Chip Roy

Mr. ROY

Mr. ROY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from South Carolina. I thank him for bringing forward this important resolution before the body. Mr. Speaker, I do want to say that I appreciate the gentleman from Maryland, his commentary about the vote on removal, and his considered judgment with respect to Santos. I agreed with him at the time and made the same points. I want to align myself with the remarks of the gentleman from Louisiana, but I want to note in doing so--and I think the gentleman from Maryland has shown respect to, I think, the judgment of the gentleman from Louisiana about his being the sole vote on the issue before this body before with respect to what we are making public because of the gentleman's, I think, very real concerns about what it might mean for victims. We had that debate and a colloquy back and forth in the Committee on the Judiciary a few hours ago, about what we can do to ensure victims are protected and so forth, as we all go forward on what I believe is a unanimous view that we should go seek out truth and justice here with respect to Epstein and anybody associated with him, and them, and the nefarious affairs involving Jeffrey Epstein. The reason that I support this resolution is--and I would note that my colleagues on the other side of the aisle could have tabled this resolution. They chose not to table it. They chose to refer it, which would suggest to me that there is a recognition that something here is not particularly good; that we have a sitting Member, in this case, a Delegate from the U.S. Virgin Islands, who was sitting in the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform--and I actually have particular interest here because I was the one doing the questioning. Apparently my questioning was so riveting that she was engaging in text messages back and forth at that moment. While I was questioning Mr. Cohen, the gentlewoman was engaging in this back-and-forth on text messages with Jeffrey Epstein. Again, I have listened for months as my colleagues on the other side of the aisle disparage and try to impugn the character of the President of the United States and other members of the administration in connection to an investigation of Jeffrey Epstein, which the President's administration in 2019 indicted Epstein. They actually moved forward and federally indicted him in 2019. Ghislaine Maxwell was arrested by the Trump administration. I know the gentleman from Maryland will go on to say that the Biden administration then carried forward that arrest, indictment, and prosecution. True, but it was, in fact, the Trump administration that did what had not been done for a long period of time by taking forward that indictment. I have been listening to all the preaching by my friends on the other side of the aisle about how any association, anything to do with Jeffrey Epstein, is somehow the dispositive moment here in terms of determining the character of this administration or what they are doing or not doing when they are leaning in to try to seek the truth. Tens of thousands of pages have been released by Jamie Comer, and 13 subpoenas have all been put out. Now the House just voted to have greater transparency. Time will tell what that means in terms of what the court does and how they deal with the grand jury secrecy and what they do to continue to redact and protect victims' names under existing laws and how the courts treat that. That is going to be a process, as the gentleman likely knows. This is going to be determined as to what gets released and how. Here we have the gentlewoman sitting in the Oversight Committee texting with a known convicted felon, a convicted pedophile, that was very public and known, had served jail time, and is engaging not just in texts that were trivial, but texts involving advice about her questioning of Michael Cohen, all designed to figure out how to get Michael Cohen to be able to somehow go after Trump or Trump's advisers or people around the President. That, to me, is what we talk about with censure, which is contemplated, of course, in our rules and in the structure. The gentleman talked about the Constitution. We are not removing her. We are simply saying censure. We are saying it is censurable conduct to say that this individual sitting on a committee taking advice from a known convicted pedophile, convicted felon, that that is conduct unbecoming of a Member of the United States Congress, engaging in real time, taking advice from someone that we have been listening to--being lectured to as someone deserving of all of the scorn of the entire world. He is. That is why we are here. If my colleagues didn't think this was a concern, they would have simply made a motion to table, but my colleagues decided to refer it to committee because they know this is a problem. They know this is not the kind of conduct you want in a Member of this body. I think that the gentleman from South Carolina is right to have brought this forward. I think that the body should hear this debate and that we should vote tonight to censure and refer to the Ethics Committee for further consideration.

Mr. ROY

Mr. ROY. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend from Texas for his leadership on this. I thank all my colleagues from Texas for their support not just on this resolution, but throughout the ordeal back in July and since, as we continue to work through the tragedy and find the lives that have been lost. We are still looking for several, as the gentleman from Alabama noted. I appreciate the kind words from the gentleman from Alabama. There is no time for politics when you are dealing with moments like that. I appreciated engaging with him. I wish it had been a better outcome, but I do appreciate our engagement on that to try to do what we can for the families that were impacted. I will say a few things about this. I have never done a resolution. I generally don't like to focus on resolutions. I feel like we are here to do the business of the people. In this instance, I felt compelled to bring a resolution to the floor on behalf of the people of the Hill Country and on behalf of the families affected throughout the country, as the gentleman from Alabama noted. It wasn't just that. It was our colleague from Georgia, Buddy Carter, who had family impacted by it. Some survived, but at least one little girl didn't. I could go through the list, but it affected many people in this Chamber. The gentlewoman from Texas, Lizzie Fletcher, who herself went to camps in the Hill Country, had constituents who were affected by it and many others. I felt compelled to bring this resolution to the floor, and I will explain why in just a minute. I thank the leadership of so many people in response to the floods that ravaged the community in the Hill Country. It is hard to put into words exactly how bad it was. Two days after the flood, I drove down the river with one of my staffers. It looked essentially like an F5 tornado just ripped down the valley. There were 100-plus-year-old cypress trees that were just laid flat. There is so much vegetation waste that has been piled up, I think it would cover something like 100 football fields 10 feet tall. There is so much damage that was done alongside the river. I raise that because there are so many recriminations and questions-- it is not a political thing--since the floods, but it is hard to put into words the momentous event that it was when it struck at 4 o'clock in the morning on July 4. There are things that no doubt could be done differently. A lot of this is going to be played out over time in litigation and legislation. That is not really the story for me. That is not what I will remember. That is not what I will carry forward. I will carry forward, and I thank personally the President of the United States; Susie Wiles; the Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem; and the leadership that engaged from the Federal level to the State to the local level: Governor Abbott; the Lieutenant Governor; the head of the Texas Department of Emergency Management, Nim Kidd; the head of DPS, Freeman Martin; all of the leadership in Kerr County, Sheriff Leitha in particular; the people in the community who stepped up; all of the first responders; and the Coast Guard, as the gentleman from Alabama mentioned. All of these are people who responded and stood up immediately and didn't point fingers. They just got together at an emergency center and figured out what to do. They came together to deliver as quick a result as you could, saved many lives in the process, and then dealt with the loss of life that came from the flood. We will manage through this as we go forward, whether it is in Texas or here, whatever policies we change. That is what you do. That is how you learn and you make policies and you adapt. I want to make a point about the things that we know are impacted, things that will never be the same. Those cypress trees that were 100 years old, those are not going to be the same for hundreds of years. The damage that was done to the community, the buildings that were ravaged, the little girls whose lives were lost, the people who were down there vacationing whose lives were lost, the camps that were destroyed--Camp Mystic, Camp La Junta, Heart O' the Hills--that are now either moving or having to redo their entire models and plans, none of those things are going to be the same. All of those things are now forever changed. However, there is one thing that is enduring. I talked about it when we talked about this the week after it happened when we came back into this Chamber, and that is the cross that sits on the hill in Kerrville. It is the faith of the people of Kerrville and Kerr County, Texas, that came together under that cross to stand up for something bigger and a vision that is much greater than the tragedy that we endured. What is actually going to endure and carry forward is a strong faith and a commitment in honor of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, the people who came together in prayer along the streets of Kerrville that comforted families, the $150 million that was raised through the Community Foundation of the Texas Hill Country from all over the country and heavily from Texans, the concerts that were held, the events that were carried out. All of this stuff came together so that people could not look to point fingers--look, there are questions that will be asked--but to come together in a tragedy to stand tall and to come together in a bond about something that is greater than the loss of life but that will carry forward and endure forever. That is what I will remember about this. We are going to rebuild. We are going to continue to work. I appreciate this resolution. It is important for the United States House of Representatives to recognize this. I urge its support and adoption, and I am deeply appreciative of my friend from Texas and all those who have cosponsored the resolution.

Mr. ROY

Mr. ROY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from Minnesota for yielding. Mr. Speaker, here we are on September 19, House Republicans passed legislation which would have funded government through November 20. Here we are on November 12, and we are basically where we would have been had we just passed the bill that we passed in September. What did we get for all of that? What happened over all these days? Well, my colleagues on the other side of the aisle were searching for a reason for voters to support them next November. They were searching for a cause. We know this because there were intervening elections and a lot of rhetoric but no results. We are here right now, with Democrats having joined Republican Senators to send a bill over here to fund government through the end of January with three appropriations bills, which we worked through regular order, to keep spending relatively flat. It advances the priorities the American people sent us here to advance, to back up the President who is securing the border, which he was sent to Washington to do; to restore military to focusing on defending this Nation rather than advancing woke priorities, which the American people sent him here to do; for us to continue to work, to grow, and to build this economy after 4 years of being wrecked with reckless spending but also abhorrent policies. The American people are now saying: What on Earth were Democrats doing? My Democrat colleagues' response is healthcare. That is the only default position they have is the default to healthcare. The fact is, it is because they broke the system so badly that they are now coming and asking us to have the Treasury print money to then give out in order to enrich insurance companies with massive subsidies. That is the actual fact. The American people understand this and they recognize that they don't want insurance companies to be enriched, but they want to be able to go get the doctor of their choice. The American people understand this and so do we. We are here to open the government, and we are here to stand up for doctors and patients instead of insurance companies and big regulators. I support this legislation. I know my Republican colleagues do. The question really is: Will Democrats support this legislation, or will they wish to perpetuate the shutting down of government to enrich insurance companies?

Mr. ROY

Mr. ROY. Mr. Speaker, I would note just an observation: One of our colleagues on the other side of the aisle who is a cancer survivor--and God bless him for it--was raising issues about government funding and about what funding should or shouldn't exist and what this administration may or may not be doing to make sure our bureaucracies are running efficiently and effectively and not wasting money. I say this as a cancer survivor, stage III, Hodgkin's lymphoma, 13 years ago: I think research is important. I think we need to make sure there is solid research. I think it can be driven heavily by the private-sector businesses who are incentivized to make money for developing lifesaving drugs, but it could be done in concert with governments and universities. What we don't need is continued profligate Federal funding in order to achieve greatness. The Wright brothers, Henry Ford, the great inventors, the great industrialists, the great innovators in technology, the entrepreneurs out there, for the most part, are not doing that based on government funding and action. They are doing it based on innovation and hard work. That should be our model and approach. While I appreciate those who have gone through a terrible disease like cancer, as I did, as a number of people in this Chamber, and as millions of Americans across this country have done, it is not always a rationale for more government spending, more government action, and more government bureaucracy. I would note that the other colleague who came down and talked about high and rising energy prices, I too share some frustration about foreign-owned energy companies and utility companies. I would remind my colleagues on the other side of the aisle that our energy prices wouldn't be skyrocketing and off the charts had we not gone down the foolish road of massive subsidies for the so-called Green New Deal, which is more rightly called the green new scam, in which foreign companies, Chinese companies, have been enriched because my colleagues on the other side of the aisle wanted to pursue their radical agenda. Do you want to know why the price of energy is going up? It is because of Democratic policies and mandates, EV mandates, and mandates about solar panels and wind farms that are far less efficient than nuclear and clean-burning natural gas. Those things are driving up the price of energy for the average American and putting that money into the pockets of a handful of wealthy people and the Chinese. I congratulate them, but my colleagues on the other side of the aisle shouldn't come whining to Congress about what they need in order to deal with high energy prices that my Democratic colleagues caused. That is the truth. The fact of the matter is that we need to do a lot better job of speaking truth here in this Chamber. As a number of my colleagues were debating a resolution honoring a friend to many of us, Charlie Kirk, who, as is well known now, lost his life last week, I am reminded of the importance of truth. Truth matters. Charlie stood for the proposition that you should go into the public square and put forward your ideas and put forward what you believe is truth and then hash it out. He did so eloquently, thoughtfully, and engagingly with people of all stripes: Black, White, straight, gay, male, female, whatever it was. He would engage with people on campuses and around this country to pursue truth. Mr. Speaker, one of my favorite quotes is from Thomas Jefferson where he said that for here, we are willing to pursue truth wherever it may lead. We need to follow truth wherever it may lead, but you also have to have the courage to speak truth. Charlie Kirk, when he was engaging with Bill Maher, a skeptic, just earlier this year, said: ``In China and, of course, in the Soviet Union, there was an anti-Christian movement. Very hardcore. What book do you think is best for humanity to live by? I say the Bible. The entire arc of the Bible is a story of love and a need for humanity's redemption. The Bible has wisdom in ways you might not ever imagine. Humanity will seek to find a book. They will seek to find a code to live by, and I think it is incumbent upon atheists to tell us what that should be.'' Charlie Kirk earlier this year in April: ``The mechanisms of a religious society are good for everybody. When somebody walks around and thinks that you were created and that you are not God, you tend to have better citizens.'' Charlie was not wrong. Earlier this year, Charlie Kirk, in a debate with an atheist: ``I would argue you have a lot more faith than I do. You have a lot more blind faith to believe that everything around you, love, joy, peace, sadness, is all just a construct of neurons firing in your brain. We, as Christians, have hope that we are going to see our loved ones again and that we will be in Heaven and that we will be in perfect peace and that this is not it. In fact, there is something even better awaiting us.'' Also earlier this year with Bill Maher: ``The greatest minds of history have been mesmerized by the Scriptures: Isaac Newton, Thomas Aquinas. Isaac Newton wrote more about biblical prophecy than even physics. And so there is something about the Scriptures that are intellectual, that does push your limits. And that is what I think is so beautiful about our faith is it can be accessible to everyone, but infinitely nourishing in exploration.'' Earlier this year, Charlie said about his goal of conservatism. He said: ``You have to try to point them toward ultimate purposes and toward getting back to the church, getting back to faith, getting married, having children. That is the type of conservatism that I represent, and I am trying to paint a picture of virtue, of lifting people up. . . .'' In another exchange with Bill Maher: ``It defies reason to think that this is just a roll of the dice. When you see a baby come into the world, when you see how we naturally heal, when you see even consciousness itself, I think it is a pretty miraculous thing. To think that it is all just a bunch of happy accidents, I think it is more rational to think that it is a byproduct of design.'' Four days before Charlie was shot, I think he tweeted out: ``Jesus defeated death so you can live.'' Earlier this year, Charlie said: ``I want to be remembered for courage for my faith. That would be the most important thing. The most important thing is my faith.'' I can go further. My point of sharing these things is the importance of us standing up and speaking truth. People say, Well, Chip, how can you say it is truth? It is just what you believe when you talk about your faith. Well, I, of course, believe it to be true. It is truth. Jesus did die so that we may live and Jesus lives. It is important that we remember our Nation's founding and our Nation's convictions and the spirit that binds us together as a Nation, actual spirit, in God we trust. We cannot be bound together as a Nation if we do not adhere to a commonsense set of principles and values, rooted in a collective faith, a collective faith in God Almighty. It does not mean that every individual has to believe anything specific. It doesn't mean that anybody has to go to church. It doesn't mean that we have to go around doing something in violation of the First Amendment, which says you can believe what you want to believe, but the First Amendment also does not stand for the proposition that we should walk away from our collective faith. It does not do that. Nowhere in the First Amendment does it say that. How does a Nation conquer evil? How does a nation conquer Nazi Germany, Imperial Japan, the Soviet Union? Was it all because we just got together and decided to put together a military, or was there something bigger? Was there something more important? Was there a collective faith in the Almighty that bound us together and gave us the courage for those young men to walk into a wall of bullets at Normandy? People always ask me what is wrong with our country. Why is there so much division? When the Nation turns its back on God, when the Nation walks away from that collective faith, then do we really even have a Nation? A lot of people keep branding Charlie as a conservative activist. Sure. He unapologetically advanced his definition of conservatism, but remember, as I said, when he tried to define that conservatism, he talked about it in the context of faith. He said, as I said a minute ago: ``You have to try to point them toward ultimate purposes and toward getting back to the church, getting back to faith, getting married, having children. That is the type of conservatism that I represent.'' I got to be honest, that should be the essence of conservatism and the essence of who we are. What point is there to living free if you are not advancing toward the kingdom of God? Charlie had courage to speak to this, to raise these issues to a lost generation, consumed into devices that are destroying the minds of our youth, devices that I would wipe away from the face of the planet tomorrow if I could. I would, God's honest truth. The Amish are on to something, but since I can't do that, can we not at least recognize that these are poisoning our children? The first thought I had after I had received word that Charlie was shot was to call my wife and to figure out how to get word to my son, also named Charlie, who I knew was an enormous fan of Charlie Kirk and who does not have social media or access to it on his telephone but is around a lot of friends who do. I wanted to get word to him not to look at anything because I knew immediately that the horrific images would be spread around instantly, and no children should be watching that. That is just one example of millions every day polluting the minds of our children, coarsening our culture, breaking us down, addicting our children to devices instead of engagement, conversation, life, family, and being outside. We are at each other's throats because we have turned our backs on God. We are at each other's throats because nonstop there is a deluge of imagery and horrific thoughts that are flooding into the in-boxes and into the visibility of our children and, frankly, ourselves. Charlie Kirk was correct, that we have to focus on getting back to church, getting our Nation, our families, and our communities back to church. Would that this Sunday everybody that is going to be at a National Football League game or parked in front of a TV watching an NFL game, would that every single American doing that would be in church with devices off, TVs off, having supper with their families, which society would be stronger? The fact of the matter is, when I had to tell my son that, unfortunately, Charlie had passed, and he asked if that was formally known in public, and I said: Yes, he is gone. I am sorry, buddy. He said: I would have loved to have met him one day. Then he sent me a Bible verse that said: Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain. First Corinthians 15:58. Well, thank goodness his mom is doing something right. A lot of people have asked me why one of my first reactions in light of all this was to raise the prospect of an organized, radical left that has been fomenting the targeting of people that I care about, people like Charlie Kirk, groups like the Family Research Council, targeting families and communities and our way of life, Chip, why would you do that? Aren't you just sowing more division in calling for a select committee to investigate the organized efforts of the radical left? Actually, I think it is the opposite of that. I started this talking about the need to pursue truth. Our job in Congress, in part, is oversight and investigation, and pursuing truth and exposing it to the American people. It is a problem that organizations like the Southern Poverty Law Center creates hate maps in which they targeted the Family Research Council a decade ago resulting in an individual shooting it up and a security guard getting shot right here in D.C. or Charlie Kirk's organization, TPUSA, being put on that same map with a target being put on their backs. Antifa is known to be radicalized and engaging in terrorist activities, which the President recognized just yesterday, I believe rightfully. The extent to which there is an extraordinary network funded not just by George Soros but a large number of radical billionaires that are funding organizations dedicated to putting into office DAs and judges who put criminals on the street, who allow dangerous criminals to walk among us in our communities, on trains in Charlotte, North Carolina, where a young woman from Ukraine was butchered by someone who had been in and out of jail, arrested 14 times. It is not just an accident. It is not just one random DA or judge or, oh, George Soros funded one election. It is a coordinated effort to put DAs and judges and other law enforcement officials into places in communities--including in the communities I represent in Austin and San Antonio and throughout Texas--purposely to then have organizations like the Wren Collective, which is now known through reporting just this week from the Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund, putting out the known networks where they are going in and telling these DAs and prosecutors precisely what to do, precisely how to get people back on the streets sooner or not prosecute them at all. The result of this is that dangerous individuals are walking among us and hurting us and our loved ones, which is a direct threat to the security of our Nation. Yes, I think we should investigate that. Yes, I think we should get to the bottom of that. Yes, I want to know how those dollars are flowing. Yes, I want to know why the people of San Antonio have to be turned upside down or the people of Charlotte, North Carolina, have to be turned upside down because a radical group of billionaires are funding organizations that are funding these people to be put on our streets. How about our borders? Should we not know the flow of the dollars, of the coordinated network through the United Nations and through international organizations and through supposedly religious organizations, or the 250 organizations that our friends at the Center for Immigration Studies put out, demonstrating the network that was responsible for dumping millions of people into our communities, including violent gang members from around the world that resulted in the death of Americans, Americans like Jocelyn Nungaray, Americans like Laken Riley, Americans like Rachel Morin? I could go down the list of people who were killed, abused, assaulted, or harmed because a radical group of leftists decided that open borders for their political purposes was more important than your safety and security as Americans. Yes, I think we should have a select committee or an organized effort among the Judiciary Committee and the Oversight Committee to expose this network, to expose the funders, to expose the people who are doing this purposely to undermine your security as a nation. Yes, we should know that. The only question is why isn't every single Representative in this body standing up and saying: Yes, I agree? I agree with Vice President JD Vance and Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller. They put forward plans to go after leftist nongovernmental organizations in the wake of Charlie Kirk's murder. The Vice President said: We are going to go after the NGO networks that foment, facilitate, and engage in violence. We are going to channel all the anger that we have over the organized campaign that led to this assassination to uproot and dismantle these terrorist networks. The Vice President is correct. My friend, Stephen Miller, is correct. The President is correct to be declaring antifa a terrorist organization. Enough is enough. Enough with the disruption of our Nation. For those who say this is somehow clamping down on speech: Wrong. You can say virtually anything you want to say in this country, but number one, there is consequences to that, including getting fired and having television shows canceled because there is a limit to what a society should have to take. If you are going to say crazy things, then there can be a consequence to saying those crazy things. That is okay. No, it is not interfering with your First Amendment rights to say that you cannot engage in effecting a conspiracy to foment violence-- including, by the way, the riots in 2020--in the false name of supposedly healing racial division or in the name of certain lives mattering because we want to divide our country further. Organizations funded for a specific purpose, to create instability and to undermine our way of life and our freedoms, should be investigated. Leftwing groups that are providing material support to that kind of violence should be investigated. They say, ``Chip, why just leftwing groups? Why not rightwing groups?'' Fine. Go look at any groups fomenting said violence. All I know is, in the wake of Charlie Kirk getting shot, I didn't see the streets around this country burning. I didn't see people's businesses and livelihoods getting looted, destroyed, and burned, from Minneapolis to California to our Nation's Capital. I didn't see statues getting toppled and tossed into water. I didn't see spray-painting and destruction of public monuments and statues. What I saw was prayer. What I saw was people coming together in defense of their collective belief in God and their belief in this country, but willing to not just say we need unity for the sake of it. I am tired of that. I am tired of this nonsense where they say, ``Come together. We must unite. We need unity.'' Unity for what? Unity under what? Unity under a Constitution, under a flag, and under God, yes. In defense of a country with shared values, yes. Not unity for the sake of it, not turning the other cheek to a lawless bunch of organizations designed to take down and destroy our way of life and our country, to undermine our faith, undermine our country, undermine our freedoms, because that is what we see. You have to be blind to ignore it, and you have to be willful in that blindness to ignore the conspiracy and coordination to dismantle so much of what made this country great, to target institutions of faith; to target people for their conservative views and beliefs; to destabilize our society; to put criminals on the streets; to import people from around the world with criminal backgrounds and gang members for your own crass political purposes, to try to pack your districts and try to expand your voter base. It is not working because this administration and those of us who have stood up to fight and expose this are seeing to it that we are removing people from this country who should be removed, securing the border so that people aren't flowing across it, standing with law enforcement, securing our communities, backing the blue, restoring safety and security, not just in our Nation's Capital but around the country, making this country a place where you can achieve the American Dream again, but only if we are willing to take on these organizations that are still causing the lawless to be walking among us. That resulted directly in the death of a Ukrainian refugee who thought she could live the American Dream. It was taken away from her because people were purposely put on the street who are dangerous. There is no other way to look at that. That is literally what happened. I know that there is going to be a lot more conversation and speeches about Charlie coming up, but I will close with this. In a 1981 speech, which is hard to believe was almost 45 years ago, President Reagan declared liberal pro-criminal policies rooted in ``utopian presumptions about human nature.'' ``For all our science and sophistication, for all our justified pride in intellectual accomplishment, we must never forget the jungle is always there waiting to take us over.'' He observed that the liberal belief that criminal justice is solely for rehabilitation instead of incapacitation and deterrence is rooted in ``a belief that there was nothing permanent or absolute about any man's nature . . . and that by changing his environment, we could permanently change man and usher in a great new era.'' President Reagan was right. There is a place appropriately for forgiveness and rehabilitation, but there is not a place for allowing the rampant, lawless, and dangerous to be walking among our families and our communities, and our borders to be wide open to endanger our societies for this crazy notion of some utopian nonsense or, worse yet, a purposeful use of this tool for political purposes. I applaud the President for what he is doing for trying to secure our country. I call on my colleagues to band together to expose to the American people these organized efforts that are undermining our security and our way of life--targeted specifically at us. It is high time that we expose it. It is high time that we do something about it. If we learned anything from what we saw unfold that resulted in the murder of Charlie, it is that we go find the people that are just as guilty as the young man that pulled that trigger, the people who are just as guilty because they created that environment. They fomented the radicalization and the creation of an environment where that occurred knowingly, knowingly destabilizing our society in the process.

Mr. ROY

Mr. ROY. Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentleman from New York. I am proud to work with him and others of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle and to stand for a simple proposition that, 23 years after this Chamber authorized force, at a time when most of the Members who did so aren't even here, at a time when numerous facts have changed, after Saddam Hussein was captured in 2003 and was executed in 2006, when troops were withdrawn and the hostilities were over in 2011, and then we went back in--regarding ISIS--and then out by 2021, that we should not be operating under a 23-year-old authorization of the use of military force. We can do better than that. We are not touching 2001. We are touching 2002 and 1991. Come on. Mr. Chair, we don't need to have Congress effectively, modern day, declaring war and leaving it in place for one-quarter of a freakin' century or, in this case, 34 years since 1991. We can do better. If we want to actually authorize force, we should deliberate, vote, and authorize force, but Article I has to mean something. Please support this amendment to end an endless authorization of force.

Mr. ROY

Mr. ROY. Madam Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity, as always, to be here in the House Chamber and try to be a voice for the people across this country. The people that I represent, of course, as does the Speaker and my colleagues, we each represent three-quarters of a million people, give or take, but we also try to be a voice for everybody. We try to be a voice for the people who don't have a voice. The people that I represent and the people across this country that I talk to are sick and tired. They are sick and tired of being put in danger because radical, progressive Democrats, radical progressive politicians, radical progressive judges, radical progressive district attorneys, radical progressive NGOs, George Soros, the people funding all of these entities are pushing criminals onto the streets of our country and causing harm to Americans, Americans who have been here for generations or Americans who came here seeking refugee from, for example, Ukraine. How many of my colleagues come to the floor of the House wearing a blue and yellow ribbon or a blue and yellow pin? They wear it for show, and they wear it to pat themselves on the back. They wear it to seem like they are the ones with a heart when other people question whether we should fund endless war. They wear it to say that they care. But where were they when Iryna Zartuska was being brutally stabbed in public transit in North Carolina? Where is the media who were outraged when Daniel Penny, a marine, stopped a violent offender on a New York subway and then was the one being charged and prosecuted for a crime? What if Iryna Zartuska had Daniel Penny sitting next to her so that she wouldn't have lost her life? As a refugee from Ukraine, she was coming to supposedly the freest and strongest and greatest country on Earth. She was brutally murdered because feel-good radical liberals with their jailbreak, let-all-the-criminals-out, open borders, take money from George Soros, DAs, and judges put these criminals on the streets. You have a guy who was a 14-time offender, 14-time offender sitting behind this beautiful girl, and he just stabs her to death on a train car. Where is all the wailing and the gnashing of teeth from my colleagues on the other side of the aisle? Where are their blue and yellow ribbons today? All the sanctimonious preaching sure is silent because they can't bear to acknowledge that if you don't enforce the law, if you invite criminals from around the world into our country with open borders, if you let criminals on our streets with foolish policies by radical judges and district attorneys, then, as my friend from Louisiana knows as a former law enforcement officer, our streets are no longer safe and the American Dream is no longer able to be achieved. The freedom we are supposed to enjoy is not possible without the security you are supposed to have under the rule of law. We used a lot of big words from the Declaration of Independence all the way through today. We talk about a lot of great words: ``equal justice under the law,'' ``liberty,'' ``rights,'' ``freedom,'' but if you don't have the rule of law, none of it matters. The reason people come to the United States, the reason they flock to our country from around the world, is because of the rule of law. Enforcing our constitutional rights, given to us by God, recognized by our Founders, defended with the blood of patriots, but enforced under the law. They come here knowing they can invest their capital, build a business, and not have it taken away by the State. They know that they can walk the streets freely, or they think that they can walk the streets freely, and not be assaulted. They believe that they can raise a family, grow and develop a community, and live the American Dream that they have seen play out. They want to come here, but then when people with their fake ribbons and their feel-good propaganda let criminals on the streets, ignore the rule of law, and walk away from the men and women in blue as they did in the summer of 2020 when our cities were burning and our law enforcement were being attacked, when they defunded the police in Austin, Texas, as the radical city council did there, then real people suffer. Americans get hurt, and the American Dream dies. The suspect that I talked about with the brutal stabbing in North Carolina was 34 years old with a history of mental illness and a long rap sheet: multiple convictions for armed robbery, felony larceny, breaking and entering; more than 5 years in prison; and 14 criminal cases. His own family had warned of his history of schizophrenia. His own sister said that ``he didn't seem like himself,'' when he was released from prison. He assaulted his sister, and now that guy is roaming the public. His release from this incident was conditioned on a written promise that he would appear for his next hearing, only for him to be charged with murdering this young woman. Why would North Carolina officeholders, politicians, and judges not confine or institutionalize this young man? Because a radical ideology has taken root, particularly in my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, but my colleagues on this side of the aisle are not immune to the belief that you can put criminals on the street and not undermine the American Dream. The so-called progressive prosecutor movement advocates for less incarceration and less policing: decarceration, procriminal policies that undermine public safety. On January 22, 2025, San Antonio Police Department officers responded to calls at a San Antonio apartment complex reporting a suicidal individual who was armed and firing his weapon. When officers arrived, the suspect, Brandon Scott Poulos, fired upon the officers, striking one of them in the leg. Poulos wound up barricading himself in an hours-long standoff and shot an additional six officers before San Antonio PD neutralized the situation. Thankfully, all seven officers survived. He was a 46-year-old with a history of erratic behavior. He was charged with DWI and assault. A few days before the shooting, he had been arrested for two charges of injury to an elderly person; one charge of assault, family violence causing bodily injury; and one charge of driving while intoxicated. The Bexar County Magistrate's Office--Bexar County is where San Antonio is--issued a protective order against Poulos with instructions not to contact the family members. Three days later and less than 24 hours before the January 22 shooting of seven San Antonio cops, Poulos violated his protective order by visiting a prohibited residence and threatening to kill himself and to shoot at any officer. The Bexar County D.A. in San Antonio, led by a progressive prosecutor, has imposed criminal leniency initiatives that have not only put law-abiding Americans in danger but also police officers, too. The fact is, we are letting the inmates not just run the asylum, but letting the inmates run our communities. Then, under the Biden administration, we are inviting other countries to dump their prisons out into our communities. The radical progressives who allowed that to happen, supported it, and encouraged it are now attacking President Trump for daring to undo the damage, reverse the open borders and secure them, and then try to remove the dangerous criminals who are walking the streets of the United States because of the radical progressives and their open-border policies. I know my friend from Louisiana has a lifetime of service, not just as a Congressman, but also in law enforcement. I wonder if my brother from Louisiana would like to expand upon my thesis that the rule of law is the central element of a strong and prosperous United States and that when our radical progressive friends undermine it by releasing criminals, leaving our borders open, refusing to enforce the law, and handing down light sentences, it endangers our people and undermines the very American Dream that people seek to achieve when they come to our land. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. Higgins), my friend.

Mr. ROY. Mr. Speaker, I would like to see if my friend from Louisiana can stick around a little bit longer.

Mr. ROY. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate my friend from Louisiana because of his long history of distinguished service, and he knows what he is talking about. I know that the gentleman from Louisiana came to my home State of Texas when the people that I represent were ravaged by the floods that affected our community in Kerrville, Texas, the gentleman dropped what he was doing to come up and help when we were in the search and in the rescue. I just want to say to the gentleman, as a representative of the thousands of people who came to our State to try to help at a time when our people were hurting, but also people around the Nation were affected because of what happened to the camps--that I am proud to represent and that we will rebuild and that we will have going forward to have these wonderful children be able to learn the gospel and spread the gospel and become lights into the world. I know that my friend from Louisiana would allow us to indulge a favor to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Carter) to have a 1-minute remark about something that is important to him, but I wanted to take a moment to share my prayerful solidarity with my brother from Georgia because he had a family member, a young girl who was unfortunately lost in that terrible flood, and I bring that up because we were all affected by it. We had so many loved ones who were impacted, but the faith of that community and the faith of the people in this Nation and the faith of the people in Texas who have come together under the cross that stands up on that hill in Kerrville and the people who have generously contributed now $150 million and counting that are going in to help those people, and the first responders who showed up on the scene and the people like my friend and the former sheriff, my buddy from Louisiana, who dropped everything to come up represents all that is good and great about this great Nation, who show up to help each other when we need to. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Carter) for a different topic, but I wanted to tell him how much my family has been praying for him and all the families affected. Honoring Judith Jurgensen Melroy

Mr. ROY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Georgia. Mr. Speaker, since we are talking about the rule of law, I will not regale you with stories of my misspent youth on St. Patrick's Day in his fair city of Savannah. I will say that earlier my friend from Louisiana was talking about the importance of the rule of law. We were talking about the context of criminals being let out prematurely, not giving them the ability to actually come to a place where they can again interact with society. We can talk about the mix with mind-altering drugs. We can talk about the misdiagnoses. We can talk about all of the things that we can and should do better. I know that my friend from Louisiana, a devout Catholic, a devout believer in the healing power and the grace of our Saviour, I know that he, like I, believe in the power of forgiveness and being able to work to rehabilitate and that we are called to do that. However, that is not an excuse for irresponsibly, programmatically, and politically putting individuals on the street who have no business being there. In that same vein, I know that my friend from Louisiana is a staunch believer in a secure border, as most Americans are. I want to make a couple of points and see what the gentleman thinks. So when you look at the damage that was being done by the previous administration, not as most people think, by just ignoring the border and letting people get in, but rather encouraging and purposefully pulling people into the United States by virtue of the misapplication, misinterpretation, and straight-out disregard of the law to abuse our compassionate parole and asylum policies meant and reserved for those in dire need of protection from political persecution and other areas defined in the law for special purposes. For instance, you might be granted parole to care for a sick loved one legally in the United States. You might be granted some specific purpose for that one individual because we are a compassionate Nation. Our colleagues on the other side of the aisle, led by the previous President, led by the previous Secretary, led by the previous Vice President, purposely bastardized the law for political purposes, endangering children who were raped on the journey, using this human chattel callously for political purposes, flooding our communities with criminals from other countries. Now, the President of the United States who ran on reversing that is doing so, and President Trump, Steve Miller, Tom Homan, Secretary Noem, the brave men and women of ICE, the brave men and women of Border Patrol, all of our law enforcement should be roundly commended for doing their job. I can tell you the relief of those great men and women to have a President and a Secretary that has their back and that believes in them and has allowed them to carry out their mission under the law, rather than accusing them of whipping someone they fully knew did not happen. It is a new day in America where the flow across the border is statistically zero, as it should be, compared to the millions that flowed in for 4 years under Joe Biden. The Trump administration has, to the best of my understanding, arrested some 359,000 individuals for removal in the first 7 months of this administration, 70 percent of whom had pending criminal charges or convictions contrary to the allegations of our colleagues on the other side of the aisle. Why are our colleagues on the other side of the aisle protesting the removal of murderers, sex offenders, drug traffickers, child abusers, gun criminals, gang members threatening our communities, killing our citizens like Jocelyn Nungaray or Rachel Moran, Laken Riley? For the other 30 percent, they are illegal aliens who broke our immigration laws. They literally broke our laws. I know that the gentleman from Louisiana feels so strongly that we should back up our law enforcement community that he raised a privileged matter on the floor of the House involving one of our colleagues on the other side of the aisle who has been indicted for interfering with law enforcement, and not just interfering with law enforcement, interfering with ICE, the law enforcement personnel which she is charged with overseeing in her service on the Committee on Homeland Security. I know the gentleman rightfully brought that matter before the House. My colleagues will continue to address that matter in the future. I wonder if the gentleman could speak to the importance--to this body and our leaders of this country, the 435 people in this Chamber, the 100 on the other side of the building, the President, and the people who report to him, the judges in the Supreme Court and throughout our courts in the country--the importance of enforcing the law, of standing alongside, not blindly, but standing alongside our law enforcement community to protect the rule of law that he so artfully described with respect to our jails and the enforcement of laws in our communities, but also to enforce our border in concert with local law enforcement and how important it is that we stand alongside them, that we stand up and hold ourselves accountable for doing that work and the proper oversight and the proper leadership to secure our Nation. I yield to the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. Higgins), my good friend.

Mr. ROY. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend from (Louisiana) Mr. Higgins. Mr. Speaker, I want to put a name and a face on the environment that was created by our colleagues and by the previous administration in endangering people. We talk about: Say his name. Say the name of Jimmy Friesenhahn. In San Antonio, a father of a young daughter, a veteran of the Marine Corps, Jimmy fell victim to the pro-criminal policies and the open border that my friend from Louisiana just described. On May 4, 2025, a mere 4 months ago, he was working as a security guard at a restaurant on the west side of San Antonio. The perpetrator, Wilmer Vladimir Ruiz-Ortega, attempted to enter the bar. He was stopped by Jimmy to be searched for contraband. Jimmy identified a handgun. It led to a struggle, which resulted in the suspect gaining control of it, firing it, and striking Jimmy at least once. Jimmy medically died on the scene but was revived. It struck him in the neck, leaving him with a spinal injury, along with a ruptured esophagus and vocal cords. He was in the ICU at San Antonio Military Medical Center with life- threatening injuries for months. Doctors say he will never fully recover. The suspect is a 29-year-old illegal alien who entered the United States as a got-away. He was arrested in San Antonio and charged with a DWI in 2020. He was let go on a personal reconnaissance bond but failed to show up. The Bexar County DA downgraded the DWI. He pled guilty to obstructing a passageway, but he violated the probation. He got arrested again. He was let go after posting a bond of $1,500. He failed to show up. He was arrested a fourth time in November of 2024. He was sentenced to time served. He assaulted a girlfriend and fled the scene. After shooting Jimmy, then the Bexar County DA only pursued aggravated assault charges and set his bond at $200,000. He is not in jail. He was granted house arrest. Jimmy was a father and a veteran. His brother said Jimmy always put himself before others. Why do the people entrusted with securing our communities and enforcing the law not put Jimmy before the illegal alien who shouldn't have been here, should have been removed, and shouldn't have been let out five times to carry out and perpetrate this kind of crime? The American people are asking: What happened? What happened to our country? As far as a refugee from Ukraine, do you remember when our colleagues waved all the Ukrainian flags on the House floor?

Mr. ROY. Where were they today, Mr. Speaker? Were they waving the Ukrainian flag to honor that young girl who was brutally murdered by a criminal released by a radical progressive funded by radical progressives? They are nowhere to be found. They are MIA. The legacy media, also run by radical progressives, can't even bring it up. They can't even put it on the television. They don't dare to talk about it because it doesn't fit the narrative. The American people are sick of having their way of life that their forefathers fought, bled, and died for, and that their brothers, sisters, moms, and dads worked to build for them and to pass down to their kids, ripped to shreds by people who don't give a rip about the rule of law, the Constitution, or our way of life as God-fearing Americans who say that we put our trust in God right above the flag that those brave men and women wore into combat so that we could be here and live supposedly free. We are unable to live free because we are not secure. We are not secure because radical politicians, judges, and NGOs are working furiously for political gain and political purposes to advance a radical Marxist ideology to undermine our security. It is a war on our way of life. It is a war on Western civilization itself. It is a war on the Constitution and the rule of law. Every day that goes by is another day in which the very things that built this country are under assault, including, I might add, and in no doubt controversially, our belief in the Almighty God and His Son punished for our transgressions on the cross and our collective belief in Him as a nation that built this country. This country and too many of its citizens have turned their backs on that truth. The fact is, and the last point I will make, is that those radical progressives with their remaking of America with wide-open borders--and open borders include unfettered visas from all corners of the world--is purposely driven for economic, political, and other purposes, but usually involving the buck and power. There are people who are advancing sharia law and advancing an Islamist political worldview directly and purposely in conflict with our Western values and our Constitution. It is a declaration of war on our way of life. In Houston, just this weekend, an imam affiliated with the Nation of Islam was going around claiming to be patrolling Muslim-owned shops, telling them to stop selling alcohol and lottery tickets because they violate Islamic law. As communities in Texas are built upon large pieces of land, hundreds of acres, they are building up Muslim-only cities. This is purposeful. We had Nigel Farage and others testifying in the Judiciary Committee this past week. I asked Mr. Farage if the advance of Islam and the importation of sharia law are consistent with Western civilization, the Western civilization responsible for providing more peace, more prosperity, better living conditions, and more freedom for more people than the world has ever seen. His answer was, of course, no, it is not. Our friends across the pond can barely find themselves able to defend what little free speech remains on their island. A comic, a comedian, came to the United States and made a joke about transgenderism. I don't even know what the joke was. He flies home to the U.K. and is arrested for hate speech even as the Parliament is advancing an Islamophobia bill, to which I ask: Who is going to win that war? Who is going to win that fight? We either believe and uphold the values of Western civilization or we don't. Mr. Speaker, you can believe what you want. You can believe in God or not. You can go to church or not. What you cannot do is advance a radical ideology deeply at odds, directly in conflict, and purely designed to undermine the very values that have built this Nation and the advance of freedom around the world because, at our core, our values are built on our faith. This Nation is more likely to crumble under its own weight, its own errors, than it is by invasion unless we meet the moment, unless we stand up, and unless we say never again. Never again will we allow the power of government to be rained down upon the American people with mandates of masks and vaccines in the name of fear and in the name of healthcare. Never again will we allow open borders to trample our community, endanger our citizens, and filter dangerous narcotics into our communities. Never again will we allow the Chinese Communist Party to buy up our lands, our meatpacking facilities, and our critical medical production companies. Never again will we allow our communities to get overrun with forced Marxist, DEI, and critical race theory ideology that undermines the very fabric of our community. Never again will we allow the lawless and dangerous criminals to be on the streets because a faraway judge or bureaucrat getting paid off by an NGO says so. Never again. Never again. This moment of reprieve and this moment of common sense in which President Trump is restoring a modicum of what we need to restore the rule of law and secure borders and enforcement of the law and removal of criminals is meeting resistance at every turn. Even this moment of reprieve in which the President, President Trump, is restoring common sense by eliminating DEI, CRT, and all this stuff in our agencies and our Pentagon, even this moment of reprieve is just that, a moment of reprieve from the march of the Marxist, tyrannical ideology that is deeply at odds with our founding principles and who we are as a Judeo- Christian nation and as people who believe in something bigger and better for our kids and grandkids that is rooted in the sacrifice of the millions who came before us. This reprieve must be met with the energy and the resolve of those who died before us: the men of the Alamo, the men who stormed the beaches of Normandy, the men on the fields of Lexington and Concord, the men and women who have answered the call to defeat terror, the men and women in blue who actually stand on that thin blue line even when they are abandoned. All of those who have answered the call deserve Members of this body, Members of the Senate, elected leaders across the country to risk even an ounce of what those men and women are willing to risk. They must risk the election certificate upon which they hold like a death grip. I say to my colleagues: Do something bigger and better. Take this moment of reprieve and say never again. Never again will we endanger our citizens; never again with open borders; never again with criminals on our streets; never again with drugs; never again with tyrannical mandates, vaccines stuck in the arm; never again with radical ideology and transgender ideology politically motivated harming our young women, undermining their advancement; never again. Never again do we yield to the corporatists who gobble up our small businesses and undermine our way of life. Never again will we yield to ideology in the name of political expediency, but rather, stand up and defend this the greatest country that the world has ever known without which people will be relegated to a world without the American Dream backed by the security and safety of the people willing to lay it all on the line to defend it. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. ROY

Mr. ROY. Mr. Speaker, I move that the House do now adjourn.

Mr. ROY

Mr. ROY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairwoman for yielding. So here we are. Democrats couldn't seem to find a single thing to say about Epstein when President Biden was in office, but now they want to make this the centerpiece of their entire conversation. The fact of the matter is right now they know it is true, and right now what they don't want to do is have the American people focusing on the Republicans in Congress who are doing the thing they sent us here to do, which is end wasteful spending, to stop the ridiculous spending of a bureaucratic government that has been weaponized against the people. These are dollars that are being used and wasted and sent around the world for $32,000 for transgender comic books in Peru. That is how they want to use taxpayer money. We are over here trying to make sure we are saving that money instead of having $6 million to fund tourism in Egypt or $2 million for sex changes and LGBT activism in Guatemala. Why should the people of Texas be paying for that instead of paying to clean up the flood in Texas? The fact of the matter is the people of Texas want their money to be used for the things they care about. We have listened to the minority leader come to the floor and lecture us about the virtues of public radio and public broadcasting. Yet, nevertheless, the truth is it took NPR through Texas public radio 19 hours to post anything about the flooding on its social media pages after the floods hit in Texas. What was NPR and Texas public radio doing that morning? They weren't breaking to talk about what was happening in Texas. They were running ads saying people should call Congress to fund them, but the private stations in Texas were breaking to release reports and tell people what to do because that is what private stations can do. They can respond to the people because they are locally owned, they are locally run, and they are not run by bureaucrats from this town. The fact is, we are going to save money for the American people and end the absurdity of this leftist propaganda being put under public radio.

Mr. ROY

Mr. ROY. Mr. Speaker, I unfortunately missed one Roll Call vote due to travel delays. Had I been present, I would have voted NAY on Roll Call No. 191.

Mr. ROY

Mr. ROY. Mr. Speaker, I rise today mourning the loss of life in the State of Texas that touched profoundly everybody across this great country and so many people who are visiting this part of Texas. Obviously, we have been struck by the loss of life, particularly for those young girls associated with Camp Mystic. It has been grueling. It was a rough week. There has been a lot of destruction, and a lot of beautiful parts of our State have been destroyed, but we will rebuild. Here is the thing that I want to say. When people talk about destruction, what will not be destroyed is the spirit of the people of Texas; the spirit of the people that those camps represent; the spirit of the little girls who are already talking about wanting to go back; the spirit of the people associated with Dick Eastland, the camp director of Camp Mystic who gave his life trying to save those little girls; the spirit of Jane Ragsdale, who lost her life saving five little girls--her guitar was found down the Guadalupe River just yesterday; and the spirit of all the little girls who were riding in the bus as they left Camp Mystic, singing hymns and expressing their faith. They were looking at the destruction that they couldn't possibly comprehend as they left that camp, but they were still putting their faith in their Lord and their Savior. If there is anything we can take out of this, it is that sense of community, that sense of pride that we have in knowing that we will rebuild and that we will come together, and that sense that we know the power of the cross that stands on the hills over the city of Kerrville, the power of the faith of the people of Texas, and the power of the faith of the people of this Nation who have responded. Millions of dollars have come into the Community Foundation of the Texas Hill Country, $30 million last week, and I think that number is rising. I thank all the members here in this delegation. Most of them have reached out to me personally. To my friends and colleagues in this delegation: It is not just Kerr County. It is the State of Texas. Many of my colleagues have been affected across the State, but I thank them for their prayers and their well-wishes. Just know, Mr. Speaker, that their spirit endures. I cannot tell you how proud I am of the people of Texas, the people of Kerr County, Texas, and the first responders who are today back in the floodwaters, resuming the search for the missing. There are still over 100 missing in that part of our State. Mr. Speaker, I ask for a moment of silence.

Mr. ROY. Mr. Speaker, if I may, there are some little girls from Camp Mystic in the gallery, and I thank them for being here.

Mr. ROY

Mr. ROY. Mr. Speaker, earlier today here on the House floor, I rose to lead the Texas delegation, my friends, and this entire body in a moment of silence for all of those who have been affected by the floods in Texas, particularly those that were affected in the district in which I am proud to represent in central Texas. It has always been an honor, as I often say out on the campaign trail, to represent the best part of the best State in the best country in the history of the world. That particular part of the State is, as one of my staffers describe it, Heaven on Earth. At least that is how many of us have viewed it historically. For now a century, it is the reason why there have been multiple camps for children along this beautiful part of the Texas Hill Country, the centerpiece of which is the Guadalupe River. Those people who live along it cherish it. Those people who go there for camp cherish it. We have been experiencing the tragedy and the loss of life that now so many across the country have associated with it. I will turn time over to my colleagues because I have certainly been able to express a lot of my views about this. I want to say just a couple of things in kicking this off. I view things through the lens of the stories of heroism, the stories of courage, the lives that were saved, the people that were airlifted, the Coast Guard that responded, the sheriffs and the local law enforcement that showed up, the first responders that helped, the State that was on the scene, the camp counselors who showed up, the camp directors who gave their lives, all of the people who showed up and the spirit and the strong faith of a community bonded together by faith that now endures. That, to me, is the enduring legacy. I tend to look through that lens. From those of us who understand Texas best, I don't think we should miss this moment for the people of this Nation to understand how horrific this truly was. When I went on the scene--and several of us were there quickly for a variety of reasons, which we will all hear about in a minute. When I went on the scene on the night of July 4 and then again on the 5th and the 6th, and then driving out to go look at the damage and meet with my constituents and meet with people affected, it looked like an F5 tornado had just rolled down the river. Mr. Speaker, 100-year-old trees were leveled and flattened. Houses were totally destroyed and lifted off the foundation. There was debris. Pickup trucks were fully buried with a little part of them sticking out of the ground. Of course, as we have been talking about, there is the extraordinary loss of life. We are now at well over 100 individuals who are now deceased that are officially known in Kerr County, but many more are expected. There are well over 100 individuals who are missing. Of course, now somewhat of note for the entire country are these wonderful little girls associated with Camp Mystic. My children are 15 and 14. They are a rising sophomore and freshman. Many of their schoolmates and many of their friends go to Camp Mystic or go to Camp La Junta or one of the other wonderful camps up and down this area and this part of Texas. It is hard to put into words how much this is a part of the fabric of our community in central Texas but really particularly the entire State of Texas and even nationwide. Many of our colleagues were impacted by this. We have colleagues from Georgia and other colleagues across the entire Nation. I had colleagues from Alabama reach out because they had constituents who were lost. It is a wonderful vacation spot that was obviously turned on its head. The extraordinary impact is going to be felt for a long time, and we are going to have to rebuild. We will have to take the time and the energy necessary to do it. It is, as I believe, the spirit of the entire community that will endure. As I said earlier--and I will talk about more of this later--it is for me the enduring image of those little girls leaving the camp, singing hymns, while they surveyed the damage. It is the people who showed up with crosses and the people who showed up in prayer groups. It is the people who showed up from churches. They are the Samaritans and first volunteers who showed up within days to clean out mud and the people who have rallied around this community. They are the people across this country who have done so through faith and belief and the power of what these little girls represent and the charm bracelets that they wear. These bracelets were made by the local jewelry store, James Avery, which is a part of the rich history and tradition. I could go on, but my colleague from West Texas has personal experience with this because his family has been associated with these camps for generations. I am going to let my friend, Mr. Pfluger, fill in a little bit of the personal nature of this. I look forward to hearing from the remainder of my colleagues. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Pfluger).

Mr. ROY. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend from west Texas. I appreciate his sharing with the country and with all of us and our colleagues the testimony of his little girls and his family and their connection to Camp Mystic. He has been an extraordinary representative of Camp Mystic and those camps and has shown great leadership himself as we are all looking forward to finding ways to make sure that these camps rebuild. Mr. Speaker, before I recognize the next speaker from Texas, Coach Roger Williams, I want to note that our colleague, Buddy Carter, is in Dallas as we speak at the funeral of a little girl in his family. Buddy Carter represents Georgia down there in Savannah. His grandniece is being buried in Dallas-Fort Worth, and he is there with his family now. To show how far-reaching this was and how many people it touched, Buddy's granddaughter was also at Camp Mystic but survived. This is touching almost everybody in this Chamber in one way or another. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Williams), who is my esteemed coach and friend.

Mr. ROY. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend for his remarks. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Crenshaw), my friend from Houston and my congressional classmate.

Mr. ROY. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend from Houston and appreciate his sober remarks in recognition of so many heroic actions. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Self).

Mr. ROY. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend and appreciate his kind remarks. I am going to ask Judge Carter from my neighboring district just north of Austin to come deliver a few remarks. His district has also been directly impacted by flooding, and I am sure he will have something to say about that. Right before he begins, I do want to reiterate something that I believe Mr. Self referred to and maybe Mr. Crenshaw. That is our colleagues who have stepped up, guys like our friend Morgan Luttrell, who has not been in front of cameras. He has not been doing anything other than his training to do diving and looking for bodies in the river. Morgan is doing the hard work and joining in and stepping up. I believe his brother is with him and other great patriots who have joined that effort. There have been people from all over the country who have joined that effort. Our friend, Mr. Clay Higgins from Louisiana, came over. He engaged as a former sheriff who has training that was on point. We have had a lot of folks from our community step up to try to help, and I am deeply grateful. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Carter).

Mr. ROY. Mr. Speaker, I thank Judge Carter for his leadership and for representing his district so well and looking out for those impacted by the storms and the floods in his own area. I deeply appreciate his remarks. Mr. Speaker, next is a colleague of mine who is deeply familiar with storms and flooding because he represents the southeast part of the State of Texas, although that is a different kind of flooding typically. I want to personally offer my thanks and gratitude to my friend, Brian Babin. All of my colleagues have stepped up and called and offered support and help. In particular, I would say my friend, Mr. Babin, and his team have been there picking up phone calls from our office, helping out, doing whatever is needed, and offering guidance. They have experienced this kind of thing a little more often than we have, but we are deeply grateful. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Babin).

Mr. ROY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for his steadfast leadership and friendship. Thank you, brother. I appreciate you. Mr. Speaker, I am going to invite another friend of mine, no stranger to floods, from the southeast part of the State, my friend, Randy Weber. As the gentleman is coming up to the microphone, I point out the extent to which this delegation, I know, is grateful for the leadership of our Governor, Governor Abbott; the head of the Texas Department of Emergency Management, Nim Kidd; the countless individuals and public servants affiliated with the Department of Public Safety and its head, Freeman Martin; the folks who are associated with the Sheriff's Department in Kerr County and throughout the region, the other areas affected by floods. I can't name everybody. The city manager in Kerrville has done a fantastic job. We have just had so much fantastic leadership of people in the State of Texas stepping up and, as Brian said, so many volunteers from across the State. We continue to. We want to be very clear. All of this is current and present. The search continues. It continues today. They are engaged right now, and we are deeply appreciative for it. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Weber), my good friend.

Mr. ROY. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend Randy Weber for his leadership and his kind words. Mr. Speaker, I yield to Nathaniel Moran, who represents a good number of my family in east Texas and is just one of the great lights in our delegation, a good man and friend with whom I am very proud to serve.

Mr. ROY. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend from east Texas for his remarks. Mr. Speaker, while I wait for my friend Mr. Gill to come up to the microphone, I do want to note--because there has been so much unnecessary politicization of all this and finger pointing. I will have more to say about that in a minute, but I just will be very clear that on Friday, July Fourth, I called the President to tell him what was happening in the district that I represent, that I am proud to represent, the flooding and it was terrible, because we were going to have a bill signing that day. The President could not have been more gracious. He could not have offered more in terms of his willingness to act quickly. I called that same day over to the Secretary's office, Secretary Noem, and she got back to me within 15 minutes offering us anything we needed. She had folks on the ground. She moved quickly to get the Army Corps of Engineers activated, moved quickly to get fixed- wing aircraft mobilized--this is all prior to a disaster declaration-- and then had the boots on the ground ready to go when the disaster declaration was ready. There is a lot of stuff flying around, so let's be very clear. In a nonpolitical statement, but just the reality of what has happened, this administration was on the ground in the district that I represent helping people. I think that should be noted. I think that the record should be clear. The people that I represent are deeply grateful for it and are deeply proud to acknowledge it. Mr. Speaker, I yield to Brandon Gill, who represents the district in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex area and just a little North of that. I deeply appreciate his service as a freshman member of the delegation and his strong words of encouragement throughout this.