Chip Roy

Mr. ROY

Mr. ROY. We have zero Democrats--not one Democrat--on that discharge petition. Now, I want everybody to think about that. The Democrats in this body apparently are so beholden to the radical idea of wide-open borders and not implementing Title 42 while Americans are being forced to wear masks on airplanes, and while Americans are getting a jab needle stuck in their arm by force of government if they are in the military or Border Patrol or any other Federal employee while there is still a Federal health emergency in place under order of the President.

Mr. ROY. They do not. And I want to make sure for every American out there to understand the truth. If you are disgusted about what is happening at our border, if you are concerned about what is actually happening to our communities, there is a way we can solve the problem without Speaker Pelosi making the decisions. Because that is how things work. We don't ever debate, we don't ever amend, and we don't actually have discussion in the people's House. The Speaker in a backroom decides what happens on the floor, vote ``yes'' or ``no,'' walk out, and give a press conference But we can do something about that. There is a tool. It is called a discharge petition. We have a discharge petition at the desk to try to empower the actual Representatives of this country. We have 200 and I think now eight Republicans on that discharge petition.

Mr. ROY. I would ask my friend from Pennsylvania if he is aware that our colleague and colleague in the House Freedom Caucus, our friend Yvette Herrell from New Mexico, introduced legislation a year ago-- actually over a year ago to require the use of Title 42. Is that right?

Mr. ROY. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Perry), one of the great patriots and I am proud to call him my friend.

Mr. ROY

Mr. ROY. Madam Speaker, as we sit here in the Chamber of the United States House of Representatives today, the Secretary of Homeland Security has announced that he is ready to end the use of Title 42 at our southern border. This is as we speak, while in March, we have had 100,000 apprehensions in the first half of the month, barreling towards 200,000, of which half have been able to be turned away under Title 42. When the Secretary ends Title 42, there will be a deluge at our southern border. This is known, which is evidenced by the fact that the Secretary is already working with FEMA behind the scenes and quietly to deal with the emergency that is no doubt about to occur at our southern border. This is going to cause massive injury to migrants, cartels empowered, Americans endangered, fentanyl pouring across our border, all because the Secretary refuses to do his job. This is an inexcusable dereliction of duty by the Secretary of Homeland Security. It is an impeachable act to not carry out his constitutional duty to defend the border of the United States. Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to join together to condemn the Secretary, condemn the administration, and demand that the Secretary actually do his job to secure the border and not end Title 42, even as Americans continue to wear masks on airplanes during a public health emergency.

Mr. ROY

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

Mr. ROY

Mr. ROY. Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor the life and legacy of Commander Robert Wilson Pratt, who passed away at his home in Fair Oaks Ranch, Texas on Saturday, March 12, 2022, at the age of 99. Robert was born on June 14, 1922, in Superior, Nebraska to Dr. Irving and Rose Pratt. He and his younger sister Peggy were raised in San Antonio, Texas where they both graduated from Jefferson High School. Robert attended the San Antonio College after he graduated from Jefferson in 1941 until he enlisted in the Navy in October of 1942. Due to his college credits already earned, he was entered into an officer training program. He was commissioned an Ensign in May of 1944. He proceeded to be part of the commissioning crew of LST 781. LST 781 then sailed from New Orleans, LA through the Panama Canal and into the South Pacific Theater. His ship participated in many of the island invasions in the Pacific culminating in the invasion of Okinawa where he survived kamikaze attacks while supporting Marine Corp Air Unit logistics. His ship had the distinction of being one of the first American ships to enter a Japanese port after the Atomic Bombs ended the conflict. He used a jeep from his ship to drive the short distance to Hiroshima to see the destruction there since no one knew anything about the danger of radiation. It was a sight he could never forget. He returned after the war to San Antonio and completed his undergraduate degree in marketing at St. Mary's University. He was working for General Motors when he met the love of his life, Frances Salley of Alice, Texas. They married in January of 1950. When they returned from their honeymoon, he was greeted by a letter from the United States Navy calling him back to active duty for the Korean conflict. After Korea, he and Frances returned to South Texas where they raised two sons, Robert W Pratt II and Byron Wayne Pratt. Robert had careers as an executive for Central Power & Light Company and later as a real estate developer of apartment communities. He stayed in the Navy Reserves retiring with the rank of Commander. He was an active member of the Corpus Christi Yacht Club for many years. Robert and Frances enjoyed a 71+ year partnership and adventure together. Many of their best times were spent with family and friends aboard their 50-foot ketch, the Masquerade, on voyages that went from Florida to Annapolis, Maryland, and throughout the Caribbean. They moved from Corpus Christi, Texas to Fair Oaks Ranch, Texas in 1995 where RW continued to manage some of his real estate assets and mentor younger people he met to grow to their full potential. We are able to live free today because of the courage of men like Commander Pratt, who put their lives on hold and answered their country's call when it needed them most. Love of family, country, and a life dedicated to service sum up the character of Commander Pratt, a member of the Greatest Generation. These stories will inspire future generations of Americans to pursue a life dedicated to causes greater than themselves. I hope this testament to Commander Pratt's life serves as an acknowledgment of the immeasurable debt of gratitude owed to him by the American people. On behalf of Texas' 21st Congressional District, I ask my colleagues to join me in recognizing the extraordinary life of Commander Pratt and his dedicated service to our country. Today, a grateful Nation thanks him.

Mr. ROY

Mr. ROY. Madam Speaker, I object.

Mr. ROY

Mr. ROY. Madam Speaker, reserving the right to object.

Mr. ROY. Madam Speaker, a number of my colleagues have asked why I have made at least two objections tonight with respect to motions to lay on the table and to have reconsideration. And I just want to remind the Chamber that we are here to do the job of the American people. We are here to vote. Madam Speaker, earlier tonight, we had a voice vote of somewhere around $16 billion of continuing resolution spending to push forward government spending to the night of March 15. And it is my considered judgment, and the judgment of many of my colleagues, that we should have the right to debate that and vote on it. And we had nobody in the Chamber here when we thought, and we were under the good faith belief, that we would actually have a vote on that tonight. So the purpose of forcing some votes tonight was to call that question and to remind the Chamber that it is our job to vote. It is our job to be here and do the work of the American people. Madam Speaker, we have not had an amendment on the floor of the House in open debate since May of 2016, to the best of my understanding. We need to restore this Chamber. We need to debate. We need to vote. Madam Speaker, with that, I will withdraw my reservation of the right to object.

Mr. ROY

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

Mr. ROY

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

Mr. ROY

Mr. ROY. Madam Speaker, I just want to remind everyone that 51 kids are trapped after an orphanage is bombed and the director is killed. No heat or electricity. Cold front coming. That is Putin's Ukraine. We should be helping these people.

Mr. ROY. You are exactly right. And tomorrow, we are going to be voting on a number of things. I got to be honest with you. I am sickened at what we are doing in this body. Instead of debating and voting here and having a serious discussion about how we should spend our assets to support Ukraine but be sensible about what we are doing in policies here, we are going to have a vote on banning Russian oil. What good does it do to ban Russian oil if you are going to buy it from Venezuela or Iran? Why don't we produce it here in the United States? It is cleaner and it is better. We should be doing that right here. Instead, we are not going to do that. I am going to turn it back over because I think it is about time to close.

Mr. ROY. How has the lawless authoritarian managed to regain his power? Well, I will tell you. Europe made themselves completely dependent on Russian energy. And if you want a wake-up call and you want a warning shot in this country, Russia controls 40 percent of the EU's natural gas and 30 percent of its oil. Germany buys more gas from Russia than any other country. They chose this. They chose fracking bans. They chose to shut down energy freedom in Western Europe. They chose to pursue a political climate ideology over national security and commonsense and energy for their citizenry. And now, they are beholden to Russia. And now, we have empowered Russia. This stuff matters. Wars have been fought over these kinds of things, and we just empowered an autocrat to roll over the people of Ukraine because of the leadership of the Democrats on the other side of the aisle. And the people in this White House are pursuing climate ideology over national security; climate ideology over energy freedom; climate ideology over affordable gas; and the ability for the American people to thrive while empowering the people of Ukraine instead of a thug like Putin.

Mr. ROY. And the most important thing that we can do, in my opinion, is do what we are doing right here. And I hope all my colleagues will do this. And I hope everybody will unite. And I hope the American free press will unite, and the worldwide free press will unite, to call this out for what it is--a war criminal killing innocents for sheer power and for sheer determination of what he wants for his own agenda, not for any kind of honorable reasons in defending his homeland. Whatever he is telling you and the people of Russia that this is somehow an honorable defense of Russia, it is not. He is lying to you. He is killing innocent people in the name of your homeland. And you need to know that. And you need to know the truth. And you need to see what he is doing to people. And we, in this country, need to continue to do more. And I know we are here to talk about Putin, and we are here to talk about this situation of holding him accountable. And I don't want to get too partisan here, but our country should have been doing more sooner. We should have been listening to Zelensky. I have heard a whole lot of applause lately for Zelensky from my colleagues on the other side of the aisle. But where were we last July when he was asking for help with sanctions? Where were my colleagues on the other side of the aisle when my former boss and my friend, Senator Ted Cruz, forced a vote in the Senate on Nord Stream 2? MIA. Partisan vote: We are not going to continue sanctions on Nord Stream 2. We are going to go along with Biden's decision to stop sanctions on Nord Stream 2. Well, what do you think happens when you allow Putin and Russia to have a complete control of the energy supply of Europe? What do you think is going to happen when you empower a thug and a dictator? What do you think is going to happen? And right now today, we have a complete refusal by my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, and frankly, too many colleagues on my side of the aisle, who refuse to say that we are, today, going to open up American energy, liquefied natural gas, oil, and produce it in this country to ensure that this man doesn't have the power to do what he is doing in Ukraine.

Mr. ROY. Neither you nor I shied away from criticizing the former President of the United States, despite the fact he had an ``R'' after his name. Nor will we shy away from criticizing this President who has a ``D'' after his name. Why? Because we are Article I, and he is Article II. And the Founders gave us a free press to say we are going to have the press holding all of us to account, and the separation of power so we can hold the President to account. There is none of that here.

Mr. ROY. Madam Speaker, well, I appreciate my friend from Colorado's question. And I would note in your comparison as to our experience as Federal prosecutors, that there is no entity that is able to hold him to account in Russia because he is running the whole show as a dictator, and there is no free press. In our country--as bad as the press can be--we at least hope that we can get the truth out through the vestiges of the First Amendment and the importance of the free press, no matter who is in the White House. Right?

Mr. ROY. That is exactly right. And I want to take 1 minute because it merits repeating because we are sitting here in the United States of America in the protection of our great Republic miles away from what is happening in Ukraine, and it bears repeating that there are two million Ukrainians right now fleeing Ukraine, fleeing their homes. We fortunately haven't had to experience that sort of thing. But two million people right now are fleeing their homes, dads and husbands staying behind in Ukraine, families fleeing, seeking shelter, thousands killed, we don't know how many, children killed, billions of dollars of damage, destroying crops, destroying infrastructure, taking over nuclear power plants. And I just got a text, literally as I am standing here, from my friends in Austin, Texas--from the wife whose husband is currently now in Ukraine trying to help people--talking about the orphanage I talked about in northern Kyiv. She says 51 kids are trapped; 51 kids trapped. Do you have kids? People around here, many of us have kids. Fifty-one kids trapped after orphanage bombed and director killed. The director of the orphanage was killed. Running out of food. No heat or electricity. Cold front coming. Will freeze or starve if we can't get there soon. Fifteen infants. Special needs kids. Currently shelling of all civilian targets being perpetrated and carried out by Putin. The same Putin that killed a Ukrainian leader with nuclear poisoning. This from my friend: We are pleading for someone to help us get to the children before it is too late. And we are trying. Anybody out there watching, we are trying to figure out how to get to this orphanage and get them to people who can help. But that is the product of Vladimir Putin. And if you are watching this, and if you are in Russia or if this clip gets to you and it isn't cut off by Putin and his thug leadership in Russia, this is the truth of Vladimir Putin. This is what he is doing to innocent people. And he is lying to you that these children are being put up as somehow being a front and being put up to be put in harm's way. He is indiscriminately bombing. He is the cause of these children being in danger. He is the cause of this murder. He is the cause of thousands of people getting killed, millions getting displaced, billions in damage, and it is all because he is a thug and an autocrat, who is going after and killing innocent people.

Mr. ROY. Yes.

Mr. ROY. Right.

Mr. ROY. Is there any disagreement on the intelligence that this is what occurred at the hands of Vladimir Putin's orders?

Mr. ROY. And how was he poisoned?

Mr. ROY. Madam Speaker, we are seeing Putin's propaganda tactics, as we speak. The world is seeing it on full display. His regime is systematically shutting down the free flow of information surrounding this brutal war in Ukraine. The State run newspapers in Russia have been instructed to not use the words ``invasion'' or ``war.'' Just days ago, Putin's regime shut off Facebook access in the country. Now, again, whatever Russians are able to see what we are saying on the floor, this is the truth. This is the truth of what Vladimir Putin is doing to the truth and the dissemination of information of what is happening in Russia, what is happening to the people of Ukraine, not the propaganda you're hearing in Russia. Just days ago, Putin's regime shut off Facebook, as I said. The Russian newspaper translated as ``New Newspaper'' has a brave, freedom- loving editor-in-chief Dmitry Muratov--he co-won last year's Nobel Peace Prize--who has been forced to remove all of the material on the newspaper's website related to Russia's aggression in the Ukraine. Think about that. That is what is happening. This isn't new. It is his track record. He came to power because of a terrorist act that was directed at Russia's own people. In 1999, three apartment buildings in Moscow, Dagestan, and Volgodonsk were bombed. Those bombings, allegedly the acts of Chechen terrorists, gave a pretext for going into Chechnya for a second war, thus solidifying support for Putin as head of the Security Council. Since then, almost everyone who has raised questions about these bombings or has attempted to investigate the cause of these bombings has been kicked out of Russia, imprisoned, or murdered. Those are the facts. That is who Putin is. During his more than two decades of ruling Russia, Putin has displayed a callous disregard for human life. He has engaged in murderous attacks on his political opposition. In 2004, the Putin regime poisoned Ukrainian Presidential candidate Viktor Yushchenko. In 2006, there was the polonium killing in London of Alexander Litvinenko, a defector from Russia. In 2009, Sergei Magnitsky was taken into police custody, beaten, deprived of medical care, and he died in jail. In 2013, Boris Berezovsky was found in his home in the United Kingdom dead. Berezovsky had long been a critic of Putin, accused the Kremlin of orchestrating the killing of Alexander Litvinenko, who had been poisoned in 2006. In 2015, Boris Nemtsov was shot four times in the back just a short distance from the Kremlin. He was another critic of Putin. And in 2017, the world was horrified by the daylight shooting of Denis Voronenkov, who was murdered in Kyiv after renouncing his Russian citizenship and criticizing Vladimir Putin. That is the truth of Putin's brutality.

Mr. ROY. Will the gentleman yield?