Chip Roy

Mr. ROY

Mr. ROY. Mr. Speaker, I was unavoidably detained. Had I been present, I would have voted ``nay'' on Roll Call No. 163. members recorded pursuant to house resolution 8, 117th congress Barragan (Gallego) Cardenas (Gomez) Cleaver (Davids (KS)) DeSaulnier (Thompson (CA)) Gaetz (Greene (GA)) Granger (Arrington) Grijalva (Garcia (IL)) Horsford (Jeffries) Hoyer (Brown) Johnson (TX) (Jeffries) Kim (NJ) (Pallone) Kirkpatrick (Stanton) Langevin (Courtney) Lawson (FL) (Evans) Lieu (Raskin) Lowenthal (Beyer) Meng (Clark (MA)) Mullin (Lucas) Napolitano (Correa) Nehls (Fallon) O'Halleran (Stanton) Payne (Pallone) Porter (Wexton) Roybal-Allard (Escobar) Ruiz (Aguilar) Rush (Underwood) Sewell (DelBene) Sherrill (Pallone) Speier (Scanlon) Strickland (Kilmer) Wilson (FL) (Hayes)

Mr. ROY

Mr. ROY. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Oklahoma and appreciate his work on this important matter, and my colleagues on the Republican Study Committee. I am happy to be working on a task force to advance healthcare freedom, personalized healthcare, the ways that we believe we can get the American people to see the doctor of his or her choice without having to see an insurance bureaucrat or a government bureaucrat and be able to get access to care. And that is all germane, by the way, to this question of spending. I think it is really important here, and I am going to talk in a minute about how good I believe it is that we have a 5-year balanced budget that the Republican Study Committee has put forward, and proving that it can, in fact, be done. But let's talk for a minute about the irresponsible budgeting and spending of our colleagues on the other side of the aisle. Most Americans hear these large numbers and they don't know how to put them in context. What our national debt is, over $28 trillion. But nobody knows what that means. It doesn't mean anything to the average person. We divide it and we say how much it is per person or family. We got numbers here, $226,000 per taxpayer, $85,000 per citizen. People still don't know what that means. If you set out to count the roughly $28.2 trillion debt we have now, how long do you think that would take, Madam Speaker? 900,000 years if you counted one per second; one Mississippi. It would take you 900,000 years to count to $28.2 trillion. It is just absurd. We are literally destroying the fiscal health of our country by the second. We are destroying it by the second. Our children and grandchildren are going to inherit this. But what is the real problem? We are killing our economy in the process. We are killing the American Dream in the process. We are killing small businesses in the process. We just spent $6 trillion appropriated in the process of spending. $6 trillion in a year in the name of COVID, as my friend from Oklahoma and my other colleagues well know. $6 trillion. Some of that was worthwhile. I think there was some PPP money in there that helps small businesses that I was happy to support, but $6 trillion. Would it interest the Madam Speaker to know that we spent $4.1 trillion for all of World War II, in current dollars? All of World War II, from the very beginning, from Pearl Harbor all the way to the second bomb in Japan, $4 trillion over 3\1/2\ years. We just spent $6 trillion in a year, effectively shutting down our economy, scaring the heck out of our children, forcing them to wear masks, shoving them into the corners of the classroom, forcing people not to go to the doctor of their choice, all so that Anthony Fauci could find himself on the cover of another magazine, while perpetuating a whole lot of myths that scare the hell out of the American people. That is just what occurred over the last year. And what is the impact of that? Well, last week the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that year over year consumer prices rose 5 percent in May. Has anybody gone to go buy a sheet of plywood? Two times, three times, four times. Anybody talking to the builders in your districts? How is their pipeline looking down the road? Did anybody go talk to the small restaurants and businesses out there? They are devastated, unable to hire people. Why? Because we are paying people more not to work than to work. How many people do you talk to that are in your district that say, well, I have got a help wanted sign up, but I can't get anybody to work. How is that going to bring back the economy and bring back jobs and bring back opportunity and bring back prosperity for the American people? And, oh, by the way, how is it ever going to allow us to have any fiscal responsibility as a nation? And that is what we are talking about here. And we are talking about a plan that Republicans are putting forward. Meanwhile, our Democratic colleagues have not passed a budget. We just had a deeming statement, or whatever it is we adopted, for $1.5 trillion, it just slid in this week. $1.5 trillion. It is like Monopoly money. Nobody even understands what we are doing here. And so we have got a budget that we put forward that balances in 5 years. Why don't we debate it? For all the C-SPAN viewers out there, look how many people are in the Chamber. About, what, 10 of us. Ten Members, election certificates, in here. Why don't we have a bill on the floor and why don't we debate it? How many Americans would love to hear that the people's House has not had an amendment offered on the floor of this Chamber since May of 2016 in regular order, an open amendment? Congressman Roy offers an amendment to a bill. Not since May of 2016, 5 years. It is all done in committee and rules and some smoke room in the back up here, just drop down, and we all go up and we vote ``yes'' or ``no'', and then we go out and give speeches. That is no way to govern. The American people know how to balance their own budgets at home. Businesses know how to balance budgets. Yet, this irresponsible government doesn't. Madam Speaker, I would implore my colleagues on the other side of the aisle to follow the great work of the Republic Study Committee, and look at the budget that we put forward that balances in 5 years, bring it to the floor of the House, and allow us to have an open debate. Go through the Budget Committee, go to the floor, and actually have a debate about the fiscal health and responsibility of this country so that our kids and grandkids can inherit the greatest country in the world, rather than $30 trillion in debt, and leaving us crippled and unable to carry forward for the good of our country.

Mr. ROY

Mr. ROY. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding. Madam Speaker, I note that the gentleman from Massachusetts just referred to the possibility of the Vice President of the United States going to the border for a photo op. Well, if she can find the border on a map and actually use her taxpayer-funded airplane, go to Andrews Air Force Base, fly to the great State of Texas, fly directly to the border at the Rio Grande and actually find the time in her duty as the Vice President of the United States to give a whit about the people of Texas, then maybe she could actually have a photo op. Perhaps the people of this country and the State of Texas, which I represent, would like more than a photo op. Perhaps we would like a Vice President who actually cared about the people of Texas, who actually cared about the ranchers. As I see my colleagues on the other side of the aisle muttering under their breath right now, how dare I speak up about the people of Texas who want to be protected? How dare I stand up about the ranchers whose fences are being torn down? The narcotics flying up I-35, running through Boerne, Texas, running through San Antonio. The nine immigrants found in a car being driven by an American citizen, being paid by the Cartel Del Noreste of Los Zetas out of Nuevo Laredo; the two that were bound in a trunk. The boy that paid $4,000 to pick grapes but was being sent to a stash house in Houston, Texas, to be put into the slave trade; and little girls to be put into the sex trade. The 7-year-old girl who I talked to on the border at the Rio Grande at 1 o'clock in the morning, when I don't know where my colleagues were, but I can tell you that my colleagues on the other side of the aisle were not with me. They were not down on the Rio Grande River. They were not talking to that 7-year-old girl who had a phone number written on her arm, or talking to any of the others who were being potentially abused, as many NGOs and nonprofits estimate up to 25 to 30 percent of the women on this journey are abused by dangerous cartels. It is not the Mexican Government that operates Tamaulipas or the state across the Rio Grande. It is the dangerous cartels making tens of millions of dollars moving human beings for profit. That is what my colleagues on the other side of the aisle sell as compassion? Then I watch the Vice President of the United States go down to another country to say, well, what could we possibly do to stem the tide? How about actually secure the border of the United States? How about actually use Title 42 in the middle of a global pandemic to make sure that we control the flow at the border? How about actually have the infrastructure in place that we know works? How about a return to Mexico policy where we can work with our friends in Mexico to stop the flow? How about not putting a big neon sign on the border saying: ``Come on in. Don't mind if the cartels abuse you on the way.'' Meanwhile, Texas takes the brunt of it: an 800 percent increase over the last 4 years total in fentanyl; 800 percent more this year alone. Do you know how dangerous fentanyl is, Madam Speaker? We have had 7,500 pounds of fentanyl. 7,500 pounds that have been acquired by border patrol. Imagine what they might acquire if they weren't limited in resources. Imagine what they might acquire if they weren't undertaking processing in McAllen instead of having wide open spaces between our ports of entry. 7,500 pounds, an 800 percent increase in Texas. My State is under siege. My State is taking it on the chin because Democrats refuse to secure the border of the United States. It is the fundamental duty of a nation to secure its border. The fundamental duty. I come back here after 3 weeks talking to ranchers and people in my State who are getting abused, losing their ranches, losing their homes, watching their kids die in overdoses, all while migrants get put in stash houses and get abused running up through my neighborhood and my communities. Well, forgive me if I am not all that bothered by a resolution on this floor by my colleague from Iowa. And I think it is a good idea to try to call into question what the Vice President of the United States is actually spending her time doing. What on Earth is more important than securing the border of the United States? And how hard is it to get on your taxpayer-funded plane and fly to south Texas and go meet with the border patrol and meet with the ranchers and meet with the migrants and meet with the business owners who are getting killed? It is happening every single day in our State. It is our duty in the people's House to secure the border of this Nation. And I have constituents and people back home in Texas asking: What are we getting out of this deal? What are we getting out of our deal as being a part of the Union when the country won't even secure the border of our State and our communities? They are asking me that question. We have a job to come together here on this floor in this body and do our job to secure the border of the United States. I commend the gentlewoman from Iowa for offering this resolution.

Mr. ROY

Mr. ROY. Madam Speaker, today we congratulate the 2021 Service Academy appointees from the 21st Congressional District of Texas. The Following individuals have accepted Academy Appointments. Jackson N. Basil, Texas Military Institute, Boerne, United States Air Force Academy. Kurt Bliss, Texas Military Institute, Fair Oaks Ranch, United States Air Force Academy. Felicia S. Early, Saint Mary's Hall, San Antonio, United States Air Force Academy. Cullen Ingersoll, Winston Churchill High School, San Antonio, United States Air Force Academy. Abigail M. Jones, The International School of the Americas, San Antonio, United States Air Force Academy. Hunter G. Loftin, Winston Churchill High School, San Antonio, United States Air Force Academy. Thomas A. Erwin, Central Catholic High School, San Antonio, United States Naval Academy. Leah A. Lara, Lehman High School, San Marcos, United States Naval Academy. Alexander D. Boarnet, Winston Churchill High School, San Antonio, United States Military Academy. Zoe R. Johnson, Antonio College Preparatory High School, San Antonio, United States Military Academy. Wyatt A. Richardson, Covenant Academy, San Marcos, United States Military Academy. Robert A. Nelson IV, Boerne- Samuel V Champion High School, Boerne, United States Merchant Marine Academy. Matthew R. Romero, Our Lady of the Hills College Preparatory High School, Kerrville, United States Merchant Marine Academy. Andrew H. Wilson, Dripping Springs Christian Academy, Johnson City, United States Merchant Marine Academy. These outstanding students have much to contribute to their chosen Academy and to our country. We appreciate their talents and their patriotism. I hope my colleagues in the House of Representatives will join me in congratulating these truly heroic young men and young women.

Mr. ROY

Mr. ROY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from New York for his work on this effort. I appreciate my colleagues on the other side of the aisle and the intent of what we are trying to accomplish. Obviously, we are all very concerned and should be concerned about what occurred on January 6, all of us who were here in the Chamber, all of us who saw what unfolded. My concern, and the reason that I am opposing this legislation, is that I believe we have got a significant amount of power with our existing structures in place, the Committee on Oversight and Reform, the Committee on the Judiciary, and otherwise. While the investigation is going on at the Department of Justice, we ought to be looking at that and using those powers to do what we can to seek the truth wherever it may lead. I have questions right now for the Department of Justice. We have got 450 Americans who have been arrested. I don't know for how long, I don't know how many of them are in jail, or for what period of time. We are trying to look into that. I have sent letters to the Department of Justice to get those answers. I wish the gentlewoman who spoke, the chair of the Committee on Oversight and Reform, would afford us the ability to call people forward from the Department of Justice. Let's inquire as to what is going on. Let's inquire about the investigations. Let's inquire about the facts that have been found. Let's use the powers that we have and the powers of this body and the committees we have to seek the information and the truth, wherever it may lead.

Mr. ROY

Mr. ROY. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Madam Speaker, nobody in this Chamber believes that there isn't work to do in the area of ensuring that crimes are not committed against any American but, in particular, due to their race, their color, their national origin, or anything about who they are. Many on this side of the aisle, including the gentlewoman who spoke before from California, raised concern about the sort of nature of this legislation and a lot of the concerns that have been raised about its continued focus on hate crimes in many ways at the expense of our focusing on crime, crime itself. In the findings in this piece of legislation, of course, we reference the terrible tragedy that unfolded in Atlanta, Georgia, and much of that was a rush to be included in the form of hate crimes when the facts being borne out in the investigation among prosecutors and the investigators in Georgia are indicating that that was not at all or didn't seem to be the motivation. And I use careful words like ``seem to be'' because, as a former Federal prosecutor, I like to wait until you do the investigation before you jump to the conclusion of what the motive was or what actually went into the crime at hand. As in the words of Chief Justice Roberts when he said that it is a ``sordid business, this divvying us up by race,'' I think we do our Nation a disservice when we spend every waking moment on this floor divvying us up by race. Increasingly, that is what we are doing. This legislation is well-intended, but this legislation, in the eyes of many in this body, is flawed, in terms of having in it things like the Health Equity Task Force or designate an officer or employee at DOJ whose responsibility shall be to facilitate the expedited review of hate crimes. We have provisions in the legislation to encourage the collection of data, encourage local law enforcement to collect data on hate crimes, but to seek to do so specifically to focus on hate crimes. It is the contention of many of my colleagues that this is, in fact, a continued focus of division in our country, rather than focusing on the fact of the crime itself, the murder itself. We all, of course, thought that the crime in Georgia was awful. But, again, the crime doesn't seem to have been motivated by race, yet it is being brought into the context of a hate crime. Perhaps we should spend some time investigating sex trafficking and human trafficking in the form of massage parlors and people who are basically indentured servants or slaves in the form of the sex trade; the cartels that are along our southern border that are forcing young girls into the sex trade; the people who were bound in a car in Boerne, Texas, in suburban San Antonio, being forced into the sex trade en route to a stash house in Houston, Texas, because they were being run by the Cartel del Noreste of Los Zetas out of Nuevo Laredo--literally, just occurring in the district that I represent in Boerne, Texas. Perhaps we can focus on this kind of criminal activity and what that actually means for young women and young individuals in our country. We talk about is it a hate crime when we have seen data of a young Black male in San Francisco hitting an elderly Asian man on the streets of San Francisco. We have seen that footage. It's probably a hate crime, but it is a crime. If that guy was a White guy or a Black guy, it is a crime. It is a crime going after this elderly man, an American citizen. And I think when we think about justice, the reason the blindfold exists on Lady Justice is we are supposed to have blind justice. We all acknowledged that we have not had blind justice at many points in the history of our country, but that blind justice is what we seek when we seek equal justice under law. Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. ROY. Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. ROY. Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. ROY. Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. ROY. Madam Speaker, how much time is remaining on each side?

Mr. ROY. Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. ROY. Madam Speaker, I yield such time as she may consume to the gentlewoman from California (Mrs. Steel).

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

Mr. ROY. Madam Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time. Madam Speaker, the gentlewoman from California earlier made a good point, and I am going to use my own words to paraphrase what she said when she said that we can't legislate away hate. The perspective of many of us is that we don't need new laws, we don't need more committees, and we don't need more bureaucracy. We need to give our police the resources they need to do their job. We need to make sure that we are rooting out crime wherever it may exist between whatever communities it may exist. We need more emphasis on family, more emphasis on community, more emphasis on the Lord Almighty, and less reliance on the Federal Government to make our communities better. As I said earlier, I can get into the intricacies of the bill, but we have already gone over it. The concern of many on my side of the aisle is in this continued sordid business of divvying us up on race and focusing on race. We have spent the better part of the last year rightfully concerned, focused, and outraged on what we saw with respect to Mr. Floyd. But we have had a continued focus on race over the last year, and I think one can look at the impact on communities and the impact on Black communities throughout the United States' cities, businesses that have been closed down, and crime sprees that have occurred and wonder what this continued focus on race is doing to better our great Nation. I would posit that we are a far better country when we follow Lady Justice with the blindfold and that we seek to achieve that recognizing our failure to do so in the past but seeking our desire to achieve that blindfolded justice going forward. Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. ROY. Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. ROY. Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. ROY. Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. ROY

Mr. ROY. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Pennsylvania. Madam Speaker, I would close a little bit here out on Israel by saying just a few things I didn't get into in terms of the details, because these matters. These details matter. I said before, in the last 8 days, Hamas has launched more than 3,300 rockets at our friends in Israel. Think about that. We have had 10 people in Israel been killed--both Jews and Arabs. I read a story of a young Indian woman, who was visiting Israel, who also lost her life. Iron Dome has intercepted 90 percent of the rockets. Hamas is trying to overwhelm the defense system and destroy Israel. Madam Speaker, 70 percent of Israel civilians have run into a bomb shelter this week. Parents and children were being woken up in the middle the night by sirens alerting them that they have 90 seconds to get inside a bomb shelter. We had Esther Schlesinger huddled with her 1-year-old son on Tuesday. When speaking about the event, Esther said: I didn't have time to grab anything. I didn't have time to grab my phone. We just ran into the shelter and kept hearing explosion after explosion. I feel terrible for these parents who have to try and explain what is going on. I literally was holding my son in the bomb shelter, and I am thinking I am grateful he isn't old enough to understand why I had to quickly grab him. Despite all this, I don't doubt my decision to live here. Even in these crazy times. It is so important for me to be here as a Jew. Madam Speaker, we are seeing the result of a failed policy of this administration. When you think about it, President Trump called Prime Minister Netanyahu 2 days after his inauguration. The current President took over a month to call the Prime Minister of Israel--arguably, our closest ally in the world, certainly our closest ally in the Middle East. When asked, President Biden's secretary couldn't even say whether Israel remains, ``important ally of the United States.'' The Biden administration has emboldened Iran, the number one state sponsor of terrorism, dedicated to the destruction of Israel in the United States, by restarting negotiations on the failed 2015 Iran nuclear deal. They rewarded the PA by restoring millions of dollars in funding to the West Bank in Gaza; undermined Israel and international organizations by restoring $150 million in funding to the UNRWA and rejoining the Israel-hating United Nations Human Rights Council without much-needed reforms. It is one hit after another, one punch to the gut after another to our friends in Israel, while we are funding Hamas and their ability to fire rockets at our friends in Israel. This is a pattern. I will just tell my friends on the other side of the aisle, to ask yourself a question for the American people who are watching all of this: Do you want America to be first? Or do you want America to be last? Because the current administration, the current policies of this body, the current policies of the Senate are taking us down a road which we had long since left behind in the days of the Carter era, in the late 1970s, when you had long lines at the gas pump, skyrocketing gas prices, inability to get jobs, stagflation, inflationary pressures. Most people today don't really remember. I remember when my parents got their mortgage rate down from 14 percent, 12 percent, 10 percent-- man, when they got to single digits. Today, those rates have been hovering around 3 percent. People don't understand what they are facing, and they are going to see it soon, as they are seeing these prices skyrocket and they can't afford houses and they can't afford gas and they can't afford basic commodities and goods and services, and they can't hire people, and their small businesses are going out of business because of the policies of this administration. America first. People have jobs, businesses thrive, gas is affordable, housing is affordable, our border is becoming secure. A border, by the way, that still allowed people to legally migrate to our country, but to do so in a much safer way; without empowering cartels to be able to move human beings for profit, put them into the sex trafficking trade, the human trafficking trade, make millions of dollars in the process. America first is putting our friends in Israel first and standing alongside them for their interest, yes, but also for our national security interest. One or two more thoughts on the border because it has hit so close to home in the State of Texas, which I represent. Now, I have taken multiple trips to the border, and I have spoken about it many times on this floor and elsewhere. But it is not just some esoteric concept that doesn't impact our whole country, but it certainly impacts Texas very directly. I said we had 178,000 migrants apprehended in April, we are now over 600,000 for the calendar year, 300,000 that have been released or got- aways that have gotten into our country. Those are real numbers, they are published numbers. Some of them are--the got-away numbers are numbers you get when you talk to people who know what is going on who work in DHS or work down at the border. April's CBP's numbers show more fentanyl seized in the first 5 months in 2021 than in all of 2020. Fentanyl is a dangerous narcotic. Do we not care? I mean, it is a legitimate question. Do my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, do they literally not care? I have never once heard one of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle address this issue, not once. I put something out on social media the other day telling the Vice President that I would be happy to meet her anywhere, anytime, to debate the issue of border security. She is allegedly in charge of it. Well, Madam Vice President, I am here on the floor of the United States House of Representatives, Article I in the Constitution; you are now serving in Article II as the Vice President, with a foot over in the Article I Senate as President. I am happy to debate anytime, anywhere, the status of the border of the United States, and how it is endangering American citizens, endangering ranchers, endangering border patrol, endangering law enforcement officers, endangering Texans, allowing fentanyl and dangerous narcotics to flow into our communities, empowering the sex trafficking trade and the human trafficking trade, and empowering cartels to be able to carry out their heinous activities. They just uncovered a burial pit just across the Rio Grande, where these dangerous cartels bury people that they murder. Stories of people being locked into bars, chained doors, and the building lit on fire, people being hung from bridges, people being burned alive. This is all happening literally across the Rio Grande, and we are empowering it. We are empowering it with an America-last agenda where cartels are empowered, our borders are run by cartels, human beings are mistreated in the name of compassion. The American people are tired of all of the swamp drama. That is all we get here is swamp trauma, every single day. We have more conversations about splitting us up by race. We have more conversations about January 6 commissions. We have more conversations about masks or not masks. Meanwhile, the American people are hurting. The American people can't hire people. The American people are dealing with wide open borders. The America people can't afford goods and services. The American people can't have their kids in schools without worrying about what is happening to their kids. All of the videos we are now seeing pop up with children testifying at school board hearings, saying, I have been spending a year wearing a mask, and I have been being yelled at, and I have been beat up because I am being told, you know, I got to wear a mask, and shut my ability to see people. I want to see people's faces. What are we doing to our children? We are decimating a generation of Americans. The American people are tired of this. We spent $6 trillion in the last year, you can't really make it up. What are we doing? I mean, with all due respect to the Speaker, Speaker Pelosi, and the majority leader, and my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, What are we doing? We are destroying the American economy. We are killing small businesses. We are destroying our own dollar, our own economy. We are driving up the prices of goods and services. We are preventing people from being able to hire people. We are scaring the heck out of our children. We are allowing our schools to shut them down and not teach them. We are siding with our enemies in Iran instead of our friends in Israel. We are allowing wide open borders to endanger our people with fentanyl. We are empowering cartels. How on Earth is the people's House allowing this to happen to the United States of America? The American people have had it. The American people want sanity, they don't want us talking about tweets and talking about all the drama in this town and what positions people have or don't have. They just want us to lead. They just want us to come into this body and not be here, like I am right now, by myself, with all due respect to the Madam Speaker, but by myself addressing an empty Chamber. This is what debate has been reduced to, and I have talked about that before, but I will keep talking about it. This is what debate has been reduced to. I chastised the majority leader earlier today because we were talking about a bill that was labeled a hate crimes prevention bill that came over from the Senate, and the majority leader said: Well, if you are for this bill, you are against hate; if you are against this bill, you are for hate. And that is how that is going to be seen. And I told the majority leader, I said, that is the problem. I mean, do you really believe that is true? That if I have a different view about how divvying us up by race is a bad idea and how categorizing us in categories of race, and then creating thought crimes, and having government going around and policing our thoughts and go tracking us down, based on what we say or do, as opposed to: Hey, you committed a crime. But if I vote against the bill, oh, I am for hate. That is what we have reduced this body to. And, again, I get it, these are political slogans to my left and right, right? There is a purpose to this. There is a purpose to me putting this up, and saying, American first versus America last. Okay. I would love it if we could sit here in this Chamber, and say, you know what, maybe spending $6 trillion is a bad idea. Why don't we rewind some of those dollars and see if we can tone down that inflation? Why don't we tighten our belt a little bit. Why don't we get the dollars flowing in for unemployment that is crippling the ability of businesses to hire people? Why don't we pull that back a little bit? Why don't we just sit down at a table, roll our sleeves up, and figure out how to make it work? Why don't we say, Hey, wide open borders being run by cartels is a bad idea. Let's figure out how to secure the borders. We are a sovereign Nation, that is not a crazy thought. Why don't we say, Hey, what are we getting out of our relationship with Israel and peace in the Middle East, and standing side by side, and the strength that that makes for our country and for them. Madam Speaker, I am nearing the end of my time, and I have a colleague over here that I believe is going to have a few thoughts to share, and so I will wind down here in the next couple of minutes. I will alert my friend. But I would just say, you know--first of all, let me just say, I appreciate the staff who are down here and keep this place running, and you have to sit here, and the stenographer is writing everything down that we are saying and, you know, the clerks that keep everything going. You are here because we are here, and I appreciate it. As a former staffer myself, we very much appreciate you all being here. It is an honor to serve in this body, but it is an honor because of what we need to achieve, not what we are doing. It is an honor to serve in the House of Representatives because of where this country can go, where it needs to go on behalf of its citizenry, not because of what we are doing today. Because what we are doing today is undermining the health of this Republic. I will just close by saying that one of the things that I have been talking to my constituents about when I go home is asking the very simple question: Are we free? Are we actually free? Are we free if we have $30 trillion of debt and we are undermining our economy? Are we free if people can't hire people in their small businesses in order to survive? Are we free if we have open borders that are being run by cartels? Are we free if we are not standing with our allies, but instead, we are standing with some of our enemies? Are we free if China controls much of our supply chains? Are we free if the unborn never get a shot at life? Are we free if our children are being taught that America is evil in the schools? I would argue that we are not as free as we ought to be. We are not as free as we need to be. And that we are not as free as is necessary to ensure that our kids and grandkids can inherit this great birthright of being an American citizen. I believe we should put America first. I do not believe that we should have America in last place. Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. ROY. Yes, a piece of plywood.

Mr. ROY. Making us freer, stronger, with more abundant, more affordable energy, we became the number one producer of oil and natural gas in the world, ahead of Russia and Saudi Arabia. Natural gas production reached a record high of 34.9 quads in 2019 following record production in 2018 and 2017. The average American family saved $2,500 a year in lower electric bills. Now, what do we have? A shutdown Keystone pipeline, and an administration saying we can't frack in Western lands. We rejoined the Paris climate agreement to have the United States foot the bill, billions to the United Nations climate fund. We have suspended the leases on Federal lands. As I said, a complete Federal land ban would increase foreign dependence by 2 million barrels a day. Gas prices are at a 7-year high. I could go on and on. Does the gentleman agree that there are consequences to an agenda like the previous administration's that puts the country first versus an administration that is perfectly fine putting the country last in order to go achieve some sort of, I don't know, fealty to the European social welfare state and make yourself seem, I don't know, welcomed in Davos?

Mr. ROY. I will be mindful of your time whenever you have to go on, but would you agree that if you go back and say, all right, let's go look at how the America First agenda was performing a couple of years ago, that the unemployment rate in April 2018 was 3.6 percent, that today the unemployment rate is 6.1 percent, that the poverty rate in 2019 was 10\1/2\ percent, that the poverty rate today is 13.7 percent projected, that the Consumer Price Index in April 2019 was 2 percent, that today the Consumer Price Index is at 4.2 percent and skyrocketing. If you compare where we were with respect to energy a couple of years ago--and I know that my friend has a heart for energy; obviously, it is very important to his State as it is to mine in Texas--that under the Trump administration for the first time in nearly 70 years, the United States became a net energy exporter, right?

Mr. ROY. When you think about the various things it is impacting--you represent constituents in Pennsylvania, and I in Texas--you talked about the reach of illegal immigration, narcotics, cartels, and gangs into Pennsylvania. Does the gentleman agree, when we had the previous administration putting America first, does the gentleman agree that our economic situation and job situation and price of goods and services situation was far better and that small businesses were thriving versus today when small businesses can't hire anybody? Does the gentleman agree that commodities--gasoline, wood, housing supplies--were cheaper and more affordable, and today they are now skyrocketing through the roof after $6 trillion of spending? Does the gentleman agree that the border was becoming secure under an America First agenda, and now it is wide open and being abused? Does the gentleman agree that we had historic Middle East peace with our friends in Israel, and making our country safer, by the way, in the process in holding the line against Iran and our enemies, and now we have got Israel under attack and an administration saddling up with our stated enemy, Iran? Does the gentleman agree that all of these are stark contrasts?

Mr. ROY. Is the gentleman aware that the Vice President was tapped by the President to take charge of this crisis?

Mr. ROY. Madam Speaker, right now, we are facing a critical question for our country. It is a question about whether our country wants to be first or last. A lot has been made, obviously, of the former President's agenda, which he referred to as ``America First.'' I think, unfortunately, we are sitting here right now, and our country is now too often looking at America last. There are a number of issues that are facing the constituents that I represent, but I believe this is true for people all across the country. I have spoken many times here on this floor about this. In Texas, our border is under siege. In Texas, it is a very real impact on our life, our communities. I share that with my colleagues all across the country, all 50 States represented here. It is very real in Texas, but it is very real in our country about the impact of the broken border. It is very real right now with people who run small businesses and need to hire people and they can't because we are paying people more not to work than to work. It is very real when people are going to buy gas at the pump, and it is well over $3 a gallon. It is very real when you try to buy a house, and lumber is up 470 percent. It is very real when you want to go get the healthcare of your choice and you can't. It is very real when you turn on the TV, and you watch what was Middle East peace now turning into chaos as our friends in Israel are being attacked. There are consequences to our choices in elections. There are consequences to the leadership you have in your country. There are consequences to the decisions we make. I would think that all Americans, regardless of which side of the aisle you fall, whether you are in Congress or you are back home watching, you want America to be first. You want America to succeed. You want America to do well. You want our allies to succeed. As you see, I am putting a comparison here of what the world looks like with America first and what the world looks like with America last. Admittedly, we had the intermittent reality of dealing with the pandemic. But just over a year ago, we were dealing with record low unemployment, record levels of employment for minority communities in our country, a booming economy, with strong economic growth. America was leading and moving the world forward. Today, we have jobs that are vacant, not being filled. Small businesses coming up to me, saying: ``Our whole livelihoods are getting destroyed; we are going to lose everything we have built, because we can't hire anybody.'' I go to restaurants and I see ``help wanted'' signs. They are struggling to have anybody there to serve. People are going back. It is not the virus. People are going back. They just can't get service. Every businessperson I talk to in the State of Texas faces the same dilemma, the same problem: They can't hire anybody. Now why might that be? Could it be that in the infinite wisdom of this body that we have spent $6 trillion over the last year--$6 trillion over the last year--and that, as part of doing that, we have funded unemployment at levels that is making it more attractive for Americans to choose not to work than to work. Americans are logical human beings. When presented with that choice, they are going to make that choice. Some aren't, but many do. And now, you are owning a restaurant and you are trying to have wait staff or people to bus tables or cooks, and you can't hire them. You are trying to run a landscaping company, you can't hire them. You are trying to run a cleaning business, you can't hire them. This is real, and it is happening right now in real time. The result, an economy stagnating. We are not taking off with growth. Now we have got inflationary pressures because we just spent $6 trillion. You run the risk of stagflation, low economic growth, higher cost of goods, all while we are now dealing with the uncertainty of a world in chaos. A year ago, small businesses were thriving. Now, small businesses are getting crushed. A year ago, not too long ago, gas was $1.77 a gallon. Now we are looking at gas over $3 per gallon. As I said, lumber prices are up 478 percent; copper is up, I think, 50 to 70 percent. My parents right now are trying to go through building a house, and they are not sure if the dollars they have got set aside to do it are going to work, because all of these prices are going up, up, up at extraordinary rates. There is a cost to bad leadership and bad decision-making. Our border was well on its way to becoming secure. In April last year, we had 20,000 apprehensions. How many apprehensions did we have this year in April? 178,000. We have had over 530-something thousand apprehensions from January 1 through the end of April. We have had almost 600,000 apprehensions to date, based on the information I have through mid-May. My sources at the border tell me that we have had 300,000 individuals who have gotten away or who have been released. I went down to the border, one of the many trips I have taken to the border because the district I represent is about 150 miles away. I went down at night, and I met with about 50 different migrants who had just come across the Rio Grande. This was a group that I just met with, and they are driving back down the road. I actually followed them in my truck with the headlights on, so they weren't just walking in the middle of the darkness to go get over to where the processing center is. America first looks like this. Significant amounts of immigration. Legal immigration hasn't dipped below a million per year in some 20 years. America's doors are open, you-all. The idea that people want to say ``Close our doors,'' that is not the case. But you want to have operational control of your border. I am going to talk about Israel in a minute. Israel put fences in place because they wanted to control their borders. You know what? They worked. Of course they worked. We have fences in place in southern California. Illegal immigration in the 1990s, which was astronomical, over half a million, dropped to 40- or 50,000. Why? Fences work. In Brownsville-McAllen, there is fences and there is infrastructure around Brownsville. There isn't in McAllen. Guess where the traffic goes? McAllen. This is not rocket science. When you are putting America first, you put in infrastructure. Border Patrol wants it, they have asked for it. It works. Yes, some people go around, yes, some people try to go over, but if you have ever spent a minute at our southern border--side note I would offer to the Vice President of the United States, that should she actually wish to do her job in supposedly running this whole border security task force, come on down to Texas. So far she hasn't. In the 2 months that she has been allegedly in charge, our Madam Vice President could come see that instead of security, we have utter chaos. Here is the thing. These are human beings. These are not political pawns. These are human beings, seeking a better life. I don't begrudge any one of these immigrants who are seeking to come to our country. God bless them. I would try to help any one of them that were coming across to figure out where they needed to go. They are human beings, all of God's creatures, but they shouldn't be endangered because we are sending up false signals that it is a good idea for people like the 7- year-old girl that I talked to on the border who was all by herself coming from Guatemala to America. She didn't have a parent, didn't have an uncle, didn't have an aunt, didn't have a brother, didn't have a sister. She was by herself. The young man who was right next to her, I said, ``Where did you meet this young girl?'' He said, ``Midway through Mexico.'' She was 7, you-all, 7. Depending on which nonprofit, nonpartisan groups you listen to, we know that upwards of 20 to 30 percent of women that are on this journey get abused. We know the cartels are making massive amounts of money moving human beings for profit. We know that fentanyl, the most dangerous narcotic that is currently out there, or one of the most, we have now had more in 2021 in this calendar year in 4\1/2\ months than in all of 2020. Fentanyl. Our kids are dying. There is an opioid epidemic. What does this administration do? Hey, I have got a good idea, let's have processing centers in McAllen, let's have all of the Border Patrol go down to McAllen and have to run processing centers instead of actually policing our borders between the ports of entry and trying to stop the flow of fentanyl and dangerous narcotics into our country. There is a consequence to not doing your job. This administration is not doing its job. This administration, worse than not doing its job, it is purposely harming our country in the false name of compassion. Instead of having secure borders, instead of allowing people to come to our country legally, safely, we endanger immigrants and say that that is somehow being compassionate. How is that compassionate? How is it compassionate when the Gulf Cartel, the Reynosa faction of the Gulf Cartel is making millions of dollars moving human beings for profit? How is it compassionate when the Cartel del Noreste of Los Zetas in Nuevo Laredo is making millions of dollars moving human beings for profit? When the district attorney in Kendall County, Nicole Bishop, a county I represent, and I visited, and she talked about the nine illegal immigrants found in an automobile being driven by an American citizen employee of that Cartel del Noreste. It had nine illegal immigrants in there, two tied up in the trunk, and they were being taken to a stash house in Houston, Texas, to be put into the human trafficking and sex trafficking trade. America first is about jobs, economic growth, a strong border, standing with our friends in Israel, affordable commodities like gas. America last is a wide open border in which Americans are endangered, ranches are overrun, cartels are empowered, immigrants are abused, prices go up, commodity prices go up, businesses can't hire people, and we abandon Israel. America first versus America last. I have got more to say about this, which will surprise no one. But my friend from Pennsylvania is here, and I would certainly love to turn the floor over to my good friend from Pennsylvania should he wish to opine.

Mr. ROY. To your knowledge, has the Vice President visited the southern border of the United States in the now almost 2 months that she has been allegedly in charge?