Chip Roy

Mr. ROY

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

Mr. ROY. Madam Speaker, may I inquire how much time is remaining?

Mr. ROY. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I do think it is important what the majority leader just said. I mean, first of all, we will never be a perfect union. All we can do is strive, of course, to achieve the ideals set out in our founding and throughout our history. But I do take issue; as the distinguished majority leader knows, I stood on this floor recognizing my concerns about January 6. But to suggest that the Senator from Missouri, Senator Hawley, is somehow giving a thumbs-up to insurrection, as opposed to engaging in speech and debate about his beliefs and his beliefs under the Constitution; I think that is wrong. And I think we are continuing to go down this road of back and forth on these issues, as opposed to having a deep discussion about what occurred and what didn't occur. But, importantly, on this issue, you know, taking the Senator's word that he has some concerns, as I do. I mean, I have sat here and expressed my solidarity and hope and desire, again, as a former Federal prosecutor, figuring out how to root out hate and stop crime. I happen to believe that we should do that through the lens of being color blind, and attacking our criminal justice system the way we should to try to root it out, but not to embed in our code the continued divvying us up by race. That is just how I view it. That is how I view it with a number of friends of mine of all walks of life, of all political persuasions, of all racial persuasions; and I think that we should be mindful of that. And the majority leader, I think, gave it up a little bit in saying that, you know, this vote will be seen either as A or B, right? It will be seen as you are either for hate or you are against hate. That is, I think, one of the fundamental problems we have in this body, is that we can't engage in a reasonable debate about what we are seeing here and concerns we might have. And being equally opposed to hate, or equally opposed, or wanting to go root out crime, but have a differing view about how we get there; that doesn't mean it is A or B, you are for hate or you are against hate. But that is what we do; we drop a $2 trillion, 2,000-page bill on the floor, and you say, well, you are either with us or against us. Vote for this bill, it is named fill-in-the-blank. Right? Come up with a great name, you can't oppose that. Suddenly then, that is what is put out in the headlines, you know, Chip Roy votes for hate, right, instead of having an actual, robust debate here on the floor about how we want to carry the country forward. I think that is what we ought to have. I actually enjoy this part of our job. I enjoy having numbers of Members on the floor engaging back and forth about these issues that are important, rather than just seeking the headline and running out to the triangle and giving a press conference, divvying us up further in our ideologies, or in the name of a certain or particular bill. Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

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

Mr. ROY. Madam Speaker, the gentleman from Virginia reminds me--and we have not discussed this--that I first met the gentleman from Virginia when I was in college at the University of Virginia and he was the Lieutenant Governor of Virginia, and I was an instructor for a golf camp that summer in Charlottesville for his daughter, I believe Stephanie. Pulling out of my memory banks. And that is where I first met him. Again, 20--whatever I was--23 or 22 years old, right out of college. But he reminds me that one of my college teammates at the University of Virginia was a gentleman by the name of Lewis Chitengwa. Lewis is not somebody you all would know, but you do know the name Tiger Woods. And Tiger was asked after his infamous 1997 year when he won the Masters-- obviously breaking down the color barrier at Augusta Masters. He was asked if he had ever been disappointed in sports. And he said he was disappointed once when he lost the Orange Bowl, the biggest amateur tournament down in Miami, where you would expect that to be. And he lost it to my friend, Lewis Chitengwa. Lewis is the first Black to win the South African Open. It was a monumental event, I believe in the early 1990s, when he won that tournament before he came to the University of Virginia, where he ultimately graduated. Unfortunately, he passed away 20 years ago this summer from meningitis. He had played golf in the Canadian tour in Vancouver and shot, I think, 68-69 Thursday or Friday, and passed away Saturday morning. Talk about a pandemic. He passed away from viral meningitis. I raise Lewis just because Lewis, when he went home, he passed away that summer, they had to wait about a month to bury him because of the AIDS epidemic in Zimbabwe, where he was from. Lewis was the recipient of unspeakable hate when we were in college around the Charlottesville community in the 1990s. And we would often discuss that and talk about that and about those changing times. But it was fascinating for me to watch a man like Lewis, who came from Zimbabwe and experienced a lot of what was apartheid in South Africa and being the first Black to win the South African Open, to him talking about the greatness of this country and justice in this country and what this country has meant as a beacon for people around the world and justice. And we talked about it at length. I understand the intent behind this bill, and I just want to say that I share that intent; and I know in speaking for Mr. Jordan, who had to relinquish the time to me, that we share that intent. We just have serious reservations about defining hate crimes and going down the road of collecting data and the way we are doing it and how that divvies us up by race. Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

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

Mr. ROY. Madam Speaker, as the gentleman said, as a 34-year-old, the end product may look okay. This 48-year-old may not be able to make a similar statement. Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. ROY

Mr. ROY. I was just explaining, before the gentleman arrived, that my parents are in the midst of building a house. They are beginning to wonder now whether or not they are going to be able to afford it by the end of the build because of the price of lumber, because of the price of concrete that is going up, because you have to have forms for the concrete and you have to have labor. Now, we are having a shortage of labor because we are paying people more to not work than to work, in the infinite wisdom of my colleagues on the other side of aisle who believe you can throw $6 trillion into the economy and not have consequences. Is the gentleman aware that it only took us $4.1 trillion in today's dollars to win all of World War II from beginning to end? Yet, my colleagues on the other side of the aisle felt like it would be a good idea to dump $6 trillion into the economy and believe that it wouldn't have the consequence of inflation, that it wouldn't have the consequence of paying people more not to work than to work, and destroy jobs, destroy livelihoods, destroy small businesses. Now, we see the America First energy policy under the previous administration where we had abundant oil, abundant energy, and now an America last where you have lines. I mean, who is President? Is it Jimmy Carter or Joe Biden?

Mr. ROY. I saw a photograph today that had a person who was driving a Tesla. And God bless Tesla for making technology. I am all for it. But the person in their virtue-signaling, self-congratulation of driving their Tesla is driving around with a license plate that says: ``NO FUEL,'' right? Does somebody want to go, ``Wait. Hold on,'' knock on the door and say: ``Excuse me, where do you think the power is coming from?'' Is it magic power? ``Well, we just get power from electricity,'' as if the electricity comes from nothing, as if the Tesla is just magically powered and suddenly just drives around without having abundant availability of energy. Is the gentleman aware and would he agree with me that China has about 70 percent of the world's rare-earth reserves, and that when we are going down the road of solar panels and other alternative forms of energy--and, again, Texas embraced wind power; Texas embraced solar power. We can have these as part of our grid, but then what happens on a windless, cloudy day? You have China being empowered. One more question for the gentleman: Is the gentleman aware that we just saw a report that China is producing more of the emissions and CO2 than the rest of the world combined? My colleagues on the other side of the aisle want us to join the Paris Agreement, which we were outperforming without being a part of it. They want us to bow down to the altar of the Chinese and say: ``Oh, please let us be a part of this whole exercise,'' while China is pumping out more actual pollutants and more CO2 than anybody else in the world.

Mr. ROY. Is the gentleman aware that human life expectancy, if you track it on a chart, is almost directly correlated to the availability of abundant energy and that we have seen the lifesaving advances that cause human flourishing, the ability to save people's lives, the advancement of modern technology for medicine, to be able to spread that around the world? There are still 3 billion people in the world right now who are not living with abundant energy, and what do we want to do as the greatest country in the history of the world? We want to slam the brakes on this great economy with this magic unicorn dust of a view toward how we are going to have our energy policy while we throttle us back, empower China, allow China to be able to continue to pollute what they want to in the atmosphere. Meanwhile, human beings suffer.

Mr. ROY. I heard the gentleman, who I should thank for his military service, his long career in serving in our Armed Forces. I appreciate your service. I know the gentleman is concerned a lot about national security, as well. With respect to pipelines, you alluded to the Nord Stream 2 pipeline. I believe today we learned that the administration was backing away from sanctions, which is perfectly fine, having the Nord Stream 2 pipeline funneling all sorts of fossil fuels to Germany, but forsaking our friends in Ukraine, by the way, in doing so. You get a twofer out of this administration: undermine our national security while harming our friends in Ukraine who are trying to push back against Putin. But, oh, by the way, you are advancing a pipeline over there while you refuse to have pipelines in the United States of America.

Mr. ROY. I know the gentleman probably has things he needs to do, but before he leaves, I wanted to address one other issue on national security because I know he has a passion for this, as well. We have talked about the impact on our economy of America First versus America last. We talked about the impact on the border of America First versus America last. We talked about the impact on energy and availability of energy of America First versus America last. Now, let's talk a little bit about the impact on the stability in the world on Middle East peace, on our national security and the national security of our friends and allies, and, in particular, our friends in Israel. I know the gentleman, like I, has traveled to Israel. I have been there a couple of times. I am sure the gentleman has been there a few times. In my experience in Israel, it is an extraordinary place with extraordinary people with a pluralistic culture, a multifaith culture. But it is a burgeoning democracy, a strong economy, and it is probably our strongest ally in the world--if not in the world, certainly in the Middle East. The previous administration was doing what for decades previous administrations had said was impossible and was striking historic peace deals with Arab nations, working and interacting with Israel, with direct flights from Arab nations to Israel occurring. The Abraham Accords, we had significant peace in the Middle East, yet what do we have today? In a few short months under the wisdom of the current administration, we have massive attacks on our friends in Israel. We have massive loss of life. And God bless the previous relationships with our country and Israel to produce the technology that Iron Dome offers to the people of Israel so that they are not getting slaughtered by the rockets that are coming from Hamas, being supported, by the way, by the policies of this administration, in empowering Hamas to be taking shots at our friends in Israel, where our friends in Israel are under attack. Thank the good Lord above that we have Iron Dome and the ability to protect our friends in Israel and work with them so that we also have strong missile defense technology. Would the gentleman agree that that is the current state of affairs?

Mr. ROY. I saw the same stories that my friend from Pennsylvania saw about some of our democratic colleagues, I think here in the House and in the Senate, who were starting to say that we needed to back off of that and not provide the hellfire missiles or any of the resources that we worked in collaboration with our friends in Israel in order to make sure they are protected, and particularly in the use of the Iron Dome. Literally protecting millions of people, by the way. There is 150,000 rockets sitting in Lebanon, sitting and pointing right at northern Israel. By the way, the populated area in that northern part of Israel is about the size of a portion of the district I represent in that stretch between San Antonio and Austin. I took a helicopter tour going up to Jordan, up the north side of Israel, back down to Tel Aviv and back down to Jerusalem in a few hours. Can you imagine? That is the size of Israel. And they have 150,000 rockets in Lebanon pointing from the north, and they have got Gaza over here firing all these missiles coming in from Gaza. Hamas launching them in at Israel, and they are actually benefiting from the technology we are providing. And now you have got Democrats saying they want to pull that away. Now, the good news is I also saw a story today with a couple of them starting to walk that back, because hopefully they are starting to feel the pressure the American people want us to stand with Israel. The American people want us to stand with our allies who stand with us, and that is what Israel has done. And I would tell the gentleman, I am sure he has experienced what I experienced when I was at the Sea of Galilee. And I was on the floor the other night with Brian Mast, your fellow veteran, who lost his legs in service to our country. He also served 2 years in the Israel Defense Forces. Well, Brian and I were both sharing the story about when we were sitting on a pier in the Sea of Galilee, and the Israelis, who were on that pier, stood up and looked at us and they all sang ``God Bless America.'' And they all stood up and thanked us one by one for what we do in defense of Israel and our partnership with them. And this administration is walking away from that. This administration is hugging Iran. This administration wants to cut deals with Iran, provide resources to Hamas in the Gaza Strip, which undermines Israel and undermines our national security. And the American people, when they know this, they don't want it.

Mr. ROY. It has been great.

Mr. ROY. Is the gentleman aware that a few of our colleagues actually were lamenting that Iron Dome was preventing casualties in Israel because, for some reason, that might be seen as disproportionate with respect to whatever damage and casualties might be occurring in Gaza? And it seemed to me that the simple answer--I mean, just color me crazy here, my friend from Pennsylvania--might be stop firing rockets from Gaza, stop firing rockets at Israel. Would the gentleman also agree that our friends in Israel, the Israelis, call ahead, give them notice, tell them the missiles are coming in? They say, ``vacate the block because in 15 minutes that building is going to be gone.'' And then we heard our colleagues on the other side of the aisle lamenting that somehow AP or Al Jazeera were in a building that was taken out. Yet there is ample evidence that they knew full well that Hamas was operating in that building. They knew it, yet they were doing it anyway and they didn't care.

Mr. ROY. Does the gentleman agree that Israel not only has a right to defend itself--and I was thankful to hear the President at least utter those words, that they have a right to defend themselves. Does he not agree with me that they have a duty, a responsibility to defend themselves in the same way that we would if 1,500--well, actually, up to 3,300 rockets have been launched by Hamas in the last 8 days. Can you imagine what the American people will be saying and doing if I was sitting in San Antonio or Austin and 3,300 rockets were coming at us from Nuevo Laredo, from across the border in Mexico? Would we just be sitting back and saying, well, I mean, I wonder what kind of proportionate response should look like? Or would you just be responding back with overwhelming force to say under no circumstances do you shoot one rocket into our country, much less 3,300?

Mr. ROY. You know something about that?

Mr. ROY. The gentleman is welcome to stay as long as he wants, but I think he has other places to go. But I would just say that I appreciate the gentleman joining me. I know he agrees with me that an ``America first'' agenda that is pro-jobs, pro-affordable prices, pro-border security, pro-Israel, pro- national security, pro-abundant energy is much better than an ``America last'' agenda in which we abandon our own allies, abandon our own national security, have wide open borders, have skyrocketing prices, inflation going through the roof, and joblessness because people can't find jobs, because people are getting paid more not to work than to work.

Mr. ROY

Mr. ROY. Is the gentleman aware that there have been numerous people who have thrown out the phrase that Israel--many of our friends, by the way--that Israel has a right to defend itself. I mean, we hear this regularly. Would the gentleman agree that Israel has more than a right to defend itself, but rather a duty and, in fact, a responsibility to defend itself, defend the people of Israel, and to stand strong as what you just described, the greatest democracy in the Middle East with a plurality of individuals in that country who respect freedom and democracy in a multiethnic population even as we are, as a result, I believe, of the previous administration, experiencing a renaissance in the Middle East, potential peace. We are seeing the response to that here, if the gentleman would agree.

Mr. ROY. I would agree, and I think that it is critically important to remember who we are dealing with and who we empower at the expense of both our national security and the national security of our friends in Israel. I would also offer a tweet that I saw from his home base in Qatar, the Hamas political director and literal United States designated terrorist Ismail Haniyeh. He tweets his support, tweets his support of the attacks on Israel. This individual notes, and I don't know that we need to get into cancel culture, but this individual notes that he won't be banned from Twitter, and I think this is something we should all be cognizant of as we are looking around the world when we remember that, in the previous administration, with President Trump's policies, that we were seeing extraordinary gains in peace in the Middle East, Arab countries recognizing Israel, opening up flights and engagement between Israel and countries that before would not recognize them. Does the gentleman agree with that?

Mr. ROY. Is the gentleman aware that even when it is the size of New Jersey, really the population center is really in an area pretty much the size of probably about a quarter of New Jersey or half of New Jersey, right? In Lebanon, for example, at all times, there is about 150,000 rockets sitting there pointing at this space between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem in the northern part of Israel, where virtually all of the population lives, of all walks of faith, by the way. They are under constant threat, and without Iron Dome would be in grave danger, as they are taking this rocket fire from the Gaza Strip today.

Mr. ROY. I would just say how much I appreciate the gentleman, I appreciate his service, I appreciate his understanding about how important Israel is to us as an ally and how important it is for our country to stand united right now as we watch our friends under attack. I look forward to engaging with him.

Mr. ROY. Has the gentleman traveled to Israel?

Mr. ROY. As we have been watching over the last several weeks with our friends in Israel under attack, particularly this week with the amount of missiles that are going in, there has been wide success, obviously, with Iron Dome, but obviously that puts a continued stress on Iron Dome. Is the gentleman as concerned as I am that we have this country standing alongside Israel to ensure that they have got the resources they need, that they can continue to have a strong Iron Dome, continue to be able to push back on the rockets that are being fired into Israel from Gaza Strip by Hamas?

Mr. ROY. I am a proud Representative of San Antonio, Texas, where our Alamo stands, so I appreciate that reference. Is the gentleman aware that there has been numerous casualties, numerous deaths as a result of this rocket fire, very specifically including non-Israeli citizens? In fact, I saw some social media yesterday of a young Indian woman from the country of India who was killed while visiting Israel, and that there have been numerous others, children, and others that have lost their lives, and, also, thousands upon thousands of Israeli farmland that has been torched and burned, livelihoods that have been put into disarray as a result of this rocket fire. Does the gentleman agree with that?