John Rose

Mr. ROSE

Mr. ROSE. Madam Speaker, if remarks like these are reflective of the advice being given to the President of the United States, it is no wonder that they continue to enact policies completely out of touch with the American people. Gas Tax Holiday

Mr. ROSE. Madam Speaker, if you were on a drive through middle Tennessee right now and needed to fill up, let's say, a 2015 Ford F- 150, you would pay about $120. A gas tax holiday would take fewer than $5 off that bill. Yet, this is the latest Band-Aid solution being tossed around by the Biden administration. President Biden has already depleted our Strategic Petroleum Reserve to its lowest point in 35 years, weakening national security while doing little or nothing to lower gas prices. While every dollar certainly counts, saving only $5 out of every $120 from a gas tax holiday will not make much of a difference in our personal budgets, but it will have a crushing effect on our ability to pay for the Federal highway system. Instead of kneecapping our Nation's infrastructure, the President should immediately approve the more than 4,000 pending applications for drilling and end the freeze on oil and gas leases, yet President Biden refuses. The key to getting prices down is simple: reestablish the energy independence President Trump created. President Biden simply must do better.

Mr. ROSE

Mr. ROSE. Madam Speaker, more than 7 weeks ago, we woke up to headlines that the Supreme Court of the United States would likely overturn Roe v. Wade. I believe the leaker broke Federal law in an effort to change the outcome of the High Court's ruling. We have seen protests outside Justices' homes. In Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh's case, we have seen an assassination plot. We have also seen more than a dozen attacks on pro-life organizations across the country, including vandalism, destruction of property, and even firebombing. This is why I joined more than 100 House Republicans in a letter urging the Department of Justice to investigate these attacks. They not only deserve to be a top priority for the DOJ, but we believe they should be investigated as instances of domestic terrorism. We must make it clear that we are a Nation of laws, never mob rule.

Mr. ROSE

Mr. ROSE. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding tonight. Madam Speaker, I rise today to address another devastating record set on President Biden's watch, this time along our southern border. Numbers released last week from U.S. Customs and Border Protection tell us there were more migrant encounters in May of this year than any month on record. May was also the fourth straight month of encounters reaching more than 200,000. Here are the numbers: 239,416 total encounters. That is up 32 percent from May of last year, and nearly 10 times the number of encounters during the same month in 2020. Twenty-five percent of migrants were repeat offenders, meaning they have been deported or arrested before. Agents also reported 20 percent more unaccompanied minors crossing the border compared to just April of this year. This continues to be a national security and humanitarian crisis, and it is only getting worse. And if you can believe it, the numbers could actually be much worse. Had it not been for a Federal judge delaying the Biden administration's plan to end title 42, who knows how many people would have crossed into our country illegally? Title 42 is a critical tool for our already overwhelmed Border Patrol agents. Yet, the Biden Justice Department continues to fight for the administration's dangerous, reckless, open border policies by appealing that judge's decision. Since President Biden took office, more than 700,000 people have avoided law enforcement and made their way into our country. We really don't know who these people are. Agents stopped at least 50 people on the terrorist screening database in just a 9-month period. This begs the questions: Out of those who evaded law enforcement, those 700,000, how many could potentially be on the terrorist watch list? Where are those people? What are their intentions? How will they impact the lives of American citizens? Republicans may sound like a broken record when it comes to the border, but we wouldn't have to talk about it so much if it were not for the broken policies of President Biden and his DHS Secretary Mayorkas. They simply must do better.

Mr. ROSE

Mr. ROSE. Mr. Speaker, our country is in an inflation crisis caused by the Biden administration's failed leftwing, progressive policies. We have families who can't find baby formula for their newborns, grocery stores with empty shelves, workers filling up their gas tanks for twice what they paid 2 years ago, and farmers paying triple for fertilizer compared to two harvests ago. H.R. 7606, the bill that passed the House last week, will do nothing to combat these crises in the immediate future. Instead, Congress should consider a bill introduced by the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Thompson), my friend and ranking member of the House Agriculture Committee. H.R. 8069, the Reducing Farm Input Costs and Barriers to Production Act, will work to immediately combat rising food and fuel costs and has the support from our farmers, ranchers, and producers. However, once again, Democrats passed a bill that doesn't fix our problems, nor does it increase our domestic food or fuel production, and they blame everything on Republicans. Let the record show we offered real solutions, and Democrats simply did not listen.

Mr. ROSE

Mr. ROSE. Mr. Speaker, I want to make it clear: just because Democrats named their bill the Lower Food and Fuel Costs Act does not mean this bill will achieve that goal. The only thing it really achieves is a campaign talking point for Democrats responding to constituents frustrated with higher prices at the grocery store and the gas station caused by their reckless spending. Instead of wasting our valuable time debating this bill that will never become law, we should pass H.R. 8069, the Reducing Farm Input Costs and Barriers to Production Act, introduced by Ranking Member Thompson, which includes real, immediate solutions our farmers, ranchers, and producers support. His bill, which I am proud to support, would reverse the EPA's reckless actions related to crop production tools, reverse the Biden administration's confusing and disastrous changes to the Waters of the United States rule, and would withdraw the SEC's ludicrous ESG rule on climate-related disclosures, an action that has received bipartisan support.

Mr. ROSE

Mr. ROSE. So true. Thank you, Vice-Chairman Johnson. I appreciate that. Madam Speaker, the average cost of a gallon of gas in this country just passed $5 per gallon for the very first time. I repeat: The average cost of a gallon of gas in this country just passed $5 per gallon for the very first time. I would like to remind Americans, especially those on the other side of the aisle who may not be affected because they drive electric vehicles, that prices at the pump started to go up well before Vladimir Putin's disgraceful invasion of Ukraine. In fact, they started climbing shortly after President Biden took office. It is not a coincidence. It is not an unintended consequence. It was the President's intended outcome. The President doesn't beat around the bush on the topic of fossil fuels. On the campaign trail, he pledged to get rid of them. I would say he is well on his way to keeping that promise. Remember, this country was a net exporter of oil. Now we are stuck hoping the President has a good meeting with the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, the same country he called a pariah, one that we hope results in them producing more oil and, hopefully, lowering global prices. This administration has taken many steps to make it next to impossible to expand drilling here at home. We all remember how quickly the President killed the Keystone XL pipeline with no regard for the impact that would have on those jobs or how dependent it would make us on foreign oil suppliers. This administration has also proposed more than $80 billion in tax increases on energy producers in the first two budget cycles since being in office. We know the war in Ukraine has impacted fuel prices, but we Republicans argue that we didn't have to be reliant on foreign countries. If we just used the oil we have here at home, we probably could have kept prices down. Now, we are asking OPEC to produce more. It makes no sense. The President calls this moment an incredible transition. I see nothing incredible about it. In fact, the only transition I see is the American people going from being able to provide for their families to being stuck at home because of record inflation and gas prices that have more than doubled. We are not going to go from oil to electric consumption overnight. The grid isn't ready for an all-electric future. We should pursue an all-of-the-above approach that includes oil. The Tennessee Valley Authority uses 39 percent nuclear, 19 percent coal, 26 percent natural gas, 11 percent hydro, and 3 percent wind and solar to power millions of homes across the Tennessee valley. That is how you make sure you are not just energy independent, but you are energy dominant. The answer isn't raiding our Strategic Petroleum Reserve. The answer certainly isn't relying on foreign countries for supply. The answer is tapping into the resources with which our Nation happens to be abundantly blessed.

Mr. ROSE

Mr. ROSE. Mr. Speaker, our Nation is facing a lot of problems: historic inflation, sky-high prices at the pump, and a shortage of baby formula. But it is important not to lose sight of another crisis going on more than 1500 miles southwest of where we are gathered right now: 2.6 million illegal immigrants have been apprehended at our southern border since President Biden took the oath of office. There were more than 234,000 migrant encounters at the border just in April. That is the most for any month in history. That is also a 1,268 percent increase from April of 2020. Border Patrol seized more than 340,000 pounds of drugs since last October, including enough fentanyl to kill more than 2 billion people. Yet, this administration is still fighting to repeal title 42. It is past time to put an end to these open border policies and put the American people first.

Mr. ROSE

Mr. ROSE. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding. H.R. 2543 will do nothing to resolve the long list of crises the Biden administration's policies have caused, such as runaway, devastating inflation; massive Federal debt; unacceptably high gas prices; a skyrocketing crime rate; and an open border that allows millions of illegal immigrants and tons of deadly fentanyl into our country. This bill, which has no chance of becoming law and is dead on arrival in the Senate, would impose additional and burdensome reporting requirements on public companies, reduce access to credit, distract the Federal Reserve from pursuing its statutory mandate, and further politicize our regulatory agencies. Families in middle Tennessee can't find baby formula and are struggling to pay for groceries and gas while Democrats are jamming through a partisan bill just to score political points with their leftwing progressive base. We must do better for our constituents and for our country.

Mr. ROSE

Mr. ROSE. Mr. Speaker, inflation is at the highest level we have seen since Jimmy Carter was in the White House. I have spoken many times about rising prices being fueled by out-of- control spending. Today, I rise with even more proof that this has been the case. President Biden's 2021 COVID stimulus bill overheated the economy, just as I, and many other Republican Members of Congress, along with numerous economists from both sides of the political divide, predicted. Now a report by the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office shows that spending did, in fact, create a worker shortage which strained supply chains and contributed to the economic crisis in which we find ourselves today. One year ago, companies across middle Tennessee were struggling to find workers. More than 160,000 Tennesseans were unemployed; yet 218,000 jobs were available. Folks were earning $15.75 an hour to stay home because of the unnecessary $2 trillion bill pushed through by congressional Democrats on a party line vote. Employers became desperate. Many were forced to offer massive sign-on bonuses and other incentives just to find enough workers to continue operating as normal. Unfortunately, some had to close their doors. Tennessee's Governor Bill Lee, a businessowner himself, recognized the damage enhanced Federal unemployment benefits were causing on restaurants and retail stores. He noticed many couldn't compete with $300 a week from the Federal Government on top of State unemployment benefits. Fortunately, he put a stop to the flow of Federal unemployment dollars in Tennessee, and he was right. At last check, there were about 13,000 unemployment claims in Tennessee, compared to roughly 60,000 claims this time last year. Still, the cost of living has increased every month under the Biden administration, and the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office projects it will continue to impact Americans at least into 2023. This is what happens when you do what is politically expedient. This is the direct result of runaway deficit spending. The Federal Reserve is now having to be the adult in the room and raise interest rates to lower inflation. Raising interest rates is a harsh step, but one made necessary by the Biden administration's reckless handling of the economy. It will make it harder and more expensive to borrow money for your first home or to buy a new car. Raising interest rates will also cause our economy to slow down. This means people will lose their jobs, their savings, and in many cases, even their small businesses. Our economy already got 1.5 percent smaller in the first quarter of the year. It is why many economists are predicting a recession or worse in the next 12 months. It didn't have to be this way. The President and congressional Democrats didn't have to borrow and spend so much money. This administration inherited one of the strongest economies in my life. It took fewer than 2 years for them to completely destroy it. President Biden must do better.

Mr. ROSE

Mr. ROSE. Mr. Speaker, the United States is a nation of laws, not mob rule. Whoever leaked a draft opinion of Dobbs v. Jackson broke the law and did great damage to the integrity of our judicial institutions. In the 5 weeks following the leak, protesters have taken to the streets of Justices' homes to intimidate and harass them for fulfilling their constitutional duty to interpret the law, and even one deranged individual plotted to assassinate Justice Kavanaugh. Because of this, I am dumbfounded by the Speaker's refusal on three separate occasions to allow a vote to provide protections for the Justices and their families. Finally, more than 1 month after the Senate passed the bill by unanimous consent, we were able to hold a vote today. It took way too long, but, thankfully, it wasn't too late.

Mr. ROSE

Mr. ROSE. Madam Speaker, last week the Wall Street Journal reported that a whistleblower employee at Abbott Nutrition filed a complaint with the FDA in February of last year, months before the originally reported date of October. If true, President Biden and his FDA must answer for why they ignored these alarming claims. Parents in middle Tennessee are struggling to find baby formula as the out-of-stock rate has skyrocketed to 92 percent. Ultimately, this is just another crisis that has been made much worse by the Biden administration, about which one White House official on the Domestic Policy Council gave the excuse that the administration's plate was full with ``a million crises going on.'' Unfortunately, President Biden's failed far-left agenda caused the million crises. Those many crises very well may have distracted his administration from initially taking the baby formula shortage seriously, as well as contributed to the administration's inexcusably slow reaction to the crisis, allowing it to get much worse than it should have. We must get to the bottom of this failure and hold those accountable responsible, but in any case, the President must do better.

Mr. ROSE

Mr. ROSE. Madam Speaker, as the Biden inflation worsens and Americans are forced to choose between buying groceries or filling their gas tanks, Democrats will hold a prime time, Hollywood-produced sham hearing of their unconstitutional Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack. Most Americans won't watch. In fact, America's most-watched news source, FOX News, won't even be covering the hearing live. That won't stop Democrats from trying to pull out all the stops to do whatever they can to distract the American people from their inability to effectively govern. They have even hired a slick ABC News producer to produce the hearing to ensure their spectacle is ready for prime time. I hope, come November, when folks head to the polls they remember Democrats decided to put politics first instead of focusing on the real-life issues we all face today. It is truly a shame.

Mr. ROSE

Mr. ROSE. Madam Speaker, in late April and early May when parents and Republicans in Congress began to sound the alarm about the unacceptable scarcity of baby formula, I thought to myself, Well, this is just another example of the compounding effect of the bad policies of the Biden administration. But at the time, the facts had not come to light that the crisis is yet another direct result of the mismanagement and misguided Biden Presidency; a President focused on a woke, progressive agenda, while the basic functions of government are neglected or mismanaged. The most critical fact that has come to light is that Abbott Nutrition's Sturgis plant supplied about one-fifth, 20 percent, of all infant formula in the United States before it closed. Furthermore, the company makes the majority of the formula for infants in the Women, Infants, and Children program. That is more than 43 percent of babies in the United States. It is unfathomable that a facility this critical to the lives of our Nation's newborns can somehow slip through the cracks. As of this past weekend, I am glad to see that the Sturgis plant is making formula again, but it could take a couple of months for supply to hit store shelves. Currently, the Nation's current out-of-stock rate is 74 percent. In Tennessee, it is 92 percent. This is indeed a worst- case scenario for parents and their vulnerable infant children. How did we get here? Let's go through the timeline. In September of 2019, inspectors found a handful of sanitary issues with the plant in Sturgis but allowed managers to continue operating while they implemented necessary changes. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the FDA conducted its first routine inspection of the Abbott Sturgis plant in 2 years in September of 2021. They found that the issues uncovered in the 2019 surveillance inspection had been resolved. At about the same time, in September 2021, the FDA receives the first complaint that a child was hospitalized with Cronobacter. Meanwhile, the Nation's out-of-stock rate for infant formula rose to 11 percent in November of 2021, when Dr. Robert Califf was nominated to serve as commissioner of the FDA. December 1, the FDA received a second complaint related to the death of a child. The Centers for Disease Control determined that Cronobacter could have been a contributing factor. In January of this year, the FDA receives their third complaint of a child hospitalized with Cronobacter, while at the same time The New York Times reports that baby formula shortages are, ``worsening throughout the United States.'' On January 31, the FDA begins a delayed follow-up inspection of the Abbott Sturgis plant. Thirteen days later, the nationwide out-of-stock rate of infant formula rises to 26 percent. Two days later, on February 15, Dr. Robert Califf is confirmed by the U.S. Senate as the new commissioner of the FDA. Two days after that, on the commissioner's second day on the job, Abbott announces a voluntary recall and hold of certain powdered infant formulas produced at the Sturgis plant. The same day, the FDA receives a fourth Cronobacter complaint. Why does this timeline matter? Because President Biden said he wasn't made aware of the issues with the stock of baby formula until late April. Now just imagine, on your second day on the job, a fire breaks out in your office, and you don't call the President to let him know? I don't understand. I truly don't. Again, this plant produces one-fifth of the Nation's supply of baby formula. The crisis was foreseeable and extraordinary steps should have been taken to avoid it. There is no doubt in my mind that the February formula recall followed by the Sturgis plant closure is the primary factor that turned an already increasing problem into a crisis. There should have been more urgency. It should have been clear to the Biden administration in February that we were going to have a problem. Maybe it was and they just didn't want to tell the President, or maybe he was busy that day. Who knows. I am sure we will find out when Republicans take back the majority and conduct proper oversight of this administration. Put simply, the FDA and President Biden fumbled the ball for months, and families across this country are paying the price. We cannot afford for this administration to take its eye off the ball again. The President must do better.

Mr. ROSE

Mr. ROSE. Madam Speaker, I rise today to address the heartbreak Americans continue to reel from, the horrible killing of 19 students and two teachers by a demented teenager in Uvalde, Texas. As an elected Representative, as well as a parent, I am eager to find solutions that make our kids safer. Those solutions must include strengthening mental health services and school security across this country. Democrats in Congress have a choice to make. Do they want to focus yet again on more gun control, which won't work and won't pass the Senate, or do they want to focus on mental health and school security improvements which will help, and on which we might be able to reach consensus and pass into law? Madam Speaker, I believe we can enhance protection for our children without throwing away any of our hard-won freedoms. The ball is in the Democrats' court.

Mr. ROSE

Mr. ROSE. Madam Speaker, the average price of gasoline has more than doubled since President Biden was sworn into office. That is not a coincidence. After all, before he took office, he told us he would ``end fossil fuel.'' Now, Americans are finding out the hard way what happens when we elect a President that wants to end fossil fuels. The cost of living rises faster than we can keep up with because almost everything we wear, eat, and use is transported using fossil fuels. Meanwhile, yesterday, the President announced he would be invoking the Defense Production Act to make more solar panels. Give me a break. The President needs to concede his war against American energy and allow companies to drill and explore for new oil. It is that easy. Yet, he refuses. President Biden simply must do better.

Mr. ROSE

Mr. ROSE. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from Virginia for yielding me time to speak on this very important and lifesaving program as we commemorate the 30th anniversary of the creation of the 340B program. I applaud the gentlewoman from Virginia for her leadership on this issue and for organizing this opportunity for Members on both sides to speak about how important this issue is to each of our districts. I also thank the other Members here tonight and those who routinely support the 340B program. More than 220 Members of the House recently joined a letter to Health and Human Services, urging the Department to crack down on drug companies denying 340B discounts. By having such a large group of Members in support of that letter, to which I proudly lent my name, we demonstrated the broad bipartisan support the 340B program enjoys across the entire country. Madam Speaker, I include the text of that letter in the Record. Congress of the United States, House of Representatives, Washington, DC, February 26, 2021. Acting Secretary Cochran, Department of Health and Human Services, Washington, DC. Dear Acting Secretary Cochran: We write today as leading congressional proponents of the 340B drug discount program to ask you to take immediate action to ensure that manufacturers are prohibited from imposing unilateral changes to the program in direct conflict with congressional intent and decades of written guidance. We were pleased to see 28 attorneys general urge former HHS Secretary Azar to protect the 340B programs. We believe that letter and the Department's Office of General Counsel's advisory opinion, released on December 30 and described below, represent some of the most compelling legal arguments for the actions we ask you to take. As you know, Congress enacted the 340B Drug Pricing Program in 1992 following the creation of the Medicaid Drug Rebate Program. In order for their drugs to be covered by Medicaid, manufacturers are required to offer discounts to certain public and nonprofit health care organizations known as covered entities, including Federally Qualified Health Centers, Ryan White HIV/AIDS Clinics, Medicare/Medicaid Disproportionate Share hospitals, rural hospitals, and children's hospitals. According to the legislative history, Congress's intent in creating the discount program was to ``stretch scarce federal resources to reach more eligible patients and provide more comprehensive services.'' The 340B statute requires drug manufacturers to ``offer each covered entity covered outpatient drugs for purchase at or below the applicable ceiling price.'' There are no provisions in the statute that allow manufacturers to set conditions or otherwise impede a provider's ability to access 340B discounts. The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), which oversees the program, has indicated on multiple occasions, dating back to the early years of the program, that the 340B statute requires manufacturers to provide 340B discounts to covered entities when covered entities purchase drugs to be dispensed through contract pharmacies on a covered entity's behalf. Beginning in the summer of 2020, several drug manufacturers began to announce a range of actions to avoid honoring 340B discounts for certain drugs, many with the highest prices, delivered to covered entities' contract pharmacies. Some manufacturers have announced they will no longer ship discounted drugs to contract pharmacies; others will ship to only one contract pharmacy per covered entity. HHS has reviewed manufacturers' refusals to provide 340B discounts to covered entities' contract pharmacies and found them to be unlawful. In a December 30th 2020 advisory opinion, then-general counsel Robert Charrow wrote, ``[T]he core requirement of the 340B statute . . . is that manufacturers must ``offer'' covered outpatient drugs at or below the ceiling price for ``purchase by'' covered entities. This fundamental requirement is not qualified, restricted, or dependent on how the covered entity chooses to distribute the covered outpatient drugs.'' Unfortunately, publishing the advisory opinion has not deterred manufacturers from continuing with unlawful price hikes. Many covered entities are struggling with severe financial losses as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. They cannot afford to be unfairly targeted by large pharmaceutical corporations or be forced to pay higher up-front costs for the drugs their patients need. Furthermore, an information technology company has allied with manufacturers to change the 340B program from one of upfront discounts to post-sale rebates, a change that would greatly increase costs for covered entities and give manufacturers tremendous leverage over covered entities. Such action is inconsistent with HRSA's long-standing guidance that the 340B program is an up-front discount program.'' The December 14th letter from the attorneys general called on HHS to ``address drug manufacturers' unlawful refusal to provide critical drug discounts to covered entities.'' Consistent with that letter, we urge you to: 1. Begin assessing civil monetary penalties on manufacturers that deny 340B pricing to covered entities in violation of their obligations under the 340B statute; 2. Require manufacturers to refund covered entities the discounts they have unlawfully withheld since 2020; 3. Halt, through guidance or other means, any attempt to unilaterally change 340B upfront discounts to post sale rebates; and 4. Immediately seat the Administrative Dispute Resolution Panel to begin processing disputes within the program. As the attorneys general stated in their December 14th letter, ``Each day that drug manufacturers violate their statutory obligations, vulnerable patients and their health care centers are deprived of the essential healthcare resources Congress intended to provide.'' Thank you very much for your prompt consideration of these important matters.

Mr. ROSE. Madam Speaker, even though the 340B program has received such overwhelming support from Members of Congress, multiple administrations, hospitals, doctors, pharmacists, and patients, it still finds itself struggling to survive from relentless efforts to undermine its existence by some pharmaceutical companies refusing to abide by the law. HHS must take immediate enforcement action against all of these noncompliant drug companies. As many of us here tonight understand, the 340B program is an important avenue for offering lower drug prices for our most vulnerable citizens. It is often a lifeline of financial support for the small, rural hospitals in middle Tennessee and across the country. These very same hospitals are often the only source of care for communities in expansive geographic areas. I have no other word to describe it other than ``unconscionable'' that companies founded to help sick patients by providing lifesaving medication deliberately undermine a law to increase affordable access to their lifesaving medications. It is truly disgraceful. Tonight, we are going to hear more about this malpractice. I hope by highlighting this issue here on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives, we will encourage other Members of the House and the Senate to take immediate and decisive action to protect the 340B program.

Mr. ROSE. Madam Speaker, I want to talk a little more about the importance of H.R. 4390, the PROTECT 340B Act of 2021, which was introduced by the gentleman from West Virginia (Mr. McKinley), my friend, and is co-led by the gentlewoman from Virginia (Ms. Spanberger), the lead organizer of this Special Order. Passage of the PROTECT 340B Act of 2021 is essential in order to push back against recent attacks on the 340B program. This bill would prohibit pharmacy benefit managers, otherwise known as PBMs, from discriminating against 340B providers or their contract pharmacies. The PROTECT 340B Act is supported by America's Essential Hospitals, 340B Health, National Association of Community Health Centers, and Ryan White Clinics for 340B Access. To ensure PBMs are held accountable, it allows the HHS Secretary to impose civil monetary penalties. This is the definition of a good bill. It has broad, bipartisan support in the House as well as among outside groups, and it even has an enforcement mechanism that hits the bad actors where it hurts them most--their pocketbooks.

Mr. ROSE. Madam Speaker, again, I thank the gentlewoman from Virginia for yielding, and I join her in calling on our colleagues to join us in this effort to preserve and protect the 340B program. I will share a success story that highlights how Members worked in a bipartisan way to solve a major issue within the 340B program. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, some hospitals lost their 340B eligibility due to the influx of COVID-19 patients that overwhelmed some hospitals and diminished their ability to meet the requirements of the 340B program. Two of those hospitals were in my district in rural Tennessee. However, the gentlewoman from California, Representative Matsui, introduced H.R. 3203, which was designed to restore eligibility to hospitals that lost their 340B status due to the pandemic. I was proud to lend my name as a cosponsor to this bipartisan bill. I am happy to report that because of this bipartisan support and the leadership of Members like Representative Matsui, this issue was fixed in section 121 of the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2022. Because of this bipartisan effort, I am pleased to report back that both hospitals in my district in Tennessee have since regained that 340B eligibility. Madam Speaker, I hope this story shows that Members are capable of protecting and strengthening the 340B program in a bipartisan way.

Mr. ROSE. Madam Speaker, again, I thank the gentlewoman from Virginia (Ms. Spanberger). She has done a commendable job putting tonight's Special Order together, gathering support from both sides of the aisle to come speak here tonight about the 340B program, and being one of the Members leading the fight to protect the lifesaving 340B program. Madam Speaker, by their presence on the House floor tonight and the persuasive and powerful words they have spoken, these Members have sent the unmistakable signal that we are all resolutely prepared to fight on behalf of our constituents who benefit from the 340B program, even if it ruffles some powerful feathers. If Big Pharma would just play by the rules and abide by the law, I am sure we wouldn't be in the position we are today. However, the big pharmaceutical companies aren't playing by the rules, and they are showing no signs that they have an interest in doing so. All we are asking is that they, too, are held accountable to the law. That is it. Nothing more, nothing less. In the meantime, we will continue to push back on their brazen attempts to undermine the law because I know we are on the right side of this fight. I encourage all Members to reach out to the Federally qualified health centers, the Ryan White Clinics, Medicare/Medicaid Disproportionate Share hospitals, rural hospitals, and children's hospitals in your districts that are 340B participants. You will find that the 340B program has an enormous impact on communities all across this country. Lastly, I reiterate my support for H.R. 4390, the Protect 340B Act, and I sincerely beseech House leadership to bring the bill to the floor for a vote.

Mr. ROSE

Mr. ROSE. Madam Speaker, 234,088 illegal immigrants crossed the southern border last month. That is a record-breaking number that I take no pleasure in saying aloud. This surpassed the previous record of 221,303 set just in March. In President Biden's first 15 months in office, Federal law enforcement officials have stopped more than 2.75 million people attempting to cross into the U.S. illegally. To put things in perspective, that is more than the entire population of the Nashville, Tennessee, metropolitan area. Despite continuously breaking these records, the President has shown absolutely no serious desire to stem the flow of illegal immigration, as evidenced by his rescission of title 42 and his stopping of construction on the border wall. Madam Speaker, President Biden must do better.

Mr. ROSE

Mr. ROSE. Madam Speaker, I rise today to address an issue on the minds of many Americans and middle Tennesseans: Rising crime. Twelve major cities broke homicide records in 2021. The Council on Criminal Justice says murders nationwide went up 5 percent from 2020 and up a whopping 44 percent from 2019. Aggravated assaults are up. Robberies are up. There has been one decrease under President Biden's watch: a drop in the morale among the men and women in uniform. In fact, the retirement rate for police departments across the country has jumped by 45 percent since 2019. The blame can be squarely placed on the left's antipolice rhetoric, including calls to defund the police. When the left chooses to demonize and demoralize the thin blue line, officers' jobs become even tougher, as if they are not already tough enough. However, I remind them that they have our support, and we stand ready to defend and honor them as they protect and serve our communities. Thank you to all our Nation's police officers.

Mr. ROSE

Mr. ROSE. Madam Speaker, today, I rise as average gas prices across the country approach $4.50. The average American household will now have to spend an extra $2,000 per year thanks to President Biden's war on American energy. On his very first day in office, he canceled the Keystone pipeline. He has since raided the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, leaving us unprepared for national security emergencies. He has made it more difficult and expensive to drill for oil. And just last week, President Biden canceled drilling permits in Alaska and the Gulf of Mexico. It is apparent that he wants gas prices to continue to rise. I don't know how else to say it. The folks of middle Tennessee know exactly who to blame for rising energy costs: President Joe Biden. Madam Speaker, President Biden must do better. The President's energy policies are crushing middle Tennesseans while the answer to this crisis lies right under our feet. We can't afford to wait for the next President to unleash America's energy independence.

Mr. ROSE

Mr. ROSE. Madam Speaker, the leak of Associate Justice Alito's draft opinion on Dobbs v. Jackson was clearly illegal. That is why more than 20 Republican Members of the House joined me in calling on Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI Director Wray to open a criminal investigation into a potential violation of U.S. law. Title 18 United States Code Section 2071 states in part: A person who willfully carries away any document filed or deposited with any clerk or officer of any court shall be fined or imprisoned or both. Anyone trying to criminally undermine the division of power in our government should be held accountable to the full extent of the law, especially as the leak is already proving to be dangerous as Justices are facing harassment outside their homes. Our country is built on the fundamental respect for law and order. It is clear to me and my Republican colleagues that the law was clearly violated.