Chip Roy

Mr. ROY

Mr. ROY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Utah for hosting a forum here on the floor for our colleagues to be able to talk about the important issues with respect to Bidenomics, such as you can even use that term as anything other than creating and inflicting pain on the American people through a big spending, highly regulatory inflationary environment that is killing the average hardworking American family. That is the truth. My colleague from Utah brought a number of our other colleagues down to make that point very clearly, in addition to making the point that I have come to the floor of the House to underscore and reiterate. That is the importance of the United States of America standing side by side, shoulder to shoulder, with our friend, Israel. We are not. That is the plain and simple truth. We are not standing side by side with Israel at a time when she most needs it. Three days ago was April 7. That marked the 6-month timeframe since the brutal attacks of October 7. October 7 in Israel has become much like we describe September 11. As we know, through both what is publicly available and those things that we have seen privately in terms of the information available, the videos that we have seen, the horrific slaughter of human beings in Israel, Hamas slaughtered children, raped women, burned whole families alive, and took hundreds of innocent civilians hostage. An estimated 1,200 Israelis were killed on October 7. Those numbers are still numbers that we are trying to track down. An estimated 130 hostages of the initial estimate of 250 are still believed to be held in Gaza. To be very clear, that includes Americans. Americans are right now being held hostage by Hamas in Gaza. Ninety-one Israelis are dual citizens, and eight Thai nationals, one Nepali, one French-Mexican, but six Americans. Instead of unequivocally backing Israel and the fight against Hamas, a United States-designated terrorist group, I want to be very clear, the Biden administration has been undermining Israel every step of the way. Last November, on the floor of this body, the people's House, the Representatives of this body passed, on a bipartisan basis, funding for Israel. We did so immediately. It is something I am proud of. I am not shy to criticize Members of both sides of the aisle for the shortcomings of the people's House, but we came together on a bipartisan basis, and we passed, I think it was, about $17 billion in funding for our friends in Israel just over a month after the vicious attacks against them. That bill would have funded their needs, shown that we would stand next to Israel, and importantly, it was paid for. It was paid for out of the expansion of the Internal Revenue Service, which most recently was found by the IRS' own inspector general to have 63 percent of the audits that were added are for people who make less than $200,000. Mr. Speaker, 63 percent of the audits were for people who make less than $200,000. By the way, that is what we said would happen, if you expand the power of the IRS the average American, the average hardworking family, would get targeted by the bureaucrats at the IRS. However, our Democratic colleagues and the President of the United States--a Democrat, radical progressive Democrats--are choosing the Internal Revenue Service, are choosing to target you, the hardworking American family, are choosing to side with Hamas over Israel. That is what is happening. So instead of America standing up together united and standing right alongside Israel, our Democratic colleagues and the administration and in this body and in the Senate give lip service to standing with them, and instead, are trying to undermine them. Again, I want to be very clear. Republicans in the House passed off of this floor with Democrat votes legislation that would fund Israel that was paid for--so we are no longer just spending money into oblivion--by taking away some of the increased expansion of the IRS that the IRS' own inspector general has acknowledged and reports as being used to target hardworking, middle-class families. That is the truth. That is the distinction. But it goes a lot further than that. The Biden administration is trying to tie the hands of Israel. They are taking active steps to undermine Israel. President Biden told reporters that Israel's military operations in Gaza were ``over the top'' and the bombing was ``indiscriminate.'' President Biden told protestors: ``. . . I've been quietly working with the Israeli Government to get them to reduce and significantly get out of Gaza. I've been using all that I can to do that.'' That is the President of the United States. On March 25, just a couple weeks ago, President Biden's representatives at the United Nations green-lighted, by abstaining instead of voting--by abstaining instead of voting--on a United Nations Security Council resolution calling for an immediate cease-fire without any connection to the release of hostages. Can you imagine the leadership of our country where they could have a veto exercise in the United Nations Security Council, they chose not to exercise that, abstained, walked away, refused to stand up, and in essence, turned their back fully, not just on the nation of Israel but on every Jewish American who knows family and friends, and has their heritage connected to the great State of Israel. This President and my colleagues on the other side of the aisle turned their backs on Israel. That is the truth. There is no debate on that truth. It is literally what happened. Now, by the way, the administration is all too happy to continue to throw billions of dollars to the United Nations. This is when I give a little wake-up call to my colleagues on this side of the aisle for continuing to fund a government at war with our people and at war with our values by giving more funding for the United Nations. It is this administration that is throwing money at the United Nations--I think this last bill we moved was $3.5 billion. Let's keep in mind that the United Nations General Assembly, the paragon of virtue, has passed 153 resolutions condemning Israel. They have passed zero on China, zero on Cuba, zero on Turkiye. I can keep going down the list, but they have passed 153 resolutions condemning Israel. Anybody with eyes can see what is happening. The prime minister of Israel, Prime Minister Netanyahu was correct when he said: ``Just as the United States would not agree to a cease-fire after the bombing of Pearl Harbor or after the terrorist attack of 9/11, Israel will not agree to a cessation of hostilities with Hamas after the horrific attacks of October 7.'' Every Member of Congress, the President of the United States, every Member of the Senate, we should be standing up shoulder to shoulder backing Prime Minister Netanyahu, backing Israel with their unequivocal right to defend themselves, their unequivocal right to root out Hamas from the hostile forces that have been attacking them and to not allow the international community to gaslight the world into saying that Israel is slaughtering civilians, because it is simply not true. The press and the international community will throw out numbers of the casualties in Gaza, but what they don't tell you is that a large number of those casualties are, in fact, enemy combatants. They are literally operating like divisions, like a military, but they hide because they are cowards. Hamas are cowards, and they hide under schools, and they hide under hospitals, and they build tunnels all through the city, all through the streets, making it as hard as it has ever been in the history of warfare for a sovereign nation, Israel, to defend itself against evil, terrorists embedded in the civilian communities right underneath the streets of Gaza. But what is amazing is that what will be studied for years to come is the extent to which Israel has bent over backwards, has worked to minimize the casualties. I don't have the most recent data, but I would tell you that it is something in the ZIP code of, I think, 19,000-ish casualties of civilians and about 13,000 terrorists or enemy combatants. If you don't know how ratios work out in the world of combatants, this is actually an historic low. History will judge this as an extraordinary feat by Israel to attack those who levied the most heinous attacks on their people and are holding hostage--I will remind people--six Americans. History will view this as an unprecedented success in modern warfare to root out and target evil and try to avoid civilian harm. Just to give you an example, I just told you there were roughly 19,000 civilian casualties to about 13,000 enemy combatant casualties. Mr. Speaker, there were 19,000 civilian casualties to about 13,000 enemy combatant casualties that I believe the data reflects that we see going on in terms of Israel and their engagement with Hamas in Gaza. Here is a point of reference: According to the United Nations, civilians usually make up around 90 percent of casualties in war, which would be a 1-to-9 ratio. I mean, think about that. Think about the extent to which that is what the United Nations--the paragon of virtue, that has had 153 resolutions condemning Israel--the United Nations says the ratio is normally 1-to-9. And Israel has got it at something in the ZIP code of like 1-to-1\1/2\. While you have the enemy not marching in a line of red coats, not getting in the field and just marching at you as enemy combatants but hiding as the cowards that they are in the tunnels under the schools and the hospitals and the businesses and the communities in Gaza. My colleagues on the other side of the aisle in this Chamber and in the Senate should be ashamed of themselves as should the President of the United States for walking away from Israel, going to the United Nations, abstaining from your role in the Security Council to stand aside Israel while buying into the nonsensical lies about what Israel is doing when they are actually doing probably the best job in the history of humankind to root out and target the enemy combatants and the terrorists who are embedded in the communities of Gaza. It is an extraordinary feat. It is something we should hold up as a model of success and then stand alongside Israel. And what we should do is send over the $17 billion that we already passed off the floor of the House and sent to the Senate which is paid for by shrinking the IRS; an IRS which as I already pointed out is targeting hardworking American families as the Inspector General of the IRS noted. Seek the truth. Figure out what is really happening. I notice that the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Harris) has joined me. I have been talking about the extent to which we should be standing alongside our friends from Israel, and I would be happy to yield to the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Harris).

Mr. ROY. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend from Maryland. His remarks are particularly meaningful as one who proudly wore the uniform of the Armed Forces of the United States. I appreciate him for his service in the military, as well as a Member of Congress. Mr. Speaker, he says it exactly right. I think it is really critical to understand that it is disgraceful--I don't know what other way to put it--it is disgraceful for the American President to pressure Israel instead of Hamas. But that is what is happening. If we truly want to end the humanitarian suffering that war necessarily brings, the answer is never, and is not appeasement. It is not. It is the unequivocal support for Israel finishing the job. Everything else is a distraction. The American people--I know the Americans I represent, the Texans I represent, I assume the gentleman's constituents--they want us to stand with Israel on a bipartisan basis. That means pressuring the Senate to take up the bill that we already sent them that is, in fact, paid for, that we sent in November, pressuring the Senate to bring up that bill. By the way, for their part, Hamas can end this war immediately by accepting the fact that their side has lost the conflict, that Israel is going to exist, and that America is going to stand next to her. Because as long as we are in this body, we are going to be fighting to ensure that this country stands side by side with Israel, notwithstanding the fool-headed decisions of the current administration. Hamas leader Ghazi Hamad pledged that the October 7 attacks were just the first time; that there will be a second, third, and fourth. Will we pay a price, he says? Yes, and we are ready. We are called a nation of martyrs, and we are proud to sacrifice martyrs. Are we awake? That is the truth, and it is not just Michigan on our soil, by the way. In Houston, Texas, this last week, there were individuals chanting ``death to America.'' It is coming to our shores, it is on our shores because a weak administration, a weak Congress is allowing it and encouraging it. Calls for a cease-fire are called for Israel to surrender to Hamas and to surrender to terrorism. Those are the words of Prime Minister Netanyahu, and he is completely correct. A cease-fire will only allow Hamas to rebuild a planned another October 7. That is the truth. Mr. Speaker, I close with one point here. I am never afraid to call out my colleagues on both sides of the aisle. I stand behind a speech I gave before Thanksgiving saying: What have we done? Name one thing. But I want to say this: The debate for the soul of this country is happening on the Republican side of the aisle, and it is a debate that is being carried out on full display for the American people to see it, and it started with the Speaker's debate 15 months ago, and it has gone through a number of unbelievably important changes that we have been trying to make in this institution and we are not going to stop. We are not. Last year, we were able to pass the strongest border security bill in history. I am proud of that as a Republican. It went over to the Senate, and it died at the hands of Democrats. We were able to pass a responsible increase in the debt ceiling with reforms that would have made this country stronger, more prosperous, with less inflation. Unfortunately, side deals got done and that got sidetracked, but it was a giant step forward. This body impeached for only the second time in history a sitting cabinet member, Alejandro Mayorkas, for his complete and utter failure to secure the border of the United States and his dereliction of duty. I am proud of that. I am proud that this body has done that. I proud that we stood up and sent over legislation to the Senate that funded Israel, that took that money and paid for it out of the IRS. I am proud of that. When Republicans stand united for victory, stand united for freedom, stand united athwart our colleagues on the other side of the aisle and an administration that would undermine our country and undermine liberty and walk away from Israel and fund open borders, when we are united against that, we win, and we lead, and people follow. When we, instead, cower down and say, Oh, we have to do something to get something done, just for the sake of it, then that is just unity with no purpose. I am proud of the Republican Conference when we are united in purpose to defend the liberty of the American people. I am proud today that we had a debate right here about the difficult decisions of foreign intelligence surveillance so we can go after bad guys, like the bad guys that want to hit Israel and hit us, but to do so while we are respecting the constitutional protections and the liberties that the Founders understood were critical. We do not have a country that is worth preserving if we are going to burn the Constitution while we try to defend it. We must stand together to defend civil liberties while we stand together to defend our country. The American people expect no less. We should stand side by side with Israel. We should unite to make sure that we can continue to carry out surveillance against bad actors while protecting civil liberties. We should stop spending money we don't have. We should secure the border of the United States. We should continue to do the great things this Republican Conference has been able to do when we are united and standing against an administration led by radical progressive Democrats that want to undermine the American Dream, destroy our sovereignty, leave our borders open, undermine our children's safety, put criminals on the street, side with Hamas over Israel. We can stand athwart that if will unite to do it. That is my call. That is what I believe we must do. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Harris) for joining me, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. ROY

Mr. ROY. Mr. Speaker, I would like to summarize what we have in front of us, particularly with respect to the foreign intelligence surveillance issue. That is where we have, I think, the most debate. The fact of the matter is, for the average American watching this, they are going to be confused as to what exactly we are doing because it is a complex issue. I started this rule debate by quoting James Madison, who in 1798, I will repeat, wrote to Thomas Jefferson and said: ``Perhaps it is a universal truth that the loss of liberty at home is to be charged to provisions against danger real or pretended from abroad.'' I think that is the question that is before us right now. It is the balance that a nation struggles with, if you are a republic like ours, a republic built on the back of liberty and our constitutional protections, that is trying to balance the need to stop evil abroad from attacking our people with protecting civil liberties at home. What we have, for the average American to understand, is a big pot of collected information that is, in the words of the intel community, directed outward. That large pot of information is directed toward some 230,000 people, individuals and entities abroad. As I said earlier, we don't know who they are. We are not briefed on who they are. When we try to go into that kind of level of briefing, it is often cloaked in the intel world. They just say this is dangerous and important stuff. The Judiciary Committee chairman, for example, doesn't know who is on that list of 230,000 people. From that list of 230,000, who we don't know, and which can expand or shrink at the whim of the intel community, we then take that information and communications with any of those individuals, if you are an American citizen, you can get swept up and viewed by the intel community. That is where the abuses took place. I have heard some of my colleagues saying: You are asking for a secondary warrant when we say that the warrant amendment here is critically important. That misses the point that you have got an intelligence-driven apparatus to collect information abroad that then will sweep in communications by Americans citizens, or U.S. persons, into that database. Those communications can now be seen and can be viewed. As I noted, the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board report released last year said: ``Ordinary Americans may be in contact with section 702 targets for business or personal reasons even if the Americans have no connection to, or reason to suspect, any wrongdoing by their foreign contacts. . . .'' That is the problem. That is why the Judiciary Committee, which is the committee with primary jurisdiction, put in place additional protections in the form of a required warrant if you are going to look at the information of those American citizens. That was the wisdom of the very broad, bipartisan 35-2 vote in the Judiciary Committee. That was removed. The bill now put on the floor, the bill before us, now we are forced to proceed to a bill by virtue of a rule whereby we are not sure whether the issue at play, the warrant requirement, will be supported. Now, that might be fine. You say we have an open process, but it wasn't really an open process. It was a structured rule. There were provisions that were sort of cooked up to achieve the result. That is what we are looking at. In truth, there are amendments that have been part of the rule that are intel amendments which will expand FISA, which will expand the reach, and by all accounts, more likely than not, will pass. Then there are the provisions that some support that would constrain the power, for example, the warrant requirement or the ``abouts'' language which would limit the use of the more generic ``abouts,'' so you have to target the specific individuals. Then there is the enhanced reporting, which happens to be my amendment. Those provisions are meant to constrain government. The conundrum that you see, that you are going to see play out on the floor is: Do you support the rule to proceed, to move forward, under the hope that the warrant amendment will be passed? Because the sword of Damocles that is hanging over our heads is that this will expire and thus there will be pressure to pass a simple reauthorization for 5 years. That is the truth. We will see what transpires. It is my considered judgment that we ought to try, as a body, to stand behind a warrant requirement to make sure we protect the American people. The material previously referred to by Ms. Leger Fernandez is as follows: An Amendment to H. Res. 1125 Offered By Ms. Leger Fernandez of New Mexico At the end of the resolution, add the following: Sec. 5. Immediately upon adoption of this resolution, the House shall proceed to the consideration in the House of the bill (H.R. 12) to protect a person's ability to determine whether to continue or end a pregnancy, and to protect a health care provider's ability to provide abortion services. All points of order against consideration of the bill are waived. The bill shall be considered as read. All points of order against provisions in the bill are waived. The previous question shall be considered as ordered on the bill and on any amendment thereto, to final passage without intervening motion except: (1) one hour of debate equally divided and controlled by the chair and ranking minority member of the Committee on Energy and Commerce or their respective designees; and (2) one motion to recommit. Sec. 6. Clause 1(c) of rule XIX shall not apply to the consideration of H.R. 12.

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

Mr. ROY

Mr. ROY. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the seventy-fifth anniversary of the Texas Lions Camp in Kerr County. The Texas Lions Camp was incorporated as a 501(c)3 by the State of Texas on April 4, 1949. The polio epidemic was rampant during this time, and the Texas Lions were looking for ways to give children affected by polio a place where they could experience some normalcy in their lives. Congress passed two resolutions that authorized the sale of excess federal land surrounding the Kerrville Veterans Hospital. One of my predecessors, Congressman Ovie Clark Fisher, was instrumental in the passage of this legislation. Then-Senator Lyndon Baines Johnson was also an early supporter of Texas Lions Camp. Mr. Bill Mickelsen, a Lion from Kerrville, traveled tirelessly to Washington D.C. to advocate for the ``Texas Lions League for Crippled Children'' camp in Texas. Mr. Mickelsen and his friend J.C. ``Buddy'' Murray created a detailed scale model of the Camp and eventually constructed the buildings. However, one of the strings attached to the sale of five hundred and four acres was that the Lions had to raise $100,000 within six months to guarantee construction. In pursuit of these dollars, the Lions established their ``life membership status.'' A Lion was Governor of Texas at the time, Allan Shivers. He broadcasted over the radio a call for donations to the Camp. Mr. Jack Wiech served as the first president of Texas Lions Camp in Kerrville. He went on a speaking tour across the State to drum up donations. As the six-month deadline loomed, the Lions were still $20,000 short of their goal. Mr. Sealy McCreless of San Antonio wrote a check that pushed the Lions over their goal for the Camp fundraiser. The next step was to begin construction and raise $150,000 to cover those costs. The Lions hit the road again for a second fundraising campaign. Mr. Herb Petry, the Lions Clubs International president at the time, said the Camp for special needs children ``is the best example of Lionism in action.'' Mr. Petry went on to say that ``what is being done in Kerrville under the banner of Texas Lionism must be pleasing in the sight of Him Who first taught us to serve, to be our brother's keeper, and to put the Golden Rule into practice.'' Mr. Mickelsen worked tirelessly for fifteen years to construct the Texas Lions Camp based on his original small-scale model. Famous Kerrville names, including Hal Peterson and Howard Butt of the HEB Grocery Company, donated resources to round out the construction and supplies for Camp. Over the years, the Camp adapted to allow other special-needs children to participate. Children living with blindness, hearing and speaking disorders, and various crippled limbs all enjoyed Texas Lions Camp together. This defied the original prognostications of psychologists in the 1950s, who believed children with varying disabilities could not get along. However, they learned to help each other and combine their strengths to thrive. Several hundred adult blind were also trained at the Camp through a contract with the State of Texas for a couple decades into the 1980s. Every summer, children with physical handicaps such as diabetes, down syndrome, polio, missing limbs, blindness, and other disabilities are accommodated every year at a weeklong camp session at no cost to their families. Over 82,000 children have attended Texas Lions Camp since it opened in 1949. The Camp motto is ``All Can Do!'' Campers experience a zip line, climbing wall, ropes course, fishing, boating, swimming, archery, arts and crafts, miniature golf, and much more. Therapeutic horseback riding was added in the 1980s and became a favorite pastime for campers. A more recent addition is the family camping experience, allowing the families of kids with special needs to experience Texas Lions Camp. On a more personal note, my grandfather was afflicted by polio, and my grandmother was his devoted caregiver. I will never forget their sacrificial love for one another and my family. I am grateful to the eight hundred Texas Lions Clubs International that work tirelessly to provide funds for children with special needs to attend Texas Lions Camp.

Mr. ROY

Mr. ROY. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to commemorate the 100th birthday of the Kerrville Veterans Affairs Medical Center in my district. This beautiful campus serves veterans from across multiple counties in the Texas Hill Country. The Benevolent War Risk Society and the American Legion recognized the need for medical care of World War I veterans. Countless veterans contracted tuberculosis during and after that conflict. Fundraising for the hospital began in 1919. The generous Schreiner family of Kerrville donated over 700 acres of land for the hospital grounds. Unfortunately, funding ran out in early 1921. The American Legion came to the project's rescue and eventually donated the hospital to the State of Texas. As a result, the name ``American Legion Memorial Sanatorium'' was bequeathed on the facility. The first patients were admitted on June 22, 1921. The federal Veterans Administration began to lease the hospital from the State of Texas two years later. The facility became the 93rd veteran hospital to open in the United States on July 12, 1923, under the name ``Veterans Administration Hospital at Kerrville.'' There were a total of 15 buildings on campus at the time, some of which are still used today. President Herbert Hoover created the Veterans Administration in July 1930, changing the name of the hospital yet again. Over the years, efforts were made to expand. A two million-dollar project in 1947 resulted in 400 additional beds and a total of 8 hospital floors. January of 1960 saw the conversion of the facility to full general medical services. On March 15, 1995, the South Texas Veterans Healthcare System was created when the Kerrville VA Medical Center merged with the Audie L. Murphy Memorial Hospital in San Antonio. Over the years, the Veterans Administration donated most of the original land to various local entities. The current footprint of the Kerrville VA Medical Center is 70 acres, including a Veterans National Cemetery. My constituents will gather on April 12, 2024 to recognize the significant contributions of this medical facility to Texas veterans.

Mr. ROY

Mr. ROY. Madam Speaker, may I inquire as to the time remaining?

Mr. ROY. Madam Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Crane).

Mr. ROY. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. The gentleman from Florida a moment ago talked about the fact that we defund UNRWA, and we defund some policies that are pernicious. I agree with him. It is a part of the process that we carried out last year when we set out to change this institution, to return to some sort of regular order, to have 72 hours to read bills, to be able to have single-subject bills, to offer amendments on the floor, to actually have an appropriations process. We passed seven appropriations bills off the floor of the House. We passed three out of committee to the floor. We actually had some amount of debate and were able to move things through. We got some of our policy priorities. We sent them over to the Senate. Then what did we do? We walked away and went back to business as usual in the swamp where a handful of people that they call the four corners all sit back and decide for you, not the people in this room as a body, but a handful of so-called cardinals, the same group that I heard guffawing in the back a minute ago, the same bloc of appropriators that think they are the ones that get to control the entire world and use our men and women in uniform as an excuse to undermine the national security of this country by spending money we don't have, by racking up debt to the tune of a trillion dollars every 100 days, while funding all manner of sin with respect to transgender surgeries, abortion tourism, funding the World Health Organization to give away our sovereignty, funding open borders with mass parole that led to the death of Laken Riley. Madam Speaker, everybody who votes for this bill today owns it. They cannot go out and campaign this year saying they opposed this stuff when they wrote the check. That is what is happening today. Every single Republican and every single Democrat who votes for this omnibus spending bill today owns it. They own the open borders. They own the woke military that we cannot recruit people to fight in. They own giving our sovereignty to the World Health Organization and international bodies. They own more funding for the Wuhan lab. Yeah, that is all in there. They own it. They own it. We should vote ``no.'' Mr. Speaker, do you want to win in November? Then vote ``no.'' Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. ROY. Madam Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Perry).

Mr. ROY. Madam Speaker, I thank my friend from Texas for his remarks, but I would simply disagree. All we are doing here is adding beds that aren't going to be used. All we are doing is adding money for a Border Patrol that won't be allowed to do their job. They will be processing more people and releasing them against the law under parole policies that are damaging the country and that led to Laken Riley's death. That is literally all this does. Madam Speaker, I yield 1\1/4\ minutes to the gentlewoman from Georgia (Ms. Greene).

Mr. ROY. Madam Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Kentucky (Mr. Massie).

Mr. ROY. Madam Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Burlison).

Mr. ROY. Madam Speaker, the distinguished former majority leader brings up FSGG, the Financial Services and General Government bill. What he left out was the fact that we are going to give $200 million to the FBI for its new headquarters, even after Republicans touted in the last massive omnibus bill that we are cutting the FBI and then relied upon getting rid of an earmark in Alabama to claim that it was a bigger cut than it really is. Now what is happening to the American people, guess what? The FBI is getting a brand-new, shiny headquarters, despite running roughshod over the American people, spying on them. By the way, we extended FISA to continue spying on the American people. We also failed to prohibit the Treasury from establishing a central bank digital currency. House Republicans passed that. In this deal that was cut we don't do that. Why? Why? Why would it be so abhorrent to ban a central bank digital currency? Madam Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Norman), my friend.

Mr. ROY. Madam Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Clyde).

Mr. ROY. Madam Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentlewoman from Florida (Mrs. Luna).

Mr. ROY. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Madam Speaker, the Democratic leader talks about the mosaic. I assume by the mosaic, which anyone who votes for this bill today will be supporting, we are talking about $156,000 for the Hartford Gay and Lesbian Health Collective, an organization self-described as champions of LGBTQIA equity and provides training in cultural competency and access to healthcare for LGBTQ youth, or $2 million to an Oregon clinic that provides hormone therapy for kids, or the $850,000 for gay senior housing in Massachusetts, or $400,000 for Briarpatch Youth Services in Wisconsin that has gender-affirming clothing program for kids 13 to 18, or $400,000 to the Garden State Equality Education Fund, which helps minors transition genders, promotes biological boys playing girls' sports and using the same restrooms. I could go on and on. How about the million dollars for the Inner- City Muslim Network, which calls for the destruction of Israel? That is what we are funding. That is precisely what we are funding in this legislation. When the Democratic leader talks about a mosaic, that is what he is talking about. My Republican colleagues, who will campaign against it all year--they will--they are voting to fund it today. To be very clear, my Republican colleagues are voting to fund that so-called mosaic today unless they choose the right path and vote against it. My friend from California, when he talked about the horrors that will happen if we have a CR, well, we shouldn't be here. This is the swamp acting like it does: have government funding expire on the Friday before a 2-week recess heading into Easter precisely to have the pressure of jet fumes so that the American people are the ones left holding the bag so that we, Members of Congress, can go off to our codels, can go travel, can go do your fundraisers, can make sure you get home. The ones left holding the bag are the American people. When we talk about this, the game was given up when we talk about defense. Everything that is happening here is being done in the name of defense, everything that you see, and talking about our national security being undermined. Well, tell me about national security in Texas when you have the National Guard getting rolled over in El Paso, when you have Texans dying from fentanyl poisoning, when you have gangs and cartels operating in Texas. Talk to me about national security then. Madam Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Biggs).

Mr. ROY. Madam Speaker, I claim the time in actual opposition.

Mr. ROY. Madam Speaker, here we are again. The swamp is back in full force. We have a 1,000-page bill of $1.2 trillion filled with all manner of spending priorities that are at odds with the American people. That is what we have in front of us. This bill is over 1,000 pages long. It contains hundreds of pages of report language, 1,400 earmarks, and we have had about 24 hours to review it. That is not the way to do business. The American people and American families are the ones left holding the bag. This is business as usual in the swamp. Here is the deal to my Republican colleagues: You will own every single bit of this. If you vote for this bill, you own it. DHS funding contingent on signing H.R. 2 into law, that is what we did last year to make sure our border will be secure. That is punted, so you own it. Defunding Alejandro Mayorkas. We did that in our bill. This punts that. It is no longer there. You own it. Prohibiting mass parole and release of illegal aliens via the CBP One app. We did that in our bill last year. This bill gets rid of it. You own it. You own the continued mass parole of illegal aliens into our country. You own that. That is the truth. It was mass parole that led to a Venezuelan gang member coming into the United States and killing Laken Riley. My Republican colleagues cannot go campaign against mass parole and use the name of Laken Riley because you pass a bill in her name when you fund the very policies that led to her death. I hear all this, that we are going to increase ICE beds, and we are going to increase the numbers for Border Patrol. The increased numbers for Border Patrol will process more illegal aliens. The increased number of beds for ICE will not be used because there are memos in place by Alejandro Mayorkas, whom we impeached and whom this bill will fund. Those ICE beds will not be filled. They won't be used, and we know it. We set out to prohibit DHS from fast-tracking asylum. This bill doesn't do that. We set out to make sure that this border would be secure and that you could end what happened yesterday in Texas where 100 illegal aliens bum-rushed our border, rolled over the Texas National Guard, fled into this country, and went to Border Patrol to get released into the United States. That is what this bill continues to fund. Any of my Republican colleagues who want to spend this year campaigning against open borders, it is a laugh because today, if you vote for this abomination of a bill, you will be voting to fund it. You will be voting to fund the very policies that you will campaign against. Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time. General Leave

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

Mr. ROY

Mr. ROY. Mr. Speaker, I come here to the floor recognizing the state of affairs that we find ourselves in, given the extent to which the President of the United States and his radical progressive Democrat allies on the other side of the aisle here and in the Senate, are continuing an assault on the well-being of the American people with open borders, with inflationary spending, with radical environmental agenda policies that are regulating the economy to death, driving up the cost of goods sold, and overall diminishing America and the world. There is no other way to view it than intentional. That kind of an assault on the well-being of the American people ought to be and deserves to be met with the kind of resistance that the American people who sent us here to represent them expect. The American people, who sent at least Republicans here to be in the majority to stand athwart the radical policies of the Biden administration, supported by our radical progressive Democrats here in this House and in the Senate, they sent us here to stand athwart those policies. Therefore, it is our duty, it is incumbent upon us to actually do so. Last year, when given the majority, a number of us set out to change the way the House of Representatives works, or should I say, was not working. We set out to make sure that bills could be read, that you have 72 hours to review a bill. We set out to ensure that you would have adequate and varied representation on the various committees. We set out to ensure that there would be a process by which we could move appropriations bills out of committee on to the floor, from the floor to the Senate, so that we could pass individual bills, try to restore what we might call regular order. We set out to do that last year. We passed seven appropriations bills out of the House, three more from the committees down to the floor, two others were ready to go. We passed H.R. 2, the strongest border security bill that has ever been moved off of the House floor. We passed the Limit, Save, Grow Act, which would elevate the debt responsibly while making policy changes to try to drive down the amount of debt that we are racking up on a daily and weekly basis. Those are the things we are able to accomplish as Republicans when we were honoring the commitments that we made to our constituents, and we were not hiding. Unfortunately, today, Republicans are hiding. They are hiding behind the fear of a so-called shutdown and hiding behind the so-called razor thin majority to pass a massive omnibus spending bill--the second part of a two-part omnibus spending bill that blows past the spending caps passed on a bipartisan basis, increases the spending over the very levels perpetuated by Nancy Pelosi that virtually every Republican in this Chamber opposed not 15 months ago. They are about to pass legislation that will blow past those caps and spend more money, and they are going to do so knowing full well that we are not achieving the vast majority--barely any--of the policy changes that we fought for all last year in the appropriations process. That is the actual truth. We are going to abandon the efforts that we set out to change this Chamber last year, and we are doing it violently. We got a bill this morning that is over 1,000 pages long, $1.2 trillion, and we are expected to pore over it in 1 day, in 24 hours. We are still uncovering ridiculous uses of taxpayer funds. The American people are about to learn what some of those are. Not only are we abandoning what we accomplished last year to try to take the House back, make the House work again, but we are abandoning the people of this country, the hardworking American people, right now, today, who are looking at their Congress and saying: What are you doing? The hardworking Americans who sent us here are seeing their country being taken away from them right before their very eyes and seeing their way of life being eviscerated. This isn't about holding on to power. We are not sent here to accumulate power. We are not sent here to run for re-election. We are sent here to do something. We are sent here to fight for the people who sent us here. What we are doing right now is looking at a country that we love, a country that is being destroyed, throwing up our hands as Republicans, and saying that apparently it is just not worth the fight because we might have a poll that looks bad because of a shut down. That is what we are telling the American people. Instead of using the power of the purse, the power of the purse to force change as was stated by James Madison in Federalist Paper 58: ``The House of Representatives cannot only refuse, but they alone can propose the supplies requisite for the support of government. They, in a word, hold the purse, that powerful instrument . . . all the overgrown prerogatives of the other branches of government. This power over the purse may, in fact, be regarded as the most complete and effectual weapon with which any Constitution can arm the immediate representatives of the people, for obtaining a redress of every grievance, and for carrying into effect every just and salutary measure.'' Those were the words of James Madison, the father of the United States Constitution. When he was arguing for the adoption of the Constitution, he was saying that this body, the one that I am standing in right now, the House of Representatives through the power of the purse is the only body in the world that can restrain the power of the executive branch, the President of the United States. We, this body, in concert with the Senate, of course, hold the power to check an out-of- control President. Are the President of the United States and the people who work for him in this administration out of control? Yes. How do we know this? Because the President of the United States goes to the microphone and says he is going to ignore the United States Supreme Court when the Supreme Court says you cannot do what you are doing, it is against the law, with respect to student loan bailouts. The President of the United States is ignoring his duty and his oath of the Constitution to defend the border of the United States, using policies meant for very narrow exceptions for asylum and parole to blow open the border and endanger the American people. That is tyrannical activity, an abuse of power endangering the people that we represent. That is what is happening. That is what the President is doing. A President who has abused his power at the FBI and in the intelligence agencies. That is what is happening, and what is the response from Republicans? Crickets. It is beyond a whimper because they are afraid that someone might cry shut down. They are afraid that they might lose their precious election certificate that I think apparently is what gives some people in this body their worth. However, the election certificate is only as good as the people that we are here to represent, and they sent us here to do something, to change the place. Today, in Texas, more than 100 illegal aliens charged past the Texas National Guard. The State I represent is on fire and trying to pick up the pieces as the Federal Government refuses to do its job, and we saw it unfold today in real time. And what are my Republican colleagues going to do? Give the President and the Department of Homeland Security and the impeached Homeland Security Secretary more money. Can someone explain that to me? Can someone explain to me how any Republican can, over the next 6 months, go out and campaign against Joe Biden's open borders when they are writing the checks? They are going to do it tomorrow, right here on the floor of this body. They are going to write him the check and say, here you go, Mr. President. ``Thank you, sir. May I have another?'' Yes, I inserted ``Animal House.'' This bill does not include one single policy necessary to secure the border. I am tired of hearing Republicans go to the microphone, whether they are in leadership or rank and file, and say otherwise because it is not true. I have heard Republican leadership go down and talk about ICE beds. Oh, don't worry, Chip, we increased the ICE beds. Are you telling the American people that the ICE memos--that this administration has in full force--basically make it impossible for ICE to do their job, that those beds will, therefore, not be filled? Oh, Chip, that is for future President Trump to use. President Trump can increase the ICE beds to what he had when he was President before, which was as many as 57,000 beds. This is nonsense. It is nothing. No, it is worse than nothing. It is actually worse than nothing because my same Republican colleagues go up to the microphone and say that we are going to increase Border Patrol. First of all, good luck recruiting more Border Patrol agents right now. They can't even achieve the numbers that they are currently at, at 17,000 or 18,000. No, in our bill we say: Oh, don't worry, we will be at 22,000 Border Patrol agents. Guess how our Democratic colleagues characterize that amazing feat of negotiation that Republicans carried out? They characterize it as expediting the processing of more illegals because, you know what, at least they are honest about it, that is exactly what it would do. You are going to give more funding for more Border Patrol agents to process more illegal aliens who are overrunning our border, overrunning our cities, overrunning our hospitals, overrunning our jails, overrunning our schools, driving mass crime into our communities, resulting in the death of Laken Riley, resulting in the death of Kayla Hamilton, resulting in the death of too many people for me to sit here and mention, and Republicans are going to go cower in the corner tomorrow, wring their hands, and say we can't talk about a shutdown. That is what is going to happen. Meanwhile, we are going to go out this summer and do what? It is the 80th anniversary of D-Day, let's go give some speeches over in Normandy. What? You are so proud of those young men who walked into a wall of bullets and went up a cliff so that you could give your country away with billions of dollars to an administration that is going to allow every single thing they fought for to get winnowed away? That is the truth. Every Republican tomorrow--and Democrat--every Republican tomorrow who votes for this abomination of a bill will own, personally own the mass release of illegal aliens in violation of law because you are funding it, on top of 4.5 million releases so far and almost 2 million got-aways so far. You vote for this, you own it. You own the release of illegal aliens with notices to appear in court as far out as 2035 and growing and limited knowledge as to where they even are. You own it. You own the unlawful mass parole programs, the use of the CBP One app. The funding you are voting for tomorrow will fund that, the mass parole of over 1 million individuals, including the known member of a Venezuelan prison gang who violently murdered Laken Riley. You own that. It was not good enough to pass a bill last week named after Laken Riley and then come here and write the check to the very people who were responsible for allowing it to occur. You own bringing the chaos in Haiti to the shores of America via the Cuban, Haitian, Nicaraguan, and Venezuelan parole program. You own that. The Haitian migrant who raped a 15-year-old disabled girl who was here as a migrant in Massachusetts. You are funding that. The dismantling of the migrant protection protocols that were effective under the previous President, you are funding that. You are funding the halt of the wall construction. You are funding the legal attacks on the State of Texas for standing up to try to secure our border even as our National Guard gets overrun. You are funding that if you vote for this bill tomorrow. Texas has had to spend over $12 billion of its own money. I can tell you what you are not funding. You are not funding paying Texas back, and I am talking to my Texas delegation friends now. Are you literally going to go home to Texas when your own National Guard are getting overrun, your own State is not getting paid back, we are not getting any policy changes, you are going to increase the debt, and you are going to go try to sell that garbage to the people of Texas? Spare me when I see you campaigning this year on border security. It is a fraud. It is a fraud for Republicans to campaign on border security while you fund it. You fund the lawlessness. You fund the open borders. You fund the death of Laken Riley. You fund the fentanyl pouring into our communities and killing our kids. You own the DHS memos policies and rules that restrict Border Patrol's ability to do their job. You own it. You own the continued exploitation of unaccompanied minors, little girls getting sold into the sex trafficking trade, the 85,000 children that were lost by the very Office of Refugee Resettlement that you will fund tomorrow. You own it. Don't campaign against it and then write the check. You own the funding for the sanctuary cities that refuse to cooperate with immigration law enforcement which, by the way, are hamstrung in the first place by an administration that doesn't care about the law. You own it. Don't go complain about sanctuary cities. You are funding it. It is worse, as I said before, because DHS gets more money. They get an increase in funding not to change the policies, but to give Border Patrol the ability to process more people quickly, which means more people come to the border. The Defense Department is also attached to this total capitulation on our border. We continue to fund a woke Department of Defense in the wake of a weak National Defense Authorization Act passed in December which, by the way, we were promised by Republican leadership was just one step. Just get past that, don't worry, then we will fight on spending. Well, if this is what fighting on spending looks like, I am not sure why you bother flying to Normandy to go regale those who had the courage to walk into a wall of bullets and scale a cliff to defend America and go fight against Nazi Germany. Is this what we do when our hour is before us? We will be funding, and, therefore, own if you vote for this bill, Biden's illegal Department of Defense abortion travel fund. You own it. By the way, all you social conservative groups out there, all you so- called pro-life groups, where the hell are you? Crickets. Silence, because you care about political power more than the very thing you say you are for. You know who you are. Transgender surgeries in the Pentagon. Where are the social conservative groups? Cowering in the corner. Woke DEI offices across the Pentagon destroying the military morale. You can't even recruit anybody to the Pentagon anymore. You are funding it. Don't complain about it while you are funding it. Biden's climate change executive orders undermining our warfighting capabilities. You are funding it. The deputy inspector general for diversity and inclusion extremism in the military. You are funding it. You own it. The Department of Defense's ability to classify Americans' communication as misinformation. You are funding it. You own it. State and Foreign Operations are part of this bill. We are going to export the radical, progressive Democrats' woke agenda abroad, and you are going to pay for it while we rack up a trillion dollars of debt every 100 days. You are going to take that borrowing, undermine your own dollar, drive up your own inflation, funding the bureaucrats who are carrying out this agenda. Congratulations, America, that is what your House of Representatives is doing, and that is precisely what you will have Republicans campaigning against after they funded it, after they own it. I will give credit where it is due. Republican leadership, led by the Speaker, negotiated to defund UNRWA. Well, it is about dang time. Some of us were calling for that 3 years ago when we introduced legislation to do it. We had eight Republicans who voted against defunding UNRWA in September in the appropriations package. Guess what? October 7 was one of the most horrific attacks on one of our friends in history, and we realized what many of us already knew, UNRWA was right there involved. UNRWA was funding it. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency was funding it. Congratulations. We defunded an entity that is funding terrorists against our friends in Israel. Good. Let's put one over here in the win column, this green check box. Congratulations, Republicans, you did it. You did something that you can actually go sell. However, sorry to say, you are still funding the World Health Organization, which wants to take away our American sovereignty, that worked to force COVID tyranny on the American people, force it down the throats of the American people. In the process of negotiating a new pandemic treaty that would massively expand its reach, you funded it. Congratulations, you own it. You own the World Health Organization. You own the dystopian United Nations Population Fund, targeted at basically exterminating people. Congratulations, you own it. Again, to all you social conservative groups out there, thanks. The Gender Equity and Equality Action Fund and LGBTQ envoys. Border security for Jordan and Pakistan, you are funding border security for Jordan and Pakistan, but you are not doing anything to secure the border of the United States. You own it. The climate czar office, formerly occupied by John Kerry, flitting around the planet in his private planes. You paid for it; you own it. You are funding it. $3.8 billion for the migration and refugee assistance programs while our southern border is not secure. Think about that. Again, to my Republican colleagues, who vote for this bill, people are going to follow you around, you are going to campaign against all of these things. I know you are. I guess you are going to go all in, Texas Hold'Em style, on President Trump and say: Well, it is going to take President Trump to save us. How is that separation of powers thing working out for you? Did you skip that part of civics, that we are a coequal branch of government? Oh, but Chip, we can't do that. We need a President to save us. Why the hell are you in Congress? We are actually supposed to be more important than the President of the United States. That is why we are Article I. However, we are too chicken to use the power, the most powerful tool that we have. These guys can't do what they are doing to the American people and to our country without the money to do it. Not only are we giving them the money, we are giving them more money, and we are borrowing to do it, at extraordinary rates. Does anybody need to be reminded that we are now spending more on our interest on the debt than we are on defense this year? All of the hawks in here who are totally happy selling out our country vote by vote so they can go home and say they brought home a troop pay raise, great, but you are now spending more on interest than you are on the Pentagon. In 2 years you are cracking a trillion dollars in interest. The President's budget that he just sent to us has us spending more on interest over the next decade every year than we do on defense. Congratulations, Republicans, you own it. How about the FBI headquarters? Good job, Republicans, you went out and campaigned when we passed the last omnibus bill and said: We got cuts to the FBI. You went out and sold that. First of all, it was bogus. The vast majority of the cuts came from one earmark from a building in Alabama that Richard Shelby got in the last Congress. He is no longer here to defend it, so you axed it and then claimed you had some massive cut to the FBI. That is called swamp politics. However, now in this omnibus spending bill, guess what? We go ahead and fund the new FBI headquarters. Who cares that the FBI just massively spied on the American people? By the way, we haven't done anything about that except for extend their powers through the continuation of FISA without actually putting in a warrant to protect warrantless searches. Oh, we haven't done that yet, put that over there as another thing Republicans own, continued spying on Americans without warrants to protect them. Good job. What, are you going to go check that campaign box this year? We are going to stop and make sure FISA is no longer abused by the FBI. We are going to protect you, but we are not going to do it when we have the power to do it. $200 million to the FBI for its new headquarters. We don't prohibit the Treasury from establishing a central bank digital currency, which we did in the House bill. Somebody tell me, how can you not negotiate to stop the formation of a central bank digital currency, one of the most pernicious assaults on freedom that you could possibly have? We couldn't even stand up as Republicans to demand that that stop. We passed it here in the House. The Senate didn't want it, apparently, or the Biden administration didn't want it. In our grand negotiation, we didn't even do that. Do you know what a central bank digital currency can do? It can totally shut your life down, based on whatever they choose to prioritize. Using too much gas because you didn't get an electric vehicle? No. Sorry. We are shutting you down. Buy too much ammo this month? No. Shutting you down. The Chicoms do this on a regular basis. We are trying to get in front of that, thinking maybe the basic foundational principles in the Constitution matter, but no. We couldn't even negotiate that. Congratulations, Republicans. You own the continued ability of the executive branch to work up the formation and creation of a central bank digital currency. Congratulations. You own it. No prohibition on the funds to invest in so-called ESG in the Federal Thrift Savings Plan, which we had gotten adopted. It got punted. No prohibition on funds for Federal employee health insurance plans to cover the cost of transgender-affirming care. Guess what, Republicans? You own it. You are paying for it. Go home to your colleagues or your constituents and explain to them how excited you are to take their tax dollars and then add to that a bunch of borrowing to fund transgender-affirming care. Good job. You own that. No prohibition on implementing Biden's climate change EOs. No governmentwide prohibition on vaccine mandates. A few partial ones--we always want to be fair. There was a note in the bill that moderately defunded the COVID vax and mask mandates. There was some modest defunding of the Wuhan lab in the DOD bill, but in the vast majority of it over at HHS, all the stuff in there that was carried out, it is still there. Congratulations. We shut down the biggest economy in the history of the world--racked up $8 trillion in debt, put our kids behind--now to the tune of trillions of dollars of economic harm, all because we allowed the Wuhan lab to be abused, which we funded. Guess what? We are still funding it. Republicans own it. Don't go out and campaign against the China virus or the Wuhan virus or the Wuhan lab. You own it. You are funding it. Right now, today, you are doing it. House Republicans had aggressive cuts to HHS last year, but now we are going to give a billion-dollar increase. We are still funding the student loan Ponzi scheme. You go out and criticize President Biden and the student loan program, ignoring the Supreme Court. You are funding it. Gender-affirming surgeries and drugs, you are funding it. Research with aborted fetal tissue, you are funding it. HHS and DOL DEI offices, you are funding it. President Biden's radical antiworker agenda, you are funding it. You are funding the Wuhan lab. Again, I would like to give a shout-out to the social conservative groups out there for being so invested in life and DEI and all the issues involving, say, aborted fetal tissue that you are doing nothing about this bill because you like power. We banned earmarks at one point. The previous omnibus spending bill had like 6,000 or something earmarks. I don't even know. It is hard to keep count. This one had a bunch more because it was Transportation. Everybody loves to get their little bridges and roads and stuff, but there are bike paths and all sorts of crazy stuff named after crazy people using your money. I am not sure where that is in Article I, Section 8, but whatever. The bill contains 1,400 earmarks--this one does--for $2 billion. My colleagues think: It is just an earmark. I am a Member of Congress. I don't want to let a bureaucrat decide this. I get to decide how this is spent. I get to bring home something to my district that is so critically important to the well-being of my constituents. That is what they all say. That is what they say when they bring back earmarks. Chip, we know how to do this better than the bureaucrats. Why would you stand in the way of these all-knowing Congressmen to make the right decisions for their constituents rather than turning over that power to the bureaucrats? Let's see how that is working out for you, America. $156,000 for the Hartford Gay and Lesbian Health Collective, an organization self- described as champions of--I don't know how many letters I have to put here together--LGBTQIA+ equity and provides training on LGBTQ+ cultural competency and accessing healthcare for LGBTQ+ youth. Well, that is a good use of money. $1.1 million for an EV innovation hub while EVs pile up on all the car dealership lots around the country, while we fund the Chinese to make sure that they are enriched, and while we kill natural gas and kill energy in this country and make it harder for Americans to work, but I digress. We did a really cool bill today on energy, so everything is good. $2 million for an Oregon clinic that provides hormone therapy to kids. $850,000 for LGBTQ senior housing in Massachusetts. Yes, gay senior housing. Good job, Republicans. That is what you are funding. $400,000 for Briarpatch Youth Services in Wisconsin. One of their programs is called Teens Like Us, LGBTQIA2S, whatever that is, with a gender-affirming clothing program for ages 13 to 18. You are funding it. You own it. $400,000 to the Garden State Equality Education Fund in New Jersey that helps minors transition genders and promotes biological boys playing girl sports and using the same restrooms. Congratulations, Republicans. You own it. $5 million for Mary's Center for Maternal and Child Care in Maryland. It does transgender procedures. ``Mary's Center can serve as your `home base' during the transition process.'' Congratulations, Republicans. Again, a special shout-out to all you great social conservative groups out there just whistling Dixie while this is happening. $1 million for the Inner-City Muslim Network, which calls for the destruction of Israel. Guess what? We are going to go send an invitation for Bibi Netanyahu to come address a joint session right here in this body. I am sure we will get up, and everybody will wear a little Israel pin, and we will go, ``Yay, Israel. We love Israel.'' Then we will give a million dollars to the Inner-City Muslim Network, which calls for the destruction of Israel. Good job, Republicans. You own it. $1.6 million for Cape Cod electric buses. $350,000 for theater programs. $567,000 for an inclusive playground. What is an inclusive playground? When I was kid, an inclusive playground was a bunch of bars that basically were about 150 degrees in the summer heat that you scalded yourself on where you are hanging up over a bunch of asphalt and taking your life into your own hands. It was equal--equal stupid but fun. This? I don't even know what an inclusive playground is, but there it is, $567,000 of money printed right out of thin air. Here you go. $650,000 for Dartmouth-Hitchcock Nashua, New Hampshire, which also provides late-term abortions. Shout-out again to the social conservative groups--completely MIA. $740,000 for increasing diversity in State hiring for the State of Maryland. Maryland can't figure out how to fund its own diversity programs without getting a Federal grant out of printed money? $870,000 for a group that wants to defund the police in Connecticut. Republicans who get up and rant about police being defunded are going to fund the defunding of police in Connecticut. You can't make this stuff up. You can't. $655,000 for Massachusetts Women of Color Coalition Inc. I don't even know what that is. I could keep going. The American people did not send us to Washington to continue down the road of destruction for the greatest country in the history of the world for which so many men and women have died to defend and protect it. The cherry blossoms are all exploding. When we go walk down by the Tidal Basin, when we walk by the Jefferson Memorial, we read all those words. We walk by the Lincoln Memorial and go across the Memorial Bridge to what? 400,000 tombstones on the other side of the Potomac for those who either actually gave the last full measure of devotion or were willing to do it and survived, came back, and were buried there. What did those 400,000 give that last full measure of devotion for? It wasn't for this. Yet, Republicans campaign on it all the time and then fund it. I don't know how to go back to the people who I represent in Texas and tell them that while the National Guard had 100 illegal aliens bum- rush them in El Paso, while we have young women like Laken Riley getting killed by somebody released on mass parole, while a 2-year-old right outside of the Nation's Capital gets killed by someone let out on mass parole by this administration ignoring the laws, endangering our people, undermining our sovereignty. I want to know, for the life of me, how a single Republican can look with a straight face at the people who they represent and say that funding is consistent with their oath to the Constitution, consistent with their duty to the people they represent, consistent with the fiscal responsibility they campaign on, consistent with the border security that they campaign on. I want to know how they do that. If any Republican votes for this omnibus spending bill tomorrow, he or she owns it, owns every one of those funding priorities, owns the open borders, owns the woke Pentagon, owns the recruiting chaos at the Pentagon, owns the World Health Organization continuing to be funded to undermine our sovereignty. This omnibus bill is the anti-American sovereignty omnibus bill, and Republicans should not vote for it. We didn't come here for more of the same while our kids have to inherit $34\1/2\ trillion of debt and another trillion dollars of debt every 100 days. There will not be a country left to stand next to Israel. There will not be a country left to help Ukraine. There will not be a country left for our kids to inherit if you are borrowing, mortgaging their future, all to pay for open borders undermining our sovereignty, world organizations designed to undermine our sovereignty, all purposeful while my colleagues sit back and go: Gosh, I hope President Trump wins. I hope President Trump comes in, and then he will save us. One individual was arguing with me here on the floor today. I said, ``Why are we doing this?'' Well, we can't have a shutdown. We would lose. Oh, boy. That is courageous, but okay. What if I accept your premise? What if I accept your premise that we can't do this because we have a thin majority in the House, don't have the Senate, and have a radical regime in the White House? Let me accept your premise. I have been around the block here in town a couple of times. What happens next January? Say Republicans run the trifecta. Republicans win the White House, and President Trump is coming back in. We have the Senate with, say, 52 or 53 seats. We have a 10-seat majority or a 15-seat majority here in the House. Then what? Someone tell me then what because I have been there before. We were there in 2017, and we didn't repeal ObamaCare and didn't pass healthcare reform. We were there in 2018, and we didn't pass border security. Goodlatte 1, Goodlatte 2--we couldn't figure out what we were doing. We didn't do it. What I said to this individual on the floor today was: Do you know what the excuse will be? We don't have 60 in the Senate. That individual said: Well, we have to have a conversation about that. That individual knows full well that the same excuses being levied right now to foist this monstrosity, this abomination, on the American people will be the same excuse in January: We can't shut down the government. You need 60 votes in the Senate, Chip. Don't you understand? Yeah, I do understand. So do the American people, and they are tired of it. They are tired of having their country traded away day by day, second by second, while our National Guard gets stormed at the border in El Paso, and we don't do anything about it. We walk around wearing little pins, feeling good about ourselves as Members of Congress who refuse to stand up and defend the very Constitution that gave us the power to do something about it. Instead of deferring to the President, we are supposed to use the Article I power under the Constitution to stop funding an executive branch that is at war with its own people. We came here to change it. Last year we started to. We were working together to change this place, to vote bills off the floor, to have single-subject bills, and to have 72 hours--a mere 72 hours--to read a bill, and in just over a year, we have tossed all of that out the window, and we are back to business as usual. We jam a bill through in 24 hours. It is over a thousand pages. It is $1.2 trillion. It is littered with all manners of sin and earmarks and spending and programs that are undermining the well-being of the American people. We are still figuring out what is in it. Tomorrow, Republicans have a choice. You can choose to fund an executive branch at odds and at war with the American people that you represent or you can choose to say no. If you refuse to say no, if you go along to get along, you own it. You own every penny. You own every program. You own every American who gets harmed by open borders. Don't dare come looking for sympathy as you are trying to campaign all year trying to win votes when your constituents come up to you and say, why in the hell did you fund it? Because you did. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from New York (Mr. D'Esposito), a colleague of mine, so that he can, I think, regale a basketball team or talk about some good stuff back home, which is always a good thing to do. Recognizing Incredible High School Basketball Players Across the Fourth District

Mr. ROY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from New York. I appreciate what he came to the floor to address. We all have these great stories back home in our districts, and it is worth regaling those things, and I am glad he got the ability to do that. Mr. Speaker, I want to give a special shoutout to my daughter today. Today is my daughter's 13th birthday, and I just want to say happy birthday to my little girl, who is out in California of all places for this Texan--out in San Diego with her mama having a little fun for her 13th birthday. Happy birthday to my wonderful daughter, Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. ROY

Mr. ROY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Georgia for yielding to me. I appreciate him getting this time on the floor for us to address such a pressing matter as the national security of the United States and the well-being of her citizens. The truth of the matter is, the national security of the United States and the well-being of her citizens in terms of safety and security is not well. We are in danger in our country, on our streets, in our homes from people who are being let into the United States under the not just misguided but purposeful policies of radical progressive Democrats led by Joe Biden and as exemplified by my colleagues on the other side of the aisle in this body and in the Senate purposely releasing people in the United States they know to be a danger to our people. They are using parole policies and asylum policies that we put in place out of the goodness of our heart to help people around the world, they are using those very narrow exceptions to the rules that secure our border to release thousands of people without vetting them or, frankly, without even caring, into the United States. The result has been the murder, death, rape, assault of American citizens. My friend from Georgia mentions Laken Riley. I hate to politicize one family's devastation in the last month. She has obviously gained notoriety and caught the attention of the American people, but there are hundreds, thousands of examples of devastated families, whether you are talking about from fentanyl poisoning or the absolute disaster that is a mom in Texas finding her cheerleader daughter dead in the bathtub in her own home when she went to go see her perform cheerleading in Texas. That happened in December. Where is the bill named after Lizbeth? Where is the bill named after Kayla Hamilton, who was raped and murdered in her own home in Maryland, just up the road from here in the Nation's Capital. What about the 2-year-old who was murdered in Montgomery County, Maryland, just outside of the Nation's Capital, by somebody let out on mass parole by radical, progressive Democrats who don't give a rip about our Nation's security or the well-being of our citizens. That is the truth. However, there is a worse truth, in my opinion. In the face of the observable endangerment of the American people by radical, progressive Democrats, Republicans who campaign against it are going to vote tomorrow--or the next day or whenever they decide to jam us with a bill that we have not yet read--to fund this. Republican colleagues who will spend this year campaigning against open borders and campaigning against the destruction of the lives of Americans at the hands of open borders led by Democrats--I want to be very clear, it is led and being carried out by radical, progressive Democrats--but my Republican colleagues will campaign against it, yet tomorrow they will fund it. Tomorrow or Friday or Saturday, whenever we get the bill--we haven't seen it yet--they will spend $1.2 trillion funding Defense which, by the way, is woke; funding State and Foreign Operations which, by the way, includes the United Nations and the World Health Organization; funding all manner of programs that are not good for this country, but notably the Department of Homeland Security carrying out these mass paroles, carrying out these mass asylums, carrying out the release of people into the United States, issuing memoranda saying that ICE should not actually pull these people up and then deport them from the United States. We will be funding that. Now, not all of us. My friend from Georgia, my friend from Virginia who has joined us, my friend from Louisiana who spoke a minute ago, we won't vote for it. Republicans could stop it. We could stop it. Some are choosing not to. Why? Why? I think that is a question that should be asked. When Republicans hold the House Chamber, why would they take the power of the purse and provide funding, hundreds of billions of dollars, why would they give this administration funding to carry out policies that release dangerous criminals onto the streets of the United States, including the known dangerous Venezuelan gang member, a prison gang member released into this country who killed Laken Riley? In my own district in New Braunfels, they found just last week a drug lord who is on the terrorist watch list or the most dangerous watch list for the FBI, 10 Most Wanted, found in New Braunfels, Texas, which I represent. I take my family there all the time. This drug lord was just found and arrested. This administration is endangering America. My Democratic colleagues are all too happy to do it, but my Republican colleagues are all too happy to campaign against it, and then not do a dang thing about it when they write the check to fund it. Not one Republican should vote to fund this atrocity. Not one Republican. I would debate any Republican who wants to come to the floor right now and debate me on it. You know what? Not one of them will. Not one Republican will take me up on debating the issue of using the power of the purse to fund the endangerment of the American people.

Mr. ROY

Mr. ROY. Mr. Speaker, we are in a cold war with China and some of my colleagues want to ignore this fact. We have legislation before us that is 12 pages long. The bill is not a ban. It forces foreign adversaries, including Chinese Communists, to divest. The bill is not a bill of attainder; it is prospective, not retrospective. The bill does not violate the First Amendment. It focuses on conduct, not content. It requires both being controlled by a foreign adversary and conduct that itself is espionage. If you just had one alone, it might be debatable, as the gentleman from North Carolina or Senator Paul notes, in that it might protect Americans' rights to seek out and obtain foreign propaganda. However, again, that is not this case because we have, and have as a trigger in the bill, demonstrated national security conduct harm. To be clear, we have properly taken action at the device layer by banning Huawei and ZTE spy gear. We have taken action at the carrier level, prohibiting China Mobile and China Telecom from connecting to our networks based on a determination they are controlled by the CCP and a national security threat. We now need to take action at the application level when malign CCP control has been demonstrated lest we render meaningless our past actions to protect the United States of America. We should ban Chicom ownership of our farmland or drug manufacturing, but we should fight them here and ban the foreign ownership and control of American data and stop apologizing for the Chinese Communists.

Mr. ROY

Mr. ROY. Yet will not the very same people who will stand up and say we must fund this do so on the backs of the men and women in uniform saying that we must do this for defense, we must do this to make our defense stronger? Will they not be voting for all of those policies, undermining our own Defense Department?