually address issues at the border. Specifically, this bill increases nondefense spending by $57 billion, yet there is no increase in funding for ICE enforcement and removal operations, and there is no increase for Border Patrol agent hiring, which is already grossly underfunded. Yet, in this bill the TSA received a drastic increase to give TSA officers a raise. So the men and women at the southern border that are stopping fentanyl from coming across the border, stopping terrorists, apprehending terrorists at the southern border, they are underfunded, yet the person that is wanding down your grandmother at the airport and taking your toothpaste, they get the raise. That is how backward this omnibus is. Almost 5 million illegal immigrants have been apprehended at the southern border since Joe Biden took office. That is not including the 1 million got-aways that have not been apprehended at all. That is 1 million people that are in this country that we have no control over, we don't know where they are, and they crossed illegally. Illegal immigrants who entered this country under Biden's border crisis will now cost U.S. taxpayers $20 billion a year on top of the trillions in spending Democrats are trying to pass just today. So I urge my colleagues to oppose this rule, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. RESCHENTHALER. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Let's just talk briefly about all the junk that is in this omnibus. This omnibus increases funding for nondefense programs by 8 percent in addition to the trillions of dollars that have been spent over the last 2 years. There is over $12 billion for the IRS on top of the nearly $80 billion provided to the IRS with the Inflation Reduction Act. There is a 12 percent increase for climate research for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. You have got over $3 billion for pie-in-the-sky renewable energy programs with the Department of Energy. That is a historic high, by the way. You have a 22 percent increase for Climate Adaptation Science Centers in the U.S. Geological Survey. You have a 20 percent increase for the Biden White House. You have a 125 percent increase in loan authority for The Presidio Trust, which is a parochial priority of Speaker Pelosi's that has already received $70 million in loan authority since fiscal year 2020. So think about that when we go to vote on this trillion dollar omnibus, all the junk and wasteful spending that is in here. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Bucshon), my good friend and a good doctor.

Mr. RESCHENTHALER. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. To my knowledge, this is a lameduck session. I am not sure if Democrats have changed the definition of ``lameduck.'' I know they tried to change the definition of ``recession'' this year, too. So I guess the language is constantly changing under this one-party rule here in Washington, D.C. When we on this side of the aisle talk about inflation and the harm to American families, this isn't something that is just theoretical. Let's put this in context. Since January of 2021, Democrats have spent $3 trillion on partisan spending bills. Again, this is a key driver of inflation. Bidenflation is America's unwanted guest at a Christmas dinner table for the second year in a row. With inflation remaining high, families across the country will pay 16.4 percent more for Christmas dinner compared to last year. The majority of Americans reported an increase in personal debt this year, and the top reason given was rising inflation and declining real wages. As of December, the share of Americans living paycheck-to-paycheck in Joe Biden's economy has risen to 63 percent. Let that sink in. Sixty- three percent of Americans in Biden's economy are living paycheck-to- paycheck. Families across the country are still paying more for just about everything. Fuel. Fuel is up 65.7 percent. Eggs are up about 50 percent. Air fares are up 36 percent. Butter and margarine, they are up 34 percent. Bread is up 15.7 percent. Milk is up by about 15 percent. Electricity is up by about 14 percent. Energy altogether is up over 30 percent. So that is what you expect in Joe Biden's economy, and this $1.7 trillion spending bill will do nothing more but drive up inflation even more and reduce real wages down further. For more on this, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from the great State of Texas (Mr. Roy).

Mr. RESCHENTHALER. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, my good friend from Massachusetts was talking about priorities. So let's look at some of the national security priorities in this omnibus. There is a $65 million increase for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency which, for those of you who don't know, produces materials promoting terrorism and anti-Semitism. While we are talking about anti-Semitism, let's talk about the U.N.'s Commission of Inquiry. I had an amendment in the State and Foreign Operations Subcommittee to make sure that no U.S. taxpayer dollars went to the Commission of Inquiry on Israel, which does nothing more than harass our Israeli allies and harasses the only Jewish majority state in the world. Yet, that amendment that I had was stripped out of this omnibus. This also allows the U.S. to continue to cooperate with the International Criminal Court, which is deeply flawed. As a former JAG, I can tell you that that court is incredibly unfair to U.S. servicemembers as well as Israel. This also underfunds foreign military financing requests from Egypt and Taiwan. So we give billions of dollars to Ukraine with zero accountability as to where those funds are going. There is no SIGAR- style oversight on that. Yet our allies in Taiwan and our allies in Egypt are underfunded. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Burchett) to talk more on this omnibus.

Mr. RESCHENTHALER. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, this omnibus underfunds border security. Let's just give a few stats. This year, 98 suspected terrorists have been apprehended attempting to cross the southern border. There were more than 14,000 pounds of illicit fentanyl seized in fiscal year 2022. That is just what was seized. But we know that we only seize 5 to 10 percent of the fentanyl coming across our border, and that has deadly consequences for Americans. There has been a 94 percent increase in fentanyl deaths since 2019. To put that in context, that is one fentanyl overdose every 7 minutes in the U.S. For more context on that, that would be the equivalent of one commercial airliner going down every single day in this country. It is an unmitigated disaster, and it is being caused because we have such a porous southern border. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from the great State of Texas (Mr. Sessions), who is a former chairman of the Rules Committee.

Mr. RESCHENTHALER. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from California (Mr. McCarthy), my good friend and the next Speaker of the House.

Mr. RESCHENTHALER. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Perry), my good friend.

Mr. RESCHENTHALER. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from the great State of Texas (Mr. Gohmert), my good friend.

Mr. RESCHENTHALER. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. Garcia) my good friend and fellow Naval officer.

Mr. RESCHENTHALER. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Clyde), my good friend, and also fellow Naval officer.

Mr. RESCHENTHALER. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. Higgins), my good friend.

Mr. RESCHENTHALER. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time to close. Mr. Speaker, I say again that in modern American history, a lameduck omnibus package has never been passed before the new majority takes over. Where is the claim that there is a threat to democracy? Where is the talk about institutional integrity when we are doing this unprecedented step? This package is designed to sideline the incoming Republican House majority, to sideline incoming Speaker Kevin McCarthy by extending many programs in this bill for multiple years and providing large funding increases for Democrat priorities. This is on top of the out-of-control spending that has led to historic inflation rates this year. Why are we not curbing wasteful government spending? Why are we not funding border security and border enforcement? Why are we not unleashing American energy dominance? Why are we not investing in our law enforcement officers? This omnibus does nothing to effectively address any of the crises that we are currently facing. Mr. Speaker, for those reasons, I urge my colleagues to vote ``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

Mr. RESCHENTHALER. Madam Speaker, I rise to recognize the life and legacy of Ralph J. Nevala, 83, of California, Pennsylvania, who was called home to his eternal reward by his Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, on Sunday, June 5, 2022. Born on February 28, 1939, the son of the late Weikko and Esther Oberg Nevala, Ralph spent his childhood on the Nevala Dairy Farm and was part of the California High School class of 1957. Ralph met Marion Ferrer while delivering milk from Nevala Dairy Farm to her neighborhood in Monessen. They were married on August 23, 1958, raised two sons on the family farm, and celebrated almost fifty-nine years of marriage together. In 1968, Ralph graduated from the Pennsylvania State Police Academy and honorably served the Commonwealth for nineteen years as a Trooper with the Vice Unit of the Bureau of Criminal Intelligence. During his extinguished career, Ralph was responsible for the arrests of perpetrators of the ``Triple Six Fix,'' the 1980 Pennsylvania Lottery scandal. His undercover work paved the way for justice on the high- profile case. Ralph's years of service in criminal intelligence also led to the crackdown on prostitution rings from Erie to Pittsburgh. Following his service with the Pennsylvania State Police, Ralph converted Nevala Dairy Farm into a beef cattle operation that specialized in breeding Hereford bulls and Angus cows. He worked on the farm until his retirement in 2017. Ralph was also a longtime member of the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau. This work led to lobbying lawmakers in both Harrisburg and Washington, underscoring the importance he placed in continued service to the farming community. Ralph was an avid deer hunter and member of the Charleroi Sportsman Club. He also served the public as a State Deputy Game Warden. During the summers, Ralph enjoyed spending time with his grandsons on the farm and traveling to Washington, D.C., and the Carolinas. Ralph was preceded in death by his parents and his loving wife, Marion Nevala. Madam Speaker, please join me in recognizing the life and legacy of Ralph J. Nevala. May we aspire to live by his example of public service and devotion to family and community.

Mr. RESCHENTHALER

Mr. RESCHENTHALER. Madam Speaker, I rise to recognize and congratulate the congregation of The Mingo Creek Presbyterian Church for 240 years of service to God and their community in southwestern Pennsylvania. As early as 1774, Scotch-Irish settlers of America's first western frontier gathered at the site of Mingo Creek Presbyterian Church. Records show that the first official Christian worship services took place in 1782 and have continued uninterrupted to this day. The original meeting house was used by The Mingo Creek Society, a group of dissidents involved in the protest against the federal whiskey excise tax beginning in 1794. The Mingo Creek log structure and the surrounding grounds served as ``the cradle of the Whisky Rebellion.'' There, militia leaders met and plotted the first revolt to test our young republic. Major James McFarlane, a veteran of the American Revolution, was one of the few killed in the uprising and is among the rebel figures buried in the Mingo Cemetery. The Church's first permanent pastor, Dr. Samuel Ralston, arrived as an Irish missionary in 1796 and served until 1837. His legacy was far- reaching, as his descendants remained active in the Mingo Creek Church through the 1960s. Throughout this time, the Church underwent several changes. Mingo Creek began its Mission and community outwork in 1841, which are still critical ventures. Curved walls were added in 1903, while a manse and Christian education building were built in 1924 and 1958, respectively. These changes allowed the Church to welcome more inside its walls, including traveling dignitaries. Among those was President Harry S. Truman, who delivered a speech at the Church's early 19th-century wooden pulpit. Madam Speaker, the Mingo Creek Presbyterian Church's story, is deeply rooted in our great Nation's origins. The Church has stood as a testament of faith for 240 years, and its storied history has earned the religious institution a standing in the National Registry for Historic Places. I look forward to what the next chapter has in store for the congregation and community.

Mr. RESCHENTHALER

Mr. RESCHENTHALER. Madam Speaker, I thank the distinguished chairman and my good friend from Massachusetts for yielding me the customary 30 minutes, and I yield myself such time as I may consume. Madam Speaker, the rule before us today provides for consideration of H.R. 8393, the Puerto Rico Status Act. This is a bill that received an emergency Rules hearing yesterday with just 3 hours' notice, 3 hours for an issue that deserves to be heard through regular order. H.R. 8393 would authorize a federally sponsored, taxpayer-funded election to be held in Puerto Rico on 5 November 2023. This election would require the voters of Puerto Rico to choose between three status options: independence, sovereignty and free association, or U.S. statehood. You might notice something missing here. This bill doesn't even give Puerto Ricans the option to preserve their current status as a territory of the United States. So not only do House Democrats want to control how the States run their elections, they now want to control how Puerto Rico runs their elections. H.R. 8393 even takes things a step further than that. If Puerto Ricans vote to become a sovereign or independent nation, this legislation tells them what they have to include in their new constitution, how they have to ratify their constitution, and how elections for government officers should take place. My friends across the aisle want to talk about colonial power. What does that sound like? Further, this bill would completely circumvent congressional authority by not allowing Congress to ratify the option that Puerto Rico ultimately chooses. The question of Puerto Rico's statehood is a serious topic, one that I am not necessarily opposed to, but it is a topic that deserves a deliberative process with careful consideration and expert input. There have been numerous hearings on this issue, but there were no hearings on this specific bill. There has been no vetting of legal implications of using this unprecedented, self-executing process to statehood. This is not a question that should be run through a lameduck Congress on the last day of a scheduled session with less than 24 hours' notice. That is unacceptable. Again, I am not debating the merits of Puerto Rican statehood, but I am pointing out the glaring problems in this ill-conceived, half-baked legislation that leaves too many questions unanswered. House Democrats are doing nothing more today than using Puerto Ricans as pawns to score cheap political points with a bill that has zero chance of becoming law. Let's just be frank and honest about that. This bill has zero chance of becoming law this session of Congress. It is a joke that we are even considering it today. We owe it to the voters of Puerto Rico to do better than this. They deserve more. Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to oppose this rule, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. RESCHENTHALER. Madam Speaker, I would like to inquire as to whether my friend has any additional speakers.

Mr. RESCHENTHALER. Madam Speaker, I am prepared to close, I have no further speakers, and I yield myself the balance of my time. Madam Speaker, I have already talked about the fact that this bill did not go through regular order. It is even questionable whether the committee that heard this hearing has jurisdiction to consider this bill. I haven't even touched on the fact that the status options that are called for don't give Puerto Rico the chance to keep its current status. The status quo is totally off limits. We have also talked about dictating to a sovereign nation what is in their constitution. It also, as I said before, abrogates constitutional authority. This has never been done before. Also, there is no CBO score on this. We have zero idea how much this is going to cost. This also doesn't take into consideration PROMESA which is the financial oversight and management board that helps Puerto Rico. A big glaring issue here is citizenship. We haven't had a single hearing on how this would affect citizenship. So you are in Puerto Rico and born to two U.S. citizens, what happens to your status? Are you a U.S. citizen or not? That is not considered in this bill. So, again, this bill is half-baked. It didn't go through regular order, and it didn't go through proper committees of jurisdiction, yet here we are considering it in a lameduck session. I am incredibly disappointed by this. I am here just 1 day after this bill was considered in a hearing that was held in the Rules Committee debating legislation scheduled on, again, the last day of the 117th Congress. Again, this bill has zero chance of becoming law. We are wasting the time of the American people. I have said it repeatedly, but it requires saying again: we have real crises that this Nation is facing. Our southern border is one great example. At no time has our southern border been more dangerous and more unstable than right now. This past fiscal year set the record for encounters of illegal immigrants, also a record for migrant deaths, a record for apprehension of suspected terrorists, and a record for seizure of fentanyl at the southern border. The seizure of fentanyl might sound as if we are doing something good, but we only interdict less than 10 percent of the fentanyl. So if our fentanyl seizures are up, then the amount of fentanyl coming into the United States is, of course, up. Yet with all that, congressional Democrats won't even acknowledge that there is a problem at our southern border. Even the Biden administration won't admit the gravity of the situation. Vice President Kamala Harris, the so-called border czar, has said: ``Our border is secure.'' That is gaslighting. That is gaslighting the American people. President Biden himself has said: ``There are more important things going on.'' He refuses to even visit the southern border. That is gaslighting, and that is also dereliction of duty. Further, House Democrats failed to meet the fundamental duty of funding the government, despite spending most of last year passing trillions of dollars in wasteful spending that has done nothing but driven up inflation, driven up our national debt, and has seen real wages decrease for working Americans. So now we are letting two Senators who won't even be in office next year ram through a massive omnibus spending bill that was written behind closed doors and without the input of House Republicans. So with today's rule, House Democrats are, once again, refusing to put forward solid legislation that has an actual chance of moving forward and bringing relief to the American people. Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to vote ``no'' on the rule, and I yield back the balance of my time.