commonsense reforms, not only at the federal level but at the state and local level. now, without legislation, president biden has the ability only to mandate those sorts of reforms at the federal level. so the executive order, which the president signed a year ago tomorrow, mandated that the federal government also ban all choke holds, revives and restrict the use of force and implement policies across all the federal agencies to ensure that we do that, restrict no-knock warrants, mandate the use of body cameras, ensure that there is a federal law enforcement accountability database so that when there is police misconduct, that it is >> we'll leave this program to keep our more than 40-year commitment to live coverage of congress. continue watching at c-span.org as we take you live to the u.s. house here on c-span.

the chair: the house is in the committee of the whole house on the state of the union for further consideration of h.r. 467 which the clerk will report by title. the clerk: a bill to amend the controlled substances act with respect to the scheduling of fentanyl-related substances, and for other purposes. the chair: when the committee of the whole rose earlier today, a request for a recorded vote on amendment number 3 printed in house report 118-76 offered by the gentlewoman from colorado, ms. pettersen, had been postponed. the unfinished business is the request for a recorded vote on amendment number 3 printed in house report 118-76 by the gentlewoman from colorado, ms. pettersen, on which further proceedings were postponed and on which the noes prevailed by

voice vote. the clerk will redesignate the amendment. the clerk: amendment number 3 printed in house report 5/25, 10 a.m.

the chair: on this vote the yeas are -- the chair: on this vote the yeas are --

the chair: on this vote the yeas are 190. the nays are 233. the amendment is not adopted. there being no more further am amendments, under the rule, the committee has risen.

the speaker pro tempore: mr. chairman. the chair: mr. speaker, the committee of the whole house on the state of the union has had under consideration h.r. 467, and pursuant to house resolution 429, i report the bill, as amended, by that resolution back to the house with sundry further amendments adopted in the committee of the whole. the speaker pro tempore: the chair of the committee of the whole house on the state of the union has had under consideration the bill h.r. 467 and pursuant to house resolution 429 reports the bill, as amended, by the resolution back to the house with sundry further amendments adopted in the committee of the whole. under the rule, the previous question is ordered. is a separate vote demanded on

any further amendment reported from the committee of the whole? if not, the chair will put them en gros. the question is on the adoption of the amendments. those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. the ayes have it. the amendments are adopted. the question is on engrossment and third reading of the bill. those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. the ayes have it. third reading. the clerk: a bill to amend the controlled substances act with respect to the scheduling of fentanyl-related substances, and for other purposes. the speaker pro tempore: the question is on passage of the bill. those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. the ayes have it. the bill is passed. mr. pallone: mr. speaker. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman

from new jersey seek recognition? mr. pallone: i ask for the yeas and nays. the speaker pro tempore: the yeas and nays are requested. those favoring a vote by the yeas and nays will rise. a sufficient number having arisen, the yeas and nays are ordered. members will record their votes by electronic device. this is a five-minute vote. [captioning made possible by the national captioning institute, inc., in cooperation with the united states house of representatives. any use of the closed-captioned coverage of the house proceedings for political or commercial purposes is expressly prohibited by the u.s. house of representatives.]

the speaker pro tempore: on this vote the yeas are 289. the nays are 133. the bill is passed, without objection the motion to reconsider is laid upon the table. for what purpose does the gentleman from california seek recognition? >> mr. speaker, i ask unanimous consent that when the house adjourns today it adjourn until 2 p.m. tomorrow. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. for what purpose does the gentleman from illinois seek recognition? the house will be in order.

the house will be in order. the house will be in order. for what purpose does the gentleman from illinois seek recognition? mr. davis: mr. speaker, i ask unanimous consent to remove my name as a co-sponsor of h.r. 901. the speaker pro tempore: the request is granted. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentlewoman from ohio seek recognition? ms. kaptur: i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. the gentlewoman is recognized. ms. kaptur: madam speaker, i rise today along with our ohio

buckeye colleagues to solemnly honor a former colleague and well regarded ohio public servant, congressman tom sawyer from the city of akron. sadly, tom passed away this week, may 23, 2023, at 77 years of age after prolonged illness. our hearts and prayers go out to his beloved wife, joyce, cherished daughter, amanda, their family and friends and all people with whom tom worked and served. tom was a dedicated public servant, very dignified, steady, a measured and enlightened man. he attained many elected positions as the senior office holder serving in broad ranging capacities at the local, state, and national levels for 40 years. prior to congress, he was elected as a member of the ohio house of representatives. he was elected mayor of akron in

1938 and then elected to congress in 1987 serving eight -- 16 years for a total of eight terms until 2003. tom was passionate about education. very passionate. he dedicated his honorable service on behalf of the people of akron, ohio, and the american public at large. following his congressional service, he served on the ohio state board of education. then for nearly a decade more in the ohio senate. together let us celebrate the life of tom sawyer, honorable public servant, loyal son of ohio, and enlightened man with a fine mind. easy broad smile, and a mellow voice of servitude. please let me yield to our new ohio colleague from akron, ohio, congresswoman amelia sykes, to

share her recollections and words about her hometown predecessor, the honorable tom sawyer. mrs. sykes: thank you, congresswoman kaptur. today we honor a former member of this body, a lifelong servant to the people of akron, and summit county, my friend tom sawyer. he died this week following a long illness and i first want to extend my sincere and deepest sympathies to his wife and daughter and all who knew knew and loved him. in 1986 then city of akron mayor tom sawyer launched his campaign for congress. a constituent shared with me that my father was at that recognition -- at that announcement but had he to leave early to meet my mother who was at the hospital after she had just delivered me and we were on our way home. tom was the last person from akron to serve in this body of congress. i am honored to follow in his footsteps and his legacy as a member of congress from the city

of akron, the birthplace of champions, of course. tom was born and raised in our hometown of akron and he dedicated his life to our community through 50 years of service, including as an english teacher, mayor of akron, state representative, skate school board member, and congressperson serving in this chamber. a proud graduate of the university of akron he was a champion for our school system and made it his mission to ensure every student in northeast ohio has the access to high quality education and the opportunity to succeed. while we remember the ohio legislator, i had the opportunity to work alongside tom representing the city of akron and watched his commitment to the people of our community. he was a staunch advocate for medicaid expansion, our public schools, and ending partisan gerrymandering. in fact, tom and i were also neighbors. we lived on the same street. we served each other in congress. we were represented by two different members of congress.

i will sincerely miss my friend, my mentor, my neighbor a true dedicated public servant, tom sawyer. without a doubt former congressman sawyer left a mark on akron, the state of ohio, and this country. and his impact will always be felt in these halls and the city of akron and across the country. thank you. i yield back to the dean of the delegation, congresswoman kaptur. ms. kaptur: thank you. i now ask our house colleagues to join us in a moment of silence to remember our former colleague, tom sawyer. thank you very much.

ms. kaptur: madam speaker, i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the chair will now entertain requests for one-minute speeches. for what purpose does the gentleman from georgia seek recognition? mr. carter: ask quack to address the house for one minute. revise and extend. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. mr. carter: madam speaker, i ride today to recognize jewish american heritage month. the jewish american community has played a critical part in shaping american culture and history since the country's inception. the jewish community in my home district has strong roots going back all wait to when georgia was first founded as a colony.

in savannah, georgia, you can find the congre gaition -- congregation or the hope of israel one of the oldest synagogues in the united states and first one built in georgia historic communities like the hope of israel synagogue highlight the importance of jewish american communities in georgia's past as well as how they continue to impact georgia today. it is a pleasure to be able to honor the jewish american community that has such a big impact on both georgia and america's history. thank you, madam speaker. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentlewoman from massachusetts seek recognition? >> unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentlewoman is recognized for one minute. >> i am joined by over 80 of my democratic colleagues to say the quiet part out loud. maga republicans want us to default. they want to run out the clock. they want to lead our government

by chaos. by sending us home, by refusing to do their jobs they are making that crystal clear. ms. clark: unless we give in to devastating cuts, they will push us into a devastating default. it's the american people who will suffer. teachers, seniors, kids, families, veterans, the hungry, the sick. to my republican colleagues this memorial weekend, it is time to be a patriot. now is the time to sign our discharge petition and end this catastrophe in the making. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from new york seek recognition? >> i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. >> madam speaker, today i rise to honor a lifeline for the local latino community and executive director anna guzman,

who immigrated to the united states from exwith a door -- ecuador 33 years ago. born from a simple facebook group that translated school updates, they have evolved into a vital community resource serving thousands was food, clothes, language classes, workplace training, and critical classes on legal, financial, and immigration matters. just this past weekend i joined anna and community residents there to sell great the graduation of their home health aid program with over 30 people joining the ranks of this critical work force that helps our seniors age in place gracefully. mr. lawler: plan orange symbolizing home and energy, they stand as a beacon of resilience, incluescy ofity. i extend my heartfelt gratitude to them and anna for the relentless commitment to our community's welfare. thank you for making us a better place for all. i yield back.

the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from california seek recognition? >> unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. >> madam speaker, i rise today on behalf of the veterans, public schoolteachers, and seniors in my district. these are the hostages, the most extreme members of the republican conference have bragged about. we are object the verge of a republican-led default because people calling the shots in this chamber are the same people who want cuts to veterans health care and manufacturing jobs. these draconian cuts will have a direct impact on my community and the state of california. my district alone approximately 6900 jobs could be wiped out. social security payments for 58,000 families will be jeopardized. and the retirement savings for 81,000 people could disappear. in the state of california,

approximately 4 million people could lose health insurance. this is unacceptable and americans deserve better. house republicans need to drop their ransom note and come to their senses so we can avoid a devastating default. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. for what purpose does the gentlewoman from california seek recognition? >> mr. speaker, i rise to address the house for one minute. revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentlewoman is recognized for one minute. mrs. kim: thank you. i rise to honor the life of u.s. marine corps major megan mcclung from mission vijayo in my district. she was the first female marine officer to be killed in the iraq war. the first woman graduated from the u.s. naval academy to be killed in action. her head stone reads, be brave, be cold, be gone -- bold, be gone. she left us too soon, she had a

life well lived and made a lasting impact. if marines didn't know her, they knew of her. and she's an avid american runner and -- marathon runner and try at-leevment her personality, tenacity, and fiery red hair are represented by all. . s.

where are republicans? they have rushed out of town as america speeds towards economic catastrophe. why? because they know they have forced a dangerous and false choice on the american people. to either impose draconian and cruel cuts that will hurt american families, america's veterans, america's seniors or a devastating and catastrophic default. mr. speaker, this is an unacceptable choice. it's time for house republicans to get serious. house democrats are here united just as we were in the beginning of this year, just as we will be throughout this legislative congress to do the people's business. it is time for republicans to do the same. mr. speaker, i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from florida seek recognition?

>> madam speaker, i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one 5/25, 11 a.m. the gentleman is recognized for one minute. >> madam speaker, i rise today to commemorate the 77th anniversary of the hashemite kingdom of jordan's independence day. america and jordan have a long history of friendship and cooperation after establishing diplomatic relations in 1949. jordan plays a vital role in advancing peace, stability, and modern nation in the middle east. i had the honor of being flown by jordan's first-ever female military helicopter pilot and on that same visit, king abdullah graciously hosted our delegation and took us to the holy site where jesus was back advertised on the east bank of the jordan river. mr. waltz: jordan is a shining example of tolerance with hospitality between all religions. this visit was especially moving

that i will remember the best of my life. it's especially meaningful for me personally as i married into t a jordanian family. we look forward to returning to jordan soon to baptize our newborn son. i wish king abdullah and the jordanian people a happy independence day and remain committed to supporting the friendship and partnership between our two countries. thank you, madam speaker. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentlewoman from minnesota seek recognition? >> mr. speaker, i rise to address the house for one minute and to revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentlewoman is recognized for one minute. >> madam speaker, i rise today to call attention to house republicans' lack of good-faith negotiations to avoid the devastating default on our nation's debt. the congressional budget office shows that extending the trump tax cuts would add $3.5 trillion

to the deficit. ms. mccollum: yet, house republican leaders have introduced legislation to make these tax cuts for the rich permanent and increase the federal deficit. while at the same time they're holding our economy hostage by demanding disastrous cuts to funding, to air traffic and rail safety, and as we approach memorial day, republicans are breaking the promise to our veterans. president biden already lowered the deficit by $1.7 trillion. his budget would cut the deficit by another $3 trillion by eliminating wasteful spending on big oil and pharma. closing tax loopholes for the corporations, and ensuring everyone pays their fair share. house republicans created this crisis. they can prevent this devastating default. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from california seek recognition? >> madam speaker, i request unanimous consent to address the house for one minute and to

revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. >> madam speaker, i rise to thank this body for passing my bill, the streamlining aviation for eligible veterans act, or safe veterans act, as part of the vet-tec re-authorization bill that the house passed this week. this bill will make a meaningful contribution to allowing more of our veterans to receive vocational flight training and enter our nation's workforce as pilots following their service in our military. madam speaker, in 1980, over 2/3 of our nation's pilots were veterans. mr. obernolte, today, it's -- mr. obernolte: today, it's less than 30%. this bill will help us honor our commitment. i ask for passage in the senate and i thank this body for supporting it. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentlewoman from california seek recognition?

>> to address the house for one minute and to revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentlewoman is recognized for one minute. ms. pelosi: this weekend we'll have memorial to honor our fallen heroes. shamefully the republicans across the aisle will spend the weekend working to impose suffering on our valiant veterans. the republicans have forced americans down a treacherous path. either accept their extreme proposal, which would eliminate 30 million health visits for our veterans and slash revenues at the veterans administration. it would trigger a catastrophic default, which would force our nation to stiff veterans on the benefits they have earned. and that also applies to the effect it will have on america's middle class. all this for the republicans to pass another massive tax cut,

which they will do in a matter of weeks. that's their plan, to do it by the birthday of the chairman of the ways and means committee, june 16. trillions of dollars to the national debt at the suffering of our veterans. it's disgraceful. republicans must stay here, not skip time, honor the sacred duty of our veterans as we observe memorial day. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from utah seek recognition? >> madam speaker, i ask unanimous consent to address the floor for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. mr. owens: in the latest edition of best state rankings, utah is ranked top the nation. utah has pro-market policies, national spirit. at the forefront, booming technology and industry in my district and across our state. today, i want to recognize

roland christianen is, an engineer who has made a contribution to utah. from gunnison, he has built one of the most successful aerospace companies. it is a defense technology manufacturing leader supporting our troops are the latest technology to win on the battleground. this because of the leadership of roland christianen is and the highly skilled workforce of utah. thank you, roland, for keeping utah the best place to live, start a family and start a business. with that i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentlewoman from california seek recognition? >> ask for unanimous consent to address the house for one minute and to revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentlewoman is recognized for one minute. ms. lee: thank you. madam speaker, extreme maga republicans have manufactured a crisis and are now extorting the

american people with the terrible choice -- either they inflict cruel cuts that hurt everyday families or they're forcing or trying to force a devastating default on our debt. they're gambling with working people's livelihoods and the global economy, driving us to the brink of economic catastrophe. and all because they'd rather have working people bear the burden of these terrible cuts instead of making billionaires and big corporations pay their fair share in taxes. make no mistake, our constituents are watching. especially those in speaker mccarthy's district where 75,000 people would lose social security payments, 285,000 people's health care benefits would be at risk, and the retirement savings of 89,000 would be in jeopardy, not to mention the number of veterans who would lose their health care in speaker mccarthy's district. madam speaker, from day one, democrats have been the most responsible and the loudest voices in defending working families from republicans' extreme behavior.

we will continue to call out these games and hostage taking. we must pay our bills. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from california seek recognition? >> seek unanimous consent to address the house for one minute and to revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. mr. lamalfa: thank you, madam speaker. we're one week away from secretary yellen's hard default day of the june 1 deadline. house republicans have been calling on our colleagues on the other side of the aisle and the president to negotiate on this debt since january. it is now may 25. the past 140 days we've heard a lot of name-calling and little bipartisan negotiation. while this impasse has dragged on, house republicans passed legislation, the limit, save, grow act, that diverts default and reduces wasteful spending. let's negotiate from that point. we have a plan to avert default and eager to work with the president to work out a suitable compromise. but we'd rather hear a lot of stuff of name-calling and keep on printing and spending more money. indeed, it was pointed out, if

our plan goes through, it would mean a 20% cut in discretionary spending over just five months ago. so that must mean we increase spending by 20% in one fiscal year of digs kregsary -- discretionary spending. how many years can you increase spending by 20%? not one, two, five. 20% increase. how can we afford it going forward? it's incredible amazing that we think that is the route we should go and keep adding to our debt. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentlewoman from illinois seek recognition? ms. kelly: i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentlewoman is recognized for one minute. ms. kelly: madam speaker, it's an unfortunate reality that hypocrisy has become a guiding principle of the leadership of this body. three times, three times we raised the debt limit under the previous president. those three times the american

people never once had to worry that we would not pay our bills or their retirement was in danger. this is a manufactured crises by house republicans. an act of calculated cruelty that will put millions out of work and force families across the country to wonder where their next meal will come from. in my district, an estimated 95,600 households with social security checks are at risk. and my constituents are not alone. think of the people back home who elected you to represent their interest faithfully. it is no one's interest to manufacture an economic crisis. we can fix this crisis right now. all we need is five brave republicans. five republicans who care about veterans. five republicans who care about social security. five republicans who care about medicare. five republicans who care about our future. it's time to do our jobs. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman

from minnesota seek recognition? >> i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute and to revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. >> thank you, madam speaker. ben franklin said necessity never made a good bargain. necessity never made a good bargain. this is necessity. for the first time since 1789, our maga g.o.p. friends are putting us at risk for default. but we got a solution and it is sitting right here, right next to me. a discharge petition. and we only need five of you, but, madam speaker, i see about 80 of my democratic colleagues in front of me and i only see one republican. mr. filli spfshgs -- mr. phillips: come on, join us, we'll keep the lights on. but will you? i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from washington seek recognition? >> i ask unanimous consent to

address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. >> thank you, madam speaker. this is why the american people get frustrated with congress. they get frustrated when folks here play politics. they get frustrated when there are unnecessary crises created. rather than vote to pay our bills, as would stun three times under the last president, my colleagues on the other side of the aisle have us on a path to a disastrous default. mr. kilmer: that is unless this body agrees to gut programs that working families in my state depend on. the american people get frustrated when these issues are treated like a game. and when our constituents are the ones who lose. 4,00 kids who will lose -- 4,800 kids who will lose access to preschool and childcare. women and infants and kids will lose help with school.

89,000 college students who will see their costs go up. i don't say this in a participate way. these are just facts. the cuts proposed by my republican colleagues would cut food safety and vital support to families across our state. that's not a good idea. we can do better. we should do better. i yield back. . the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from hawaii -- sorry. the heament hawaii seek recognition? miss tokuda: i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. .a. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentlewoman is recognized for one minute. ms. tokuda: in seven days our country will face one of the greatest self-inflicted threats to national security in our lifetime. in seven days our country faces default while house republicans continue to play partisan politics, political games with the debt limit. in these chambers we talk a lot about keeping americans safe. strategic competition, and

national security. we point a finger at foreign threats and international bad actors, let us be clear. the biggest threat to american lives and livelihoods is house republicans holding everyday americans hostage for partisan political gains. if we as a congress are serious about ensuring national security, then we must stand up against this house republican manufactured crisis. we must do the right thing. invest in our country. and recognize that financial security is national security. health security is national security. food security is national security. housing security is national security. people security is national security. i will not -- the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady's time has expired. ms. tokuda: our veterans or our seniors and know this as democrats we'll continue to do the right thing. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady's time has expired. for what purpose does the gentleman from california seek recognition? >> unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without

objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. >> madam speaker, i rise today in opposition to house republicans' holding our economy hostage and planning to slash billions of dollars from veterans services and benefits in return for maintaining the full faith and credit of the united states. republicans are delivering a one-two punch to veterans. first, they are de-- their default on america act will slash $30 billion from veteran services. eliminate housing vouchers for 50,000 homeless veterans. and cut 81,000 jobs from the veterans health administration. they can say whatever they want, but this is what they voted for. second, the republicans just release add bill to cut the health care funding we promised to toxic exposed veterans in the pact act. how about instead of cuts to veteran services and benefits we reduce our deficit by ending tax loopholes for the ultrawealthy and by ensuring the largest corporations pay their fair share. house democrats are united in opposition to republicans' veterans funding cuts. we will not go back on the

progress we have made. mr. levin: as we head into this memorial day weekend, we must do better. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. mr. levin: keep our promises to our veterans. thank you. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from north carolina seek recognition? >> madam speaker, ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. >> madam speaker, we are the most powerful country, and we are less than a week away from defaulting on our debt. we should all be outraged and we should all be here. constituents in north carolina's 1st congressional district will feel the impact immediately and long term. as we default.

mr. davis: north carolina's 1st congressional district has over 174,000 residents who would lose social security payments. and nearly 50,000 veterans, our heroes, who protect our communities and defend our freedoms. payments will be slashed. as we prepare to honor those who died in military service, the best way that we can help -- the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. mr. davis: those that they served with is by congress fulfilling its obligation to pay its bills. thank you, madam speaker. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentlewoman from florida seek recognition? without objection, the gentlewoman is recognized for one minute. >> i rise today to express my

concern with maga republicans' ransom plan which threatens access to snap and federal food assistance programs that prevent families from going hungry every single day. too often households across the country find it difficult to put food on the stables. mrs. cherfilus-mccormick: snap has been and remains a vital mechanism to alleviate this hardship. it provide relief for more than 42 million people each year. we are talking about 42 million americans who would go hungry if this program were to be put on the chopping block. but my colleagues on the other side of the aisle have no problem cutting food assistance program. for extreme republicans what they deem to be fiscally responsible text precedent over addressing food insecurity. it takes precedent over addressing poverty. i stand firmly against republicans' heartless attempt to slash food assistance programs. democrats -- do not play partisan politics. it's time for washington to work with american families. madam speaker, i yield back.

the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentlewoman from massachusetts seek recognition? >> i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentlewoman is recognized for one minute. >> thank you, madam speaker. miss qulark: the debt crisis we are facing as a nation right now is a manufactured one. extreme republicans are holding the livelihoods, bank accounts of hardworking families hostage. you don't have to take my word for it. this week one of the most far right tv loving members of this chamber said he doesn't feel like they should negotiate with their hostage. that's a quote. what's the ransom they are demanding? gutting the critical programs that those same families depend on to make ends meet. it's disgraceful to tell parents working two jobs their food assistance is being cut because republicans are helping millionaires cheat on their taxes. it's shameful to tell a veteran that his rental assistance stopped because the g.o.p. doesn't want million dollar corporations paying their fair share. mrs. trahan: we can end this

manufactured crisis today, madam speaker. all it takes is five sensible, five responsible republicans to turn their car around and join us and in-this discharge petition for a clean debt limit. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentlewoman from california seek recognition? >> unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentlewoman is recognized for one minute. >> i rise today outraged that extremist republicans continue to play games, political theater, with americans' livelihoods. extreme republicans, the hottage takers, are threatening -- hostage takers are threatening to crash our economy unless congress cuts programs people rely on. defaulting on the debt could delay social security and medical benefits for 6.9 million seniors in california alone. alicia, a constituent from

upland, recently reached out to my office concerned about her social security benefits. alicia, like many other seniors, are the victims of extreme republicans. alicia played into social security her entire life. ms. kamlager-dove .: with the promise she would be able to retire with dignity. she deserves better. the inland empire deserves better. and americans deserve better. if there are any reasonable members left in this republican majority, it is time for them to do the right thing. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady's time has expired. for what purpose does the gentlewoman from virginia seek recognition? >> i request unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentlewoman is recognized for one minute. >> madam speaker, we are seven days from a debt default that would spell economic catastrophe for hardworking americans and virginians.

mrs. mcclellan: we are in a hostage taking situation where maga republicans don't want to negotiate with the hostage. it's not house democrats being held hostage. as you heard from my democratic colleagues, it's the american people. but it's also our state governments. last week senate budget analysts outlined when a default would mean for the commonwealth of virginia which has a very large federal footprint. it would be catastrophic. it would have a devastating impact on state budget and funding for school, health care, roads, public safety, broadband, affordable housing. an extended default could cost the commonwealth nearly 200,000 jobs, slash payrolls by 4.7%. and put the state economy into a recession as well as the american economy. a default jeopardizes medicaid reimbursements to hospitals, federal grants awarded in the commonwealth and 4,000 federally funded state employees -- the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady's time has expired. mrs. mcclellan: it is time to

raise the debt ceiling. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from rhode island seek recognition? without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. mr. magger: -- mr. magaziner: madam speaker, i rise to express my outrage at the extreme maga republicans in this house who are fighting to take food out of the mouths of children, medicine out of the hands of seniors. and relief out of the pockets of working people all to fund their tax cuts for the billionaires and corporations that fund their campaigns. make no mistake. that is what this entire republican manufactured debt crisis is about. it's not about cutting spending. if it was about cutting spending, they would support president biden's plan to cut $900 billion from the deficit by negotiating with the drug companies for medicare and medicaid.

no, they don't want to upset their big pharma donors. it's not about avoiding default. if it was about avoiding default, they would sign the discharge petition and end it today. this is about one thing and one thing only. taking money out of the pockets of the working people who i represent and putting it in the pockets of the millionaires, billionaires, and corporations. these reverse robin hoods on the republican side who seek to steal from the working people to benefit the rich need to stop this craziness and end this thing today. with that i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from illinois seek recognition? >> to address the house for one minute. revise and extend. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. >> thank you, madam speaker. the obvious solution to this threat to our economy is for the u.s. to join the rest of the world and simply repeal the debt limit. million foster: house -- mr. foster: house republicans

want to bring debt negotiations into the discussion. both parties agree the default is unacceptable. our national debt must be dealt with. and there are two basic ways to do this. first, by cutting tax breaks that allow billionaires to pay lower taxes than middle class americans. or by cutting programs that help ordinary americans. retirees, veterans, students, or just families trying to get their kids through school. but as long as republicans insist that the only thing that they will consider is to solve this problem 100% on the backs of the middle class and zero percent on the backs of the billionaires who fund their campaigns. then they are not negotiating. that refusal is putting our economy at risk. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from new jersey seek recognition? >> unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute.

>> madam speaker, i rise today to discuss speaker mccarthy's irresponsibility with the debt ceiling negotiations. mr. payne: it is very dangerous to play games with the american economy. while speaker mccarthy haggles over the debt ceiling, millions of americans are wondering if they are going to have a job after next week. the stock market is wondering if it's going into -- lean into a recession or depression. speaker mccarthy does not feel these concerns are important. he thinks they can wait. but they cannot wait. america's bills are coming due. and now we need to pay them and pay them now. this is not the time to relax and enjoy the weekend like speaker mccarthy wants to do. this is a time to roll up our sleeves and do the work we were

elected to do. increase the debt ceiling to help americans nationwide. and ladies and gentlemen, of the mesh public -- american public, i hope you're watching this because this will be a moment when your benefits will be cut. veterans -- the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. mr. payne: remember who was not here on this day. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentlewoman from california seek recognition? >> i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentlewoman is recognized for one minute. >> i rise to urge my republican colleagues.

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these are cuts they can't get on the merits. laying off firefighters and air traffic controllers. stopping payments to nursing homes. instead, they threaten default which could cause a worldwide economy. cuts to regular americans. millions of jobs lost. we would lose our preeminent spot in the world economy, china and russia would win 40% of all accumulated debt happened in the trump years. we can get our fiscal house in order but not the way these radicals have proposed. we need to do our job and end this self-imposed threat of chaos. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentlewoman from north carolina seek recognition? >> i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute

and revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentlewoman is recognized. >> republicans are refusing to raise the debt ceiling, manufacturing a crisis to push their extreme agenda. they are ready to allow our government to default on its debt for the first time in our history. even though republicans raised the debt ceiling three times in the trump administration after passing almost $2 trillion in tax cuts for large corporations and the ultra wealthy. why should the default matter to average americans? because if the government runs out of cash, it won't be able to make social security payments to seniors who rely on them. families on food assistance will go hungry. veterans won't get the care and benefits they've earned. defaulting on our debt will destabilize the u.s. financial system, resulting in a recession, job loss, and spiking interest rates. this means it will be more expensive for people to get loans, to buy cars, buy homes,

attend college, or invest in their small businesses. it's time for republicans to stop holing our economy hostage, to do their job. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from louisiana seek recognition? >> i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute and revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. >> thank you, madam speaker. i rise today to urge my republican colleagues to step up to the plate. come back to work. and pay our nation's bills. defaulting on our debt would be catastrophic in my district alone. this would kill some 6,700 jobs, jeopardize social security payments for 91,000 families, put health benefits at risk for 388,000 people, and threaten the

retirement of -- retierp savings of 99,100 people near retirement. mr. carter: ladies and gentlemen, this is in my district alone. but look around. house republicans went home and dodged the responsibilities. hurting everyday working people in the process. i stand firmly united with my democratic colleagues and the american people to pay our debt without playing games with people's lives. i urge the republicans to put on your big boy pants, and big girl pants and come back to work. do the right thing. do the right thing for the american people because the american people deserve better. let's do our job. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentlewoman from california seek recognition? >> i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute

and revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentlewoman is recognized for one minute. >> i rise to honor the queen of rock 'n' roll, the incomparable tina turner. she passed away yesterday at 83 years of age after a career so bold and sparkling we are unlikely to see another star so bright. what did love have to do with it? everything. tina turner loved and owned her own story. she unveiled the trauma of domestic violence and turned it into a strength felt by women across the world. she was a true ambassador of the buddhist practice, showed female artists how to take ownership of their brand and used muse toik speak and captivate us. she was a constituent of the 37th, having lied in the heart of my district. ms. kamlager-dove: her passing is a true loss to the global community. in this moment she would probably say to republican, don't hide this weekend, stay and do your job. the american people deserve more from you they work hard and don't deserve to be blamed, lied to and defaulted on by a

dysfunctional republican party who can't get its act together. lead, don't bleed the american people. no, wait, i said that. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentlewoman from oregon seek recognition? >> request unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentlewoman is recognized for one minute. >> madam speaker, i rise today to call on congress to reject the republicans' reckless default on america act and protect the progress we have made in the very important transition to clean energy. the inflation reduction act is a significant investment in our country's clean and healthy future and we are on the cusp of a major clean energy expansion. generating billions of dollars in private clean energy investments and thousands of clean energy jobs. in northwest oregon, the inflation reduction act has brought millions of dollars in funding for climate resilient infrastructure, low-emission public transportation and clean school buses. benefits are flowing to red, blue, and purple states, bringing cost savings to our

constituents. texas and iowa, for example, are leading this u.s. in solar and wind production. it would be foolhardy and fixle to disrupt or delay this important work. just like it's foolhardy and fixle of the republicans to try to force draconian budget cuts by threatening default. we must put our constituents first by passing a clean debt limit increase so we can turn our attention to the real work at hand, creating jobs, cutting energy costs, groirg clean energy economy for the sake of vulnerable communities, future generations and our planet, madam speaker, it would only take five brave republicans to put country over party and sign the petition, i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentlewoman from new york seek recognition? >> madam speaker, to address the house for one minute and revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentlewoman is recognized for one minute. >> i rise today in opposition to the cowardice of my republican

colleagues who should be standing across the aisle right now but have fled d.c. and their sworn duty to do their -- to their constituents to avoid forcing our nation into a default on our debt. ms. clarke: a catastrophic default should not under any circumstances delight extreme ma gay republicans but these -- maga republicans but these horribly bad actors are in contempt. make no mistake, the maga movement has abandoned all pretext. they are not here to govern. eight million american jobs slashed in the blink of an eye. retirement savings devastated overnight, and all but certain recession. this crisis is not just loom bug primed to collapse our economy. and speaker mccarthy refuses to keep the house in session.

are they so eager to default on our debts? the answer is a resound, yes, they are. remember, their cruelty is the point. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentlewoman from texas seek recognition? >> i ask unanimous consent to to revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentlewoman is recognized for one minute. >> playmy republican colleagues love to pray but can't stay. stay and do the job we were elected to do because frankly they aren't capable of governing. don't believe me? just think back to the first few days that we were here. the days in which they were so dysfunctional that they had to go through 15 rounds before we could get to a speaker. now, mark my words. ms. crockett: he's dragging this out and unfortunately the entire country is going into a tailspin not because they care about being fiscally responsible but more so because he cares about his precious speakership. we've seen the words of the

radical right republican and what he said last week. this is all about holding us hostage. my constituents deserve better my constituents deserve to have a house that functions and stays and does the job instead of deciding that it's time to go and play. i have a constituent that has called my office in north texas talking about the fact that he cannot get his federal retirement for months. guess what? we finally got it pushed through but leave it up to this house and he won't get what he deserved and what he worked for. working families deserve a house that will stay instead of play. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentlewoman from ohio seek recognition? >> request unanimous consent to address the house and revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentlewoman is recognized for one minute. >> mr. speaker, i rise today to call on house republicans to stop the partisan politics and pay our bills. it is my top priority to ensure

everyone in ohio's 13th congressional district feels safe and secure at every stage of their lives. but the republicans' manufactured crisis forcing an impossible choice between devastating cuts or devastating default directly undermines the safety and security of the people of ohio's 13th district. house republicans demands jeopardize social security payments for 110,000 seniors in places like stowe, hudson and twinsburg. it would cut medicare, medicaid and veterans affairs coverage benefits if for 332,000 citizens. it would threat then retirement savings of 109 northeastern ohioans who workd so hard. that's over half of my district, mr. speaker. republicans demand significantly cut federal support to local law enforcement agencies and slash crime prevention grants, heading into the summer. law enforcement agencies in my district in stark county are already understaffed and

struggling to fill more more than 80 positions across the district. ohio's 13th district cannot afford these cuts. they'll make our communities less safe and i will not yield back while this community, while this caucusser while these republicans are holding our communities hostage and making our communities safe, mr. speaker -- the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman is no longer recognized. the gentlelady -- for what purpose does the gentlelady from vermont seek recognition? without objection, the gentlewoman is recognized for one minute. >> mr. speaker, i always say that vermont is held together with duct tape, twine and hundreds of hours of volunteer service. the other thing we know about the other thing we know? they pay their bills. and they also stay when you are

in the midst of an emergency. i led my senate chamber. when you are facing a budgetary crisis, you don't leave. you stay. you engage. ms. balint: doesn't matter one in the morning, two in the morning, overnight, you stay. we are public servants. i can't believe that not five so-called moderate republicans, we hear about them all the time, there are a group of reasonable republicans. where are they? we need just five to sign the discharge petition and be done with this. pay our bills. that's what we are talking about. pay our bills. and not be held hostage. and make dramatic cuts that are going to affect veterans. students. going to affect working families. that's what we are talking about. where are they? where are the five moderate republicans we always hear about? they are not here. they are not here. they left. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady's time has expired. for what purpose does the gentlewoman from -- the

gentleman from texas seek recognition? >> mr. speaker, i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. mr. doggett: the leader she worship, donnell j. trump, the -- donald j. trump, the king of debt as he described himself, spellbound wherever he commands they would crash our government and default on america. never concerned with the soaring trump debt they supported. their sudden interest now in deficit reduction is really about undermining education, health, environmental protection, and social initiatives that they never supported in the first place. their plan's not about debt reduction. it's only about making room for another round of tax cuts they already scheduled for june to benefit the super rich, the giant multinational corporations. those who refuse to pay their

fair share of our national security and other vital public services. don't make americans pay for republican hypocrisy. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentlewoman from washington seek recognition? >> unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentlewoman is recognized for one minute. >> mr. speaker, this is an outrage. republicans want to drive us over the cliff into default and catastrophe and cut off health care and social security payments and drive up interest rates so more people can homeless and hungry. five republicans could join all 213 democrats and lift the debt ceiling right now. but they went home. my constituent, amy, called me absolutely terrified that she is going to miss her social security payment. if that happens, then she can't pay her rent and she won't have a place to live.

amy heard republicans yesterday say the quiet part out loud, they said, we don't want to negotiate with our hostage. ms. jayapal: amy is your hostage. she and millions like her, teachers, firefighters, seniors, veterans are demanding that republicans stop playing games with their lives. donald trump presided over the third largest deficit increase in the debt ever because they spent almost $2 trillion on tax cuts for the wealthiest billionaires. and now this want -- now they want poor and working people pass it. stop it. pass a clean debt ceiling right now. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from new york seek recognition? >> i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. mr. jeffries: i rise today in strong opposition to the extreme maga republican effort to

default on our debt, crash the economy, and trigger a job-killing recession. from the very beginning of this congress, house democrats have been focused on putting people over politics. lower cost, better paying jobs, safer communities, fighting for reproductive freedom, defending democracy, ensuring an economy that works for everyday americans. people over politics. and we have made clear from the very beginning that we are willing to find common ground with the other side of the aisle for the good of the american people whenever and wherever possible. we have also made clear that we will fight extremism whenever necessary. so we are here on the floor today because this default crisis is before the american people as a result of extreme maga republicans making the political calculation that they will benefit in 2024 if they

crash the economy. if america defaults. if we fail to pay our bills. if millions of people are made to suffer. not our words. those are the words of former president donald trump. the words of the chairwoman of the republican national committee. the words of extreme maga republicans at the very far right of their conference. a political calculation. that we are going to take hostages, the american people. the economy. and threaten to crash the economy, hurt these hostages. if necessary. or extract painful cuts. painful cuts to our veterans. to disabled children on medicaid. to people who rely on nutrition assistance, including our veterans. to children, to teachers, to

public safety. of course to our military families. these are the stakes that are before the american people. that's why house democrats are here on the floor fighting. how do we know that the other side of the aisle has made the determination that they are willing to gee dee fault on our debt to crash the -- default on our debt to crash the economy? because this default crisis is before the american people on june 1, america may run out of the ability to pay our bills, and extreme maga republicans have chosen to get out of town before sundown. to flee washington, d.c. to risk a dangerous default. in a crisis that they create. these republicans, they are going to say that joe biden refused to sit down with them. that's a fake narrative.

that they have continued to try to put into the public domain. they say that president biden refused to talk for 97 days. fake, false, fraudulent narrative. how do we know? the timeline is pretty clear. on february 1 president biden sat down with the speaker of the house. they had a conversation in the oval office and president biden said that we will produce our budget on march 9. so that the american people know our values. know the types of investments that should be made for the health, safety, and economic well-being. and challenge the extreme maga republicans to do the same thing. on march 9, president biden produced his budget. a budget that will strengthen and protect social security. a budget that will build an economy from the middle out and the ground up. a budget that will cut the deficit by an additional $3 trillion on top of the $1.7

trillion that has already been cut by the biden administration over the last two years. and then we waited for republicans to produce their budget. early march, no budget. mid march, no budget. late march, no budget. early april, no republican budget. mid april, no republican budget. and then on april 25 they didn't produce a budget, they produced the default on america act. not a budget. a ransom note. threatening to hurt the well-being of the american people with draconian cuts. they introduced it on april 25. on april 26 they voted on it. and they passed it simply because george santos, a serial fraudster, provided the deciding vote.

this is who they are. and then on april 27 they got out of town. some of them were overseas. for 10 days. and then as soon as they got back into town, tuesday, may 9, president biden, first opportunity he had, reconvened all of us in the oval office. that's the timeline. from the very beginning democrats have been willing to do two things. one, that america must pay our bills. period, full stop. in a manner consistent with what has been done under democratic presidents and republican presidents. including by house democrats making sure we avoided a default three times under the previous administration. notwithstanding the fact we had strong policy disagreements. agreements with what republicans were doing at the time. including passing the 2017

g.o.p. tax scam. where 83% of the benefits went to the healthiest 1%. sticking us with an additional $2 trillion worth of debt. why? to subsidize the lifestyles of the wealthy, well off, and well connected. we have strong policy disagreements for what was going on in the trump administration. but we never threatened to default on our debt. that's the patriotic thing to do. so we helped make sure we avoided a default three times, notwithstanding the fact that in our country's 247-year history, 25% of the nation's debt was racked up under the four years of the trump administration. how dare you lecture america about fiscal responsibility with that shameful record. notwithstanding the fact that

you have racked up unprecedented amounts of debt to subsidize the rich, the richest amongst us and big corporations. we never threatened a default. but yet here we are a few days from america being unable to pay our bills because you made a political calculation that you will be successful in 2024 if you crash the economy. that's wrong. that's cruel. that's un-american. because you'll be hurting veterans, hurting children, hurting seniors, hurting young people, hurting everyday americans. that's why democrats are here today in washington. fighting hard against this unreasonable manufactured

default crisis. this is a default crisis that is manufactured maga madness. it is repugnant, reckless, and reprehensible. it's unacceptable, unconscionable, and un-american. and that's why house democrats have remained on the house floor fighting hard for ev everyday americans. that's why we are here and we will continue to fight for working families. continue to fight for middle class folk. continue to fight for all those who aspire to be part of the middle class. continue to fight for the young people. continue to fight for older americans. continue to fight for veterans. continue to fight for military families. continue to fight for people in urban america and rural america and suburban america and small town america and the heartland of america. continue to fight for the people in appalachia. continue to fight for the poor, sick, arflicted.

continue to fight for the least, lost, left behind. house democrats will continue to fight for everyday americans to avoid a default. we will not rest until victory is won. p the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does gentlelady from pennsylvania rise? >> mr. speaker, i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentlelady is recognized for one minute. >> let me just start by saying thank you, mr. leader. thank you for your moral clarity and leadership for all of us. as memorial day weekend approaches, and we remember those who gave so much, the last full measure of devotion, republicans are adjourning the house and surreying out of town. leaving behind the mess of their own making.

walking out on paying our bills. turning their backs on gun violence crises. walking away from a broken immigration system. democrats are ready to work. it is clear republicans are no. ms. dean: empty promises and messaging bills for the purpose of getting on fox news or news max is not real work. the real work is legislating solutions for america's families. we need leaders not someone afraid of his own caucus. not folks who punch out in the mid of an unfish ed work weerk. leaders who serve the american people not a corrupted base. that's what i signed up for when i ran for office. i challenge the republican majority be public servants. when republicans adjourn, i'm not going home, no. i'm heading to the border with many of my colleagues. right here in this chamber torques see how we can best develop a more humane, secure border. democrats are not talking away from the hard democrats are not walking away from the hard issues.

republicans come back and do your job. the speaker pro tempore: the chair lays before the house an enrolled bill. the clerk: h.r. 346, to establish a task force on improvements for notices to air missions

the reasonable peemed are the ones who are still here and they are all democrats sitting on this side of the room. where are the rest of the grownups? many of my colleagues across the aisle seem unable to grasp the gravity of defaulting on our debt. paying our bills is not something we should have to negotiate. it is a necessity of governing. a default will cause economic catastrophe. for pennsylvania 7, default means 7,600 jobs killed and 105,000 families with social security payments in jeopardy, 282,000 people with medicare, medicaid or v.a. health coverage at risk. it's time to stop playing games and protect working fam flies financial ruin. thank you. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from illinois seek recognition?

>> seek unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. >> mr. speaker, nearly 6,000 people participated in a telephone town hall of mine on tuesday night. it allowed me to understand what's most important to the people of my district today. one issue came up over and over. cheryl from moline asked about access to food stamps and what would happen to social security payments if we default. stacy from west peoria was worried about what a default would mean for middle class families. we're the forgotten one, she told me. gayle, a veteran from morrison, told me she hates the politicians -- that politicians are about to take away her v.a. health care, something she uses every day. mr. sorensen: celeste in blmington wonders what it mean

for mental health care. these are real people many my district who are scared. and rightly. so we can either choose to pay our bills, or we can put the lives of working families and seniors at risk. real people told me what the right answer, it's not scoring political points, t and it sure as hell isn't driving our country's economy off the cliff. i call the republicans to come back to work and i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentlelady from pennsylvania seek recognition? >> unanimous consent to address thois for one minute and revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentlelady is recognized for one minute. >> at 10:15 a.m. on thursday morning work the u.s. on the brink of a devastate degree fault, our colleagues across the aisle decided to call it a week. turning your back on the american people to beat memorial day traffic is a new low for house republicans but house

republicans have left town while america speeds toward a devastating default and they chose that route. they're willing to drive our nation off an economic cliff and trigger a global recession, cutting veterans benefits, taking food from hungry families and laying off first responders. ms. scanlon: the american people didn't send us here to play chick within their retirement plans. house republicans created this cry sthairks can end it. last offramp from this highway to hell. the overwhelming majority of americans done want the far right driving our national agenda. responsible republicans need to come to the table for the american people, not skip one to the maga extremists. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentlelady from florida seek recognition? >> unanimous consent to address the house for one minute and revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentlelady is recognized for one minute. >> mr. speaker, let's shed light on the republican's broken promises to our veterans. i have the privilege of serving as ranking member of the

normally bipartisan military construction and veteran affairs committee. ms. wasserman schultz: however this year republicans plan to slash care. the pact act create the toxic ex-oh powe sures fund. it ensures that money to treat toxic exposures will always be set aside and not have to compete with other issues. president biden honored this promise by calculating the need, proposing $23 million for this in his budget. republicans only provide a quarter of the request. not only do they shortchange it by $14.7 billion in 2024, but republicans completely eliminate it in 2025. republicans can protest all they want, but their broken promise to our veterans is right here in

black and white. we must keep our promise to our veterans just like joe biden and democrats do. thank you, i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from florida seek recognition? >> i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute and revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. >> i rise today because of weeks of pointing fingers on the credit death ceiling negotiations, house republicans have finally shown their true colors. republican leadership controls this chamber, speaker mccarthy controls the floor, yet instead of workingover time to make sure we don't default on our nation's debt, send the economy into a tailspin and stop the benefits of millions of americans, members of congress are going home this weekend. mr. frost: the interesting thing is, many of these folk,000,000 cleanings the other side of the aisle are the same people that clowned me on twitter for not having the best credit after my campaign and being denied an apartment here in d.c. imagine the hypocrisy of poor-shaming working people for

trying to pay off their debts and then turn around and refuse to pay the country's debt to pay for the tax cuts for billionaires. it's distasteful, it's disgraceful, we have to do better. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from mare llena islands seek recognition -- from the mariana islands seek recognition? >> ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute and revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: weather, the gentleman is recognized. >> on a day like this on the last day of the week, when members vote by 11:00 and start running out the door, i'm envious. today i'm astonished, astonished in that the problem before us and people are decided to take a break for memorial day. mr. sablan: if i have to go home, i have to go home and face 700 families, veterans and their families, and their question is going to be, what's going to happen to our benefits? you might have to fill out extra

paperwork to get it. and people will lose access to their food benefits. their health benefits. teachers, firemen, first responders, police officers, these are individuals who are going to lose their access to the benefits that they usually get, either from social security, from their v.a. checks, and etc. so mr. speaker, i think we should all come back tomorrow and continue the work we have before us. it's too important to allow us to go home. thank you very much. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentlewoman from new york seek recognition? the gentlewoman is recognized for one minute. >> mr. speaker, today we are in the midst of a manufactured crisis. ms. velazquez: it will have very real, devastating consequences for the american people. the extreme maga republicans have taken the american economy

hostage and presented the country with two disastrous choices. default or draconian spending cuts. a default will erase millions of jobs, trigger a recession, devastate retirement accounts, and increase borrowing costs. on the other hand, the cuts being promoted by the extreme maga republicans will take medicaid away from millions, snatch food assistance away from families, and even slash veteran's health care. we need five moderate republicans to sign the petition. new york state sent five moderate republicans to the house. where are they today? new york state, please, take notice. when we needed them, they were not here. doing right by the american people. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentlelady from new york seek recognition? >> address the house for one

minute and revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentlelady is recognized for one minute. >> i rise today to urge my republican colleagues, although i don't see them, to put people over politics. i invite five of my republican colleagues to simply sign the petition to raise the debt ceiling. this will directly impact my queens families, if action is not taken. it would kill over 7,000 jobs in my district. jeopardize social security payments for over 85,000 family, threaten retirement savings of over 100,000 people. ms. meng: this memorial day weekend it is not enough to march in parades and post pictures on social media. republicans are risking benefits for over 300,000 people in my district alone that rely on medicare, medicaid or veterans affairs health coverage.

simply smiling and posing for pictures with veterans as they work to cut veterans' benefits and lay off first responders. this is unacceptable. we just need five republican colleagues to save our country. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentlelady from oregon seek recognition? without objection, the gentlelady is recognized for one minute. >> mr. speaker, i cannot believe it's come to this. it's astonishing and frankliing anering that republicans have chosen to take memorial day weekend off when they spent the last three weeks working overtime to shortchange our veterans and military members. let's be clear about what has happened here. republicans are walking away because they can't get their way. because president biden won't cave to their anti-service member, anti-veteran demands. so instead we're teetering on

the verge of a default. ms. salinas: a default that would disproportionately harm our nation's heroes. guess who benefits are on the chopping bobbing? veterans. all because republicans decided to play with fire without stopping to think who might get burned. our service members and their families deserve so much better. we all do. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from kentucky seek recognition? >> i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute and revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. >> mr. speaker, i know i'm new here but i came here to work. to work across the aisle and to actually get things done. but here we are on the eve of our country's default and my -- and my republican colleagues aren't even here to work with. this isn't difficult. the united states government

contracted for and received goods and services. now it must pay for them. mr. mcgarvey: we must pay our bills. default would be louisville, kentucky. $800. mortgages for new homes would increase by $38,000. 317,000 family, seniors and veterans risk losing their benefits. not to mention the long-term damage to our currency and reputation around the world. the alternative, proposed by extreme republicans, is that we slash benefits to our veterans and to needy kids instead of closing tax loopholes for billionaires and mega corporations. this is fiscally irresponsible and it's morally wrong. do better. sign the discharge petition and get this done to save our economy. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from texas seek recognition?

without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. >> i'm a brand new member of congress representing texas, i'm standing here on the republican side of the aisle not because i'm a republican, i'm a democrat, but i want the american people to see that there isn't any republicans in the seat here's behind me on the eve of our default. where are the republicans? this is not a simple political disagreement. this is a dire crisis being imposed on the working people of america. the american people could lose millions of jobs. you could lose your house. your kids could lose their job. people could lose their savings. and they aren't even here. they want to burn the house done and blame the firefighters for the flames. they listened to donald trump who is say, do a default. that is shameful. it is dangerous. there's no patriotism in this, there's no morality in this. and we just need five republicans to sign on the discharge petition with us to save the american people.

we need the american people to speak up about why the republicans are not in these empty chairs. the american people can save us, the democrats are aligned and ready to avoid a defall and make sure that billionaires pay their fair share and folks aren't kicked off their health care or deprived of food. thank you. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentlewoman from michigan seek recognition? >> i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentlewoman is recognized for one minute. >> mr. speaker, where are our republican colleagues? ms. tlaib: they are in charge in this chamber. they manufactured this crisis. if any of my neighbors left work before noon, they would be fired. the country is on a deadline and the republicans that are in charge in this chamber just simply left. it's mind boggling, the really mind boggling part is that these same maga republicans that manufactured this crisis voted not one, not twice -- not once, not twice, but three times under

the previously forever-impeached president with no issues. republicans love to talk about fiscal this, spending that. but not when it comes to tax cuts to megabillionaires or when it comes to funding bombs and wars that our country and our world doesn't need. there are so completely -- they are so completely disconnected with the american people. and what the lives of the american people are like. a delay in social security checks would hurt our seen yorls. -- seniors. instability on whether or not they're going to have health care coverage next week is just simply wrong. a default on our debt for the first time in our history would be devastating for the american people. and they just left. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from maryland seek recognition? >> mr. speaker, i rise today

because the republicans have -- the speaker pro tempore: does the gentleman ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute? >> yes, mr. speaker, i do. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. >> mr. speaker, i rise today because the republicans have skipped town. they're leaverring behind a ran -- leaving behind a ransom note on the full faith and credit of the united states. one republican congressman said, quote, my conservative colleagues don't feel like we should negotiate with our hostage, but the real hostages are american seniors, veterans and working families. mr. ivey: donald trump said, quote, if they don't give you massive cuts, you're going to have to do a default. but that's not what he said back in 2019.

back then, he said, the debt ceiling was, quote, a very sacred thing in our country, that we can never play with. he was right then. instead of cutting costs on the backs of working people, we should require billionaires and corporations to pay their fair share. but republicans in congress would rather put veterans' health care on the chopping block. most americans, most republicans don't support that. let's get serious and get back to work. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentlewoman from georgia seek recognition? >> i ask unanimous consent to address the house, revise and extend my remarks, for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentlelady is recognized for one minute. >> i rise today on behalf of the children of georgia's fighting fifth congressional district at risk of going hungry in face of this cruel republican default. extreme maga republicans are proposing cuts to 200,000 head start slots and 180,000 child care slots nationwide. y'all, that's more than 300,000 families who will be thrown into

a devastating bind. ms. williams: when families don't have access to care, they can't get to work, making it harder to put food on the table every day. this is a real-life dilemma facing parents like chelsea in clayton county, georgia. a mama who is looking for jobs buffeting one major roadblock, child care. now extreme maga republicans are threatening to make their child care search even harder. that, a risk of disastrous default on our debt. republicans are headed home for barbeques and hanging out with their families, making their priorities clear. but a great speaker once said, sometimes you have to take a punch and give a punch for the children. y'all, i'm ready to fight for a solution on behalf of our children and i'm waiting for my republican colleagues who are brave enough to fight alongside me for the children. putting people over politics. mr. speaker, i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentlelady from washington seek recognition? >> i seek unanimous consent to address the house for one minute

and revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentlelady is recognized for one minute. >> mr. speaker, i rise today to fight for our nation's service members and push back against the extreme maga agenda wish list that will yank the rug out from under american families, small businesses and our enlisted military members. pay for our soldiers, benefits for our veterans, military readiness and more are in serious jeopardy. ms. strickland: we risk america's health and safety and we risk hurting america's middle class all because the maga wing continues to control the g.o.p. this manufactured crisis jeopardizes national security and will ruin our economy. my colleagues across the aisle who clearly aren't here right now must choose. will they crash the economy on purpose? will they destroy jobs and american livelihoods? or will they stand up for our

troops, veterans, families and seniors? there is a word for people who take hostages. terrorists. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from california seek recognition? >> i rise to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. >> mr. speaker, i rise today in strong opposition to the republican plan to destroy our nation's economy. right now hundreds of republican members of congress have rushed out of town to go on vacation with their friends and families. democrats are here ready to work. americans are facing the reality of losing their retirement saves, jobs and health care. here are just some of the extreme demands that house republicans have made. they want to cut 100,000 jobs for teachers. they want to put health insurance at risk for 21 million americans. they want to put food assistance at risk for one million americans. mr. garcia: this is cruel and shameful. let's be clear, house republicans want to tank the

economy and they want to give tax cuts to billionaires and large corporations. we have a default on our debt coming because house republicans would rather be on vacation than get to work. mr. chairman, i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentlelady from connecticut seek recognition? >> i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentlelady is recognized for one minute. >> mr. speaker, we are just days away from catastrophic economic default. house republicans are playing politics with the lives of the american people to further an extremist agenda. putting the american economy at risk is reckless and dangerous. in my district, default would eliminate 7300 jobs, jeopardize social security for 93,000 families, put health benefits at risk for 281,000 people who rely on medicare, medicaid or v.a. health coverage. their proposals do not solve any of our economic problems. in fact, the default on america is an egregious bill that puts vulnerable families at risk. their plan would be disastrous

in my state of connecticut. mrs. hayes: 2800 kids would lose access to preschool and child care. 12,000 mothers would be blocked from food assistance and it would threaten medical care for 57,000 veterans. it is a disgrace that leading into memorial day, house republicans have ghosted the city and left. i urge my colleagues to come back to washington, pay our bills and end this now. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentlelady from the u.s. virgin islands seek recognition? ms. plaskett: i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute and to revise and extend my remarks, mr. speaker. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentlelady is recognized for one minute. ms. plaskett: thank you, mr. speaker. we are days away from defaulting on our debt. for the first time in our nation's history. extreme maga republicans have needlessly manufactured an economic crisis. and refused to release their grip on the american people. why do i say the american

people? because the cuts that they want are going to cut seven million jobs, millions' access to medicare, slash critical funding for education, food for children. for what? to protect the shameless protection of tax cuts that they did in their bill that have added $3 trillion to the debt that they now want to cover off of the backs of the american people. shameless. they are shameless. this flag ran the disregard for the -- flagrant disregard for the lives of everyday americans and the economic stability of our country demonstrates the house g.o.p.'s corrupt and misguided priorities. do not depriving our elders, veterans and children to meet the demands, the insatiable agreed of your constituent -- greed of your constituents, the

american rich. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentlewoman from north carolina seek recognition? >> i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentlewoman is recognized for one minute. >> madam speaker, i rise today to call on my republican colleagues to stop playing ideological games and to do the jobs that they were sent here to do. as our country teters on the brink of an economic catastrophe, they rushed out of town and abandoned their responsibilities just like they want the united states to abandon our fiscal responsibilities. ms. foushee: house republicans have made their message clear. their needs come before the needs of hardworking families, seniors, children, students and veterans. they are willing to hold our economy hostage and are willing to risk the livelihoods of millions of americans with disaiivetting -- devastating

cuts to vital programs that keep folks housed, fed, healthy and secure. but democrats are united. we stand ready to pass a clean debt ceiling and to do what is best for our country and the american people. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from new york seek recognition? >> i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. >> the failed wars in afghanistan and iraq added trillions of dollars to the debt -- dollars to the debt and both started under it republican presidents. the great recessions of 2008 and 2020 added trillions to the debt and each one began under a republican president. the trump administration alone accounted for 1/4 of all the debt accumulated since 2000. the republican party is like an

arsonist who burns down your home and then blames you for the fire and then lectures you on fire safety. mr. torres: the fiscal responsibility of house republicans is as fictional as george santos. the house g.o.p. is threatening to default on america unless it can extract draconian budget cuts against our seniors, veterans, essential workers and families with children. that, ladies and gentlemen, is not a negotiation. that is an extortion of the american people. that is in the words of matt gaetz, a hostage taking, a hostage taking that will threaten to transform a republican-made debt problem into a republican-made debt crisis. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. for what purpose does the gentlewoman from north carolina seek recognition? without objection, the gentlewoman is recognized for one minute. >> thank you, madam speaker. today i rise for the millions of american families that will suffer due to the manufactured debt ceiling crisis. ms. adams: defaulting on our

sovereign debt will be a disaster, from wall street to main street, to streets in my district, and to the kitchen table. our economy is being held hostage for so-called work requirements that disproportionately harm women and people with disabilities, and people of color. just one example, food insecurity is at the highest level in four years. but maga republicans will only prevent a financial catastrophe if we cut snap benefits for families, for veterans, for students, and for our seniors. this would only deepen the hardships that vulnerable americans face. shame on you, republicans. there's a simple solution to averting catastrophe. pass a clean debt ceiling bill. quit playing games with our country's future. and come on back to washington and let's do your job. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentlewoman from new york seek recognition?

without objection, the gentlewoman is recognized for one minute. ms. ocasio-cortez: you know, we're here on the last day of this session. republicans have decided to skip down. but what this debt ceiling debate really is about is the fact that they have run up a bill, republicans have run up a bill that they now do not want to pay. they have run up this bill with extremely excessive military spending. they have run up this bill with extraordinary tax cuts for the wealthiest people in this country. and now when it comes down to -- time to pay for this bill, they do not want to pay it. and not only that, but they are accusing democrats of saying we spend too much. for anyone that wants to entertain that thought, i ask you to think about the last time a person said -- has said in this country that the government does too much for them. that their social security check

was too high. that teachers are paid too much. when was the last time anyone when was think last time anyone has heard or seen that. thank you. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from alabama seek recognition? >> madam speaker. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentlewoman seek recognition? >> to speak on the house floor for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentlewoman is recognized for one minute. >> madam speaker, i rise to demand that speaker mccarthy and republican colleagues, my republican colleagues in the house, return so that we can pass a clean bill to prevent a devastating default. let me be very clear. we as members of congress have a solemn obligation to pay our nation's bills and to protect the full faith and credit of the

united states. we have never befaulted on our debt. but this time, house republicans are refusing to address the debt limit unless we cut serious programs that alabama families that i represent need most like veteran benefits and food assistance for our seniors and children. ms. sewell: madam speaker, that is manufactured crisis. republicans could pass a clean debt ceiling bill but chose not. to we passed such three times urn the trump administration. today the republicans are chosen to send us home instead of doing our job. our job is to protect the american people and to make sure that the full faith and credit of the american government stands. it has never been in he de-fault, shouldn't be in default now. this is a dereliction of duty and i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentlewoman from new mexico seek recognition? >> i ask for unanimous consent to address the house for one minute and revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentlewoman is recognized for one minute.

>> i stand before you to do my duty and support the people of new mexico. as you can see, i cannot say the same for my republican colleagues who hightailed it out of town because they decided that their weekend plans were more important than showing up for the american people. it's reckless. it's disturbing. it is fundamentally irresponsible. here we are on the verge of an economic crisis and they're demanding that we cut programs for housing, food and our veterans. ms. stansbury: let me say this to my friends on the other side of the aisle. if you're so concerned about people getting to work, how about you show up to do your own job. how about you show up for the american people. how about you show up and do the

job you were elected to do and let's pass the clean debt ceiling and ensure that we save our economy and serve our communities. with that, i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from nevada -- excuse me, maryland, seek recognition mitch apologies. mr. raskin: thank you, madam speaker, i'm seeking one minute to address the house. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for one minute. mr. raskin: the 14th amendment to the constitution says the validity of the public debt shall not be questioned. we have made a commitment to every social security recipient in america, to the medicare and medicaid recipients, to the veteran, to the bondholders of the united states, that we would pay their debts as we are fiscally, morally, politically, and constitutionally required to do. and yet, donald trump has issued the order, he said it's inevitable.

default. on the debt of the united states. for the first time in american history. crash the economy. lose nine million or 10 million jobs. and so now in the words of florida representative matt gaetz who appears not to be here right now, the g.o.p. will not negotiate with their hostage. who is the hostage? the american people are the hostage. our government is hostage. the constitution is hostage. so i want to introduce the maga republicans who have split today but who increased the debt ceiling three times under donald trump who gave us a quarter of all the debt of the united states between george washington and joe biden, i want to introduce them to the constitution of the united states, the validity of the public debt shall not be questioned. thank you, i yield pack. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from nevada seek recognition? >> i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute and revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman is

recognized for one minute. >> madam speaker, do you see what i see? no republicans. and because they're not here to do your job, america's jobs are at risk. 8.3 million american jobs can be lost because republicans want to hold us hostage. and force a default. mr. horsford: 30,000 nevadans who are struggling right now to keep their jobs, pay their represent, to afford their mortgage, will see the effects if republicans are successful in causing a default on america. 60,000 veteran miss my district could lose -- veterans in my district could lose their health benefits. 3,000 families and children in nevada could lose snap food

benefits. food benefits, madam speaker. 253,000 kicked off health insurance on medicaid. and 1,300 preschool and child care slots which are vital to work. madam speaker, i would have time if the speaker of this house would call us back into session and i will continue to do my job to speak on behalf of my constituents who sent me here to work on their behalf, madam speaker, call this house back to session, let's do our job. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. for what purpose does the gentleman from maryland seek recognition? >> address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. >> madam speaker, today i rise to condemn the extreme republicans acting to hold our economy hostage and their refusal to pass a clean bill to raise the debt.

today we are seven days from defaulting on our nation's debt. seven days from seniors losing the social security checks. seven days from our veterans losing their health care benefits. seven days from our country losing all financial credibility. not only are the republicans determined to cut billions from vital programs, they're also now telling members to go home for the weekend. hard to believe. i came to congress to work on issues important to our states and our country. american families are depending on us to pay our bills on time, just like they do. every single month. but as our nation is on the brink of an economic tailspin, republicans are headed to the airport. mr. trone: well, folks, america is running out on runway to avoid a defall. it's time we acted like it. thank you, i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from illinois seek recognition?

>> i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute and revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. >> madam speaker, we stand on the precipice of a self-inflicted crisis precipitated by speaker mccarthy's loyalty to the most extreme members of his caucus. these far-right members are refusing to negotiate in good faith. they have continuously moved the goal posts time and time again. but now there is no time to spare. seven days until we reach x date. we need an agreement now to raise the debt limit and to take it off the table for future hostage holding. we'd all love to be with our families right now, to be home for the weekend celebrating and marking and observing the solemn occasion of memorial day. our constituents would like to see us there. but they need us here.

democrats stand ready to do what's necessary. republicans have all gone home. mr. schneider: as we mark the memories of those who served our country, who made the ultimate sacrifice, let us think of the sacrifice we're willing to make to put america's full faith and credit back on good standing. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from florida seek recognition? without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. >> news flash. extreme maga republicans hold the nation hostage. put america's full faith and credit in jeopardy, and flirt with economic disaster. imagine seniors not getting their social security checks. unemployment spiking. small businesses closing their doors.

401k's and pensions tanking. president biden has been negotiating in good faith, agreeing to future spending caps and other concessions, but they want more. they want to cut programs for seniors. veterans. children. mr. soto: all while protecting tax cuts for the very wealthy. so i ask, will republicans make a deal? or cause a disaster? asking for a few million hardworking central floridians. but mark my words. if you break it, you own it. and we'll make sure the american people know about it. thanks, and i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentlewoman from oregon seek recognition? >> i ask unanimous consent to address the house and revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentlewoman is recognized for one minute. >> we are at the brink of defaulting on the u.s. debt, bringing economic de-station to

the world economy and downgrading our credit rating which increases our debt. my republican colleagues have decided to leave for the weekend, donalding their responsibility to this nation. all they've offered us is political theater with a piece of legislation that would bring devastating cuts to 15% of the federal budget and no willingness to reverse the trump tax cuts that benefited their millionaire and billionaire donors. last week my g.o.p. colleagues used every breath to honor the brave men and women of law enforcement, yet their bill would cut up to $10 billion from federal law enforcement funding and would result in a 22% cut to border security. their bill would cut 27,000 wildland firefighters as fire season is starting in the west, putting more lives at risk. so i ask my colleagues, top the political theater, sign our discharge petition, let's get to work passing a regional -- a reasonable budget that invests

in working families. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from georgia seek recognition? >> address the house for one minute and revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. >> thank you, madam speaker. the well being of the american people should never be used as a political bargaining chip, but that is exactly what house maga republicans are doing. yesterday my friend matt gaetz who appears to be the lead maga debt ceiling negotiator, let the cat out of the bag when he told us that most of his caucus, quote, don't feel like we should negotiate with our hostage, end quote. mr. johnson: who is the hostage that maga republicans have tied to a chair and left in the basement while they leave to enjoy the holiday weekend? it is none other than the american people and our economy. why are they doing it after voting three times for clean debt ceiling under donald trump?

because they want to ruin the economy, blame it on president biden, and pave the way to re-elect their savior, donald trump. how despicable. we need five republicans to sign the discharge petition so the house can vote on a clean debt ceiling bill and continue moving our nation forward and with that, i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from california seek recognition? >> i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute and revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. >> thank you, madam speaker. we're on the brink of defaulting on our debt. and that would be apocalyptic. millions of jobs would be lost, mortgage and credit card rates would skyrocket. retirement accounts would be devalued and a recession would be triggered. and the crazy math being offered by the republicans suspect adding up. the speaker says the defense budget and taxes are off the

negotiating table. that's 75% of the budget. cutting the remaining budget would have an even greater devastating impact for every american. what's worse, the republicans have left town while the speaker allows us to be pushed toward a default that hurts everybody, including our veterans. mr. thompson: veterans, v.a. appointments would be canceled. veterans looking to buy a home will be hit by higher interest rates. veterans who have credit card bills will face higher interest rates. if house republicans cause a default, more than seven million veterans and their families will lose essential benefits that they have earned. stop this madness, come back to work, let's address this problem. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from virginia seek recognition? without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute.

mr. scott: thank you, madam speaker. madam speaker, i rise today to voice my opposition to the house republicans adjourning for the holiday while leaving the american people in limbo. and i get tired of being lectured by republicans about debts and deficits. 25% of the entire national debt was accumulated under the four years of the trump administration, and every democratic administration since kennedy has left for their republican successors a better deficit situation than they inherited and every republican administration since nixon has left for their democratic successors a worse deficit situation than they inherited. all without exception. if speaker mccarthy is presented a false choice, either we default on our debts for the first time in history, or we agree to devastating cuts in education, law enforcement, veterans' benefits, food assistance, border security and health care, and going to a re--

go into a recession. but house republicans created this crisis. it's time they end it by at least five of them signing the discharge petition and agreeing to responsibly pay our nation's debts. thank you and i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from pennsylvania seek recognition? >> i seek unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. >> madam speaker, people at home who might be listening to this may be wondering, why is it so important that speaker mccarthy pay our nation's bills on time? why does speaker mccarthy need to do that? it's because of what can happen if he doesn't. it isn't just that seniors won't get their social security checks on time. it isn't just that veterans won't get their medical care at v.a. hospitals. it isn't just that medicare and medicaid bills won't get processed. kriet kriet it's that -- kriet kriet --

mr. cartwright: it's that interest rates will immediately go up because interest rates reflect the risk of nonrepayment. if we don't repay our national debt, interest rate goes up on this country, we fall into a recession, millions of jobs will go away. it's a horrible situation. speaker mccarthy needs to pay our bills on time and this is a grotesque negotiation he has going on over at the white house even as we speak because whoever cares least about the well-being of america and america's standing in the world in that negotiation wins the negotiation. speaker mccarthy, do your job. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentlewoman from michigan seek recognition? >> to address the house for one minute and revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentlewoman is recognized for one minute. >> madam speaker, around the world our adversaries are watching a manufactured crisis play out. ms. stevens: this is the chaos dictators like xi and putin have

been hoping for. the leader of the free world on the brink of default, facing the very real possibility that we won't even be able to pay our own troops. my question for the majority party is simple. haven't the american people been through enough? over a million americans dead from a pandemic that hit us three years ago. rising costs and supply chain disruptions, stresses on our education system. george floyd murdered three years ago today. january 6 that saw our capitol under siege. americans do not need more pain. especially manufactured pain. g.o.p., come back to town, deliver for the american people, end this debt crisis. thank you and i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: for

what purpose does the gentlewoman from michigan seek recognition? >> i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentlewoman is recognized for one minute. >> madam speaker, i call on my republican colleagues today to stop holding our nation's economy hostage. it's dangerous. it's unconscionable. knowing the devastating impact it is going to have on the american working families. kim in my district called my office yesterday scared. mrs. dingell: she is in the process of buying a house and thinks she should stop because she's worried that the nation's economy is going to tank. she reflects the american people and their concerns. but republicans will be posting messages of support for veterans on social media this weekend while advocating for a plan that will abandon all of those

veterans and their families at a moment they need their country most. republican colleagues, i'm staying. i'm missing my goddaughter's wedding because i have a job to do. where are you? the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman's time has expired. for what purpose does the gentleman from massachusetts seek recognition? -- the gentlewoman from massachusetts seek recognition? without objection, the gentlewoman is recognized for one minute. >> i rise today on behalf of the hundreds of thousands of people in the massachusetts seventh, the single mom in randolph who depends on snap to feed her babies. the disabled veteran in chelsea who relies on ssdi. families struggling to pay rent and their mortgages. ms. pressley: my colleagues across the aisle say that they care about seniors, veterans, children and families. but in the words of james baldwin, i can't believe what you say because i see what you do. the republicans continue to govern in a way that is

clueless, callous and with great contempt and i would say godless because faith without work is dead. republicans want us to make an impossible choice. extreme drastic cuts to life-saving programs or a catastrophic default on our debt. both of which would impact our most vulnerable. and this is a manufactured crisis. that is a false choice. if republicans had even an ounce of compassion, democrats want to change and save lives and republicans want to play with yours and the american people are currently in limbo because of it. stop playing with people's lives. this is not a game. pass a clean debt ceiling increase. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman's time has expired. for what purpose does the gentlewoman from ohio seek recognition? >> i ask to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentlewoman is recognized for one minute. beetle beat madam speaker, fact -- mrs. beatty: madam speaker,

fact. republicans went only had. fact, their side of the chamber is empty. fact, they do not want to negotiate and they are holding our economy hostage to a ransom note of partisan demands. fact, they are taking medicaid away from millions, firing teachers, removing children from child care, and ripping food assistance away from our families. they are even slashing veterans' health care. fact, their plan would cut jobs. republicans are playing political games. they have even said that they are holding us hostage and will not negotiate. but you know what, madam speaker. it is the american people, it is our children like who are in the gallery today that they are holding hostage.

it is obvious that republicans are defaulting on our debt. instead of honoring our sacred obligation to pay our bills. democrats will not let the bank of justice be destroyed by maga republicans. we come to this floor today, the people's house, to put people over politics. to demand that speaker mccarthy -- the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman is no longer recognized. the gentlewoman is no longer recognized. the gentlewoman is no longer recognized. the gentlewoman is no longer recognized.

the gentlewoman is no longer recognized. the gentlewoman is no longer recognized. for what purpose does the gentleman from north carolina seek recognition? without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. >> thank you, madam speaker. today, ahead of memorial day, i'm thinking about the 49,000 veterans in my district whose v.a. benefits hang in the balance due to the risk of debt default. it is incredibly disappointing that we would leave washington before this important holiday without resolving the default crisis.

our veterans, who have given so much, deserve much better than this. they deserve our unwavering dedication and commitment, not just words, but in action. mr. nickel: they don't deserve partisan political games as we prepare to honor the memory of those who made the ultimate sacrifice. let's also honor the veterans still with us by staying true to our duty. let's remember the debt we owe to them and the responsibility that we bear. i urge my colleagues to get back to work and prioritize the needs of our veterans. let's stay, let's get to work, let's find a solution. thank you, madam speaker. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from new jersey seek recognition? >> madam speaker, i request unanimous consent to address the house for one minute and to revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. >> madam speaker, i rise today on behalf of new jersey's eighth

congressional district, to highlight how the house g.o.p.'s debt limit demands will hurt our families. if the republican bill is adopted into law, over 20,000 families in our district will be affected by cuts to lifelines like snap. and while the house republicans leave town for memorial day, they're at the same time targeting 9,000 veterans in our district whose v.a. health resources will be cut, making it more difficult for them to access the care that they deserve. mr. menendez: the republican legislation would also devastate our public schools, cutting federal funds that help support the education to over 100,000 students in our district. meanwhile, the 98,000 households in new jersey who spent more than 30% of their income on rent, working families would face severe cuts to the federal housing assistance programs that enable them to stay in their homes. while house democrats support investing in our community, the house republicans are looking to burden them with deep cuts to these essential programs. i stand with house democrats in

opposing the house g.o.p.'s reckless and cruel cuts and urge speaker mccarthy to bring his members back to have a vote on this important deal. thank you. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from ohio seek recognition? without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. mr. landsman: thank you, madam speaker. i rise today to ask my friends in the majority to think about this from a different perspective. it is june and you all have defaulted on america. millions of people have lost their jobs. our economy is in shambles. and you would look back and you would say to yourself, there were things we could have done. we should not have left. we should not have left d.c., we should not have left the

capitol. and there are solutions. there's a discharge petition behind me, 213 members have signed it. we just need five more. and we have a vote. there is a bipartisan solution from the problem solvers' caucus. we can vote on it early next week. you can lock leadership in a room, negotiate, finish this thing. it requires, however, folks to come back to work. to gavel us back in and protect millions and millions of people from losing their jobs. come back. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. for what purpose does the gentlewoman from michigan seek recognition? without objection, the gentlewoman is recognized for one minute. >> once again i'm standing here today while house republican leadership has failed to do the bear minute -- bare minimum. where are they?

the republican side of this chamber is vacant. while house democrats have replained at the ready -- remained at the ready to do their jobs and pay america's bills. it is fiscally responsible to pay our bills. and doing so would protect my friends, neighbors and constituents in west michigan from disastrous consequences. defaulting would kill nearly 8,000 jobs in my district alone. scoalt scoalt jeopardize -- ms. scholten: jeopardize social security payments for 90,000 families. hurting working families across the country. house republicans' solutions instead, cut nearly 30,000 law enforcement jobs. the party that says that they back the blue wants to take their jobs away. this is a false choice. there is a bill sitting right here that needs just five more republicans. we invite them to sign it. we can and must act now.

it's congress' job to get this done. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from connecticut seek recognition? >> address the house for one minute and revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. >> madam speaker, we stand here today, seven days away from the x date, the day that our nation will default on the full faith and credit of our nation's financial debt for the first time since the war of 1812. mr. speaker, it is not too late for us to stop such a catastrophe by passing a clean debt limit bill just as congress has done 7 times since 1960. interestingly, the president who signed the most debt limit extension bills was speaker mccarthy's hero, ronald reagan, 18 times in eight years. i would ask mccarthy to heed reagan's words that he said in 1987 when he signed one of those bills at the height of the cold war. he said, the united states has a

special responsibility to itself and the world to meet its obligations. it means we have a well-herbed reputation of reliability and credibility, two thaings set us apart from the rest of the world. in 2023, we have adversaries, china and russia, who are watching with glee as we as a nation are about to, for no good reason not maintain our financial debt. they are waiting in terms of deof this dollarizing world curchcis that rely on us and international trade. pass a clean debt limit bill for the sake of our nation and free democracies. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from oregon seek recognition? without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. >> thank you, madam speaker. mr. blumenauer: we heard claims from republican leadership that they passed a bill to lift the debt ceiling. that's laughable. what they did was pass a wish

list to reassure their most extreme members. make no mistake, they have no plan. i just consulted with the distinguished ranking member of the appropriations committee. they haven't even agreed on the top line numbers for this year's appropriations process. let alone move forward to implement the extreme cuts that they imagine are going to ha happen. i just left a trade subcommittee hearing where a parade of witnesses from both parties said we needed to invest more in the customs and border protection to protect americans from fentanyl. without a plan, they will continue to target the poor and protect the privileged and get nothing done. america deserves better. let's pass a clean debt ceiling proposal and get back to work.

the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentlewoman from california seek recognition? >> i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentlewoman is recognized for one minute. >> madam speaker, extreme republicans are driving our economy toward a devastating default. they are holding the economy hostage. holding our economy hostage for all americans, especially communities of color and low-income communities. republicans don't want to close loopholes for billionaires. instead, their ransom demands that we kick out families out of their home, that we rip away food assistance from grandma and grandpa, from women, infant and children, that we cut access to child care, and make it easier for industries to pollute our communities. democrats are united. we agree that america must pay its bills and continue to lower costs for working family, not

default. republicans must stop these dangerous games and come back to work. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from illinois seek recognition? >> i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. >> my republican colleagues are currently fiddling while rome burn, but i come to praise my republican colleagues, not bury them. i come to praise representative mchenry for what he said six months thoork he plans to oppose mccarthy's plan to use the debt limit to cut spending. when he said it's important that congress raise the debt limit. when say he said global markets are the lifeblood of the global economy. mr. casten: i come to praise the july, 2019, version of speaker mccarthy, when he said we should not leave here without doing something on the debt ceiling.

where are those brave, principled souls now? the answer, madam speaker, as you know, not here. empty, inconsistent rhetoric does not pay the bills. the american people know that. and i hope the american people will remind my republican colleagues of those work requirements of this job during their upcoming 11-day vacation. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentlewoman from florida seek recognition. >> address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentlewoman is recognized for one minute. >> thank you, madam speaker. with memorial day on my mind, i rise today to call on house republicans to stop playing dangerous political games. manufacturing a crisis that's driven the american economy to the brink of default. and to our veterans and for our

veterans a default would have severe consequences. ms. frankel: it would mean wounded warriors losing out on physical therapy sessions that could get them back on their feet. purple heart recipient missing a disability check that they use to make ends meet. or student veteran coming up short on paying tuition. our servicemen and women have stood up for us and now it's time for us to stand up for them. defaulting on our debt would be a dereliction of our duty, the dangerous game-playing must stop. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentlewoman from connecticut seek recognition? >> i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute and revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentlewoman is recognized for one minute.

>> today's "los angeles times," column, when kevin mccarthy's spending cuts get spelled out even republicans balk. my friends, the republicans do not have the votes to pass their shameful cuts but house republicans have -- what house republicans have done is manufactured a crisis and a false choice, inflict pain and harm on hardworking american people, on children, families, seniors, veterans, or we will crash the economy. ms. delauro: why? because they believe it will help them politically. my state of connecticut, 2,800 kids would lose access to preschool and child care. 12,000 mothers blocked from food assistance. this is my plea to the american people. get on the phone. call republican members of this congress. tell them to raise that debt ceiling and to stop hurting american families. let us make sure that they do not have the votes to pass these shameful cuts. i yield back.

the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentlewoman from florida seek recognition? without objection, the gentlewoman is recognized for one minute. >> madam speaker, i rushed down to the floor because i just read a headline that said that the republicans are not headed to negotiations today and in fact all of the republicans have quit here on a thursday morning and have left town. meanwhile back home in tampa, i know that there -- one of my neighbors is expecting their social security check at the end of next week. that is at risk. i have another neighbor in st. petersburg on a fixed income watching their retirement savings, expecting match nationg machinations in the market and worried about the ability to pay rent.

ms. castor: americans are wondering, why do you want to inflict job losses? why do you want to risk a recession in democrats are here because we want to avoid those kind of things. we want to avoid job losses. avoid falling into a recession. avoid harm to veterans. avoid the harms to our neighbors. higher costs. harm to small business owners. enough of this manufactured maga crisis. people need to put -- we've got to put people over politics for a change and stop this karineing from one crisis too to the another. chi quays -- chaos inflicted by the g.o.p. put people over politics, get back to work, let's fix this for the people we represent. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman's time has expired. for what purpose does the gentleman from maryland seek recognition? >> to address the house for one minute, ask unanimous consent to revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. >> well, ladies and gentlemen, all over the country, welcome to the united states congress.

only today while we are facing a debt crisis, all of the republicans have left to go out of town. they've gotten to their cars and limos and they're catching planes to go home while we are teetering on the brink of disaster. what kind of leadership is that, kevin mccarthy? mr. mfume: we heard the list we know what the cuts will affect. they'll affect law enforcement. veterans affairs. food assistance. education. 401k retirement plans. pension plans. and cuts to social security. so how can you leave town and not be here to deal with this? all we need are five republicans to sign this discharge petition and it goes away. it's over with. but everybody else has left and so what you see here today are members of the democratic party making an american argument that we have responsibilities to pay

our debts. and they're gone. beam me up, scottie, there's no intelligent life on that side of the aisle. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from california seek recognition? >> recognized for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. >> thank you, madam speaker. house republicans are playing political games and threat ping to default on our country's debt. the extreme maga republicans have taken over the house of representatives and they're creating a crisis. a crisis that they've created. they manufactured. in their minds. and now they're trying to convince the american people what they're doing is right. it's not right for them to make cruel cuts to hurt children, seniors, veterans, teachers, threatening a devastating default on our debt. ladies and gentlemen, madam speaker, the republicans gave

billions of dollars in tax cuts to the biggest corporations and the wealthiest people in america. that was step one. now step two, they're coming after you. the hardworking american people saying now we're going to take away from you after you've actually done so much for your country. they're stepping into this situation, they want to take food away from children and seniors, they want to see us lay off 100,000 teachers and take away child care from children. they are doing this only to try to score political points. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. mr. cardenas: let's get back to work, republican, let's do the right thing. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from new york seek recognition? without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. where'd they go? where are they? did they leave us for a

recession, allowing revenues to fall and borrowing costs to skyrocket? where are they? capital markets will be out of reach and many small businesses won't make their payments at the end of the month, where are they? the world is looking at us and questioning our leadership and where are we going to move and how are we going to cey our own people and what our value, where are they? in this time of need. i know where the democrats are. they're right here talking about how we will stand for them and not allow this manmade, this republican made default on america to last. mr. meeks: where are they? they need to get back here and get back here now for the sake of the american people, the world is watching us. they're looking. they're saying that we may not have to worry about our come teators, we don't have to worry about them. we have to worry about our m garvetion a republicans who have decided to leave and not address the issues that are most

important to america today. where are they? come on back here and get to work. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. for what purpose does the gentleman from texas seek recognition? >> address the house for one minute and revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. mr. green: and still i rise, madam speaker. and i rise today with a very simple message. the debt ceiling has outlived its usefulness. it is time to eliminate the debt ceiling. we have to do so because these issues that we are dealing with currently are only the genesis. the revelations will lead us to other issues involving the social agenda. budgetary items will budgetary items will not be the only items on this extortion agenda.

it's time to end the debt ceiling and let us move forward and negotiate as we appropriately should and have done these many years. madam speaker, i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentlewoman from illinois seek recognition? >> madam speaker, i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute, to revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentlewoman is recognized for one minute. >> as a co-chair of the democratic policy and communications committee, i am so proud to hold the floor today with the united house democratic caucus. let's be crystal clear. the only reason that we're here right now is because republicans are playing politics with people's lives. this crisis has been engineered to rip food out of the mouths of hungry families. ms. underwood: take back the benefits our veterans have earned. and kick children out of child care. or they tell us we can default on our debt. and march right into a global economic disaster.

and now they've gone home for the holiday. madam speaker, 87 democrats spoke before me over the last several hours. 87 democrats have pleaded with you on behalf of our constituents to keep the house in session, to prevent a default on our debt. democrats held the floor. madam speaker, speaker mccarthy, will you join us? i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: under the speaker's announced policy of january 9, 2023, the gentleman from california, mr. kiley is, recognized for -- kiley, is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.

mr. kiley: thank you, madam speaker. we just heard a lot of speeches at a very high volume on the topic of the debt ceiling and many of them had an accompanying visual that said, house republicans are forcing a default on our debt. now, that's a very strange statement given that the house has already passed a bill to stop us from defaulting on our debt. weeks ago. the house passed a bill to raise the debt ceiling. i'll say that again. the house has passed a bill to raise the debt ceiling. that protects social security, protects medicare, protects our veterans, and puts us on the more fiscally sustainable path that americans are demanding. that bill is sitting in the senate right now. the senate could pass it at any time. but, of course, the senate isn't even here this week. so they haven't done so. as we speak, speaker mccarthy

and president biden are negotiating. this is precisely what the overwhelming majority of americans, democrats, republicans, independents, say that they want. a bipartisan solution that raises the debt ceiling, while making responsible reforms to spending. the speeches that we just heard are advocating precisely the opposite. they want to pull the rug out from under this ongoing negotiation, bring it to a stop and pose a one-sided, partisan solution that allows to us keep spending money without limit. indeed, i was particularly struck by a comment from the congresswoman from new york who in defense of this idea that we should keep spending money without limit said this. said, if anyone wants to entertain the thought that we spend too much, think about the last time that someone said, the government does too much. those are her words. she said, think about the last time anyone said, the government

does too much. well, actually, my constituents say that a lot. the government does too much when it overtaxes and overregulates americans. the government certainly did too much when it shut down schools, shut down businesses, shut down churches and imposed unlawful mandates. the government does too much when it pays people more to not work than to work. the government did too much when it went on a multitrillion-dollar spending spree that even barack obama's top economic advisor warned against and gave us this historic inflation crisis. the government does too much when it unleashes 87,000 new i.r.s. agents on unsuspecting american taxpayers. the government does too much when it shuts down the keystone pipeline and inhibits our ability to produce energy domestically. and make us energy independent. but at the end of the day, we

also need to ask, as we've seen the budget just grow and grow and grow without limit, what is the result of all that additional spending? do you look around and see beautiful roads and infrastructure? do you see world-leading schools? do you see a prosperous economy? no, of course not. so i do think that as we make reforms to spending, we also need to focus on waste, fraud and abuse. we need to focus not just on how much money is being spent, you on how -- but on how that money is being spent. not just on the number of dollars we're spending, but on the results that we are getting. and i'm hoping that that is the new paradigm that will emerge from the negotiations going on right now between president biden and speaker mccarthy. a paradigm of customer service, citizen service, a performance-based government. that's what americans deserve and i encourage the president to negotiate in good faith with speaker mccarthy to move us in that direction.

madam speaker, i rise today to discuss the latest disturbing revelations relating to president biden's nominee for u.s. secretary of labor. ms. su's record of gross mismanagement, historic, unmatched mismanagement, is now well understood. for example, during ms. su's tenure, 3dz 2 -- $32.6 billion of taxpayer funds were fraudulently paid to death row inmates, and other fraudsters. this fraud was possible because su waived fraud prevention protection, actually removed guardrails, despite repeated warnings and she failed to follow the commonsense practices of other states and then failed to take corrective actions as billions were lost to fraud.

at the same time that this fraud was occurring, by the way, su improperly denied or delayed for weeks, months, sometimes indefinitely legitimate unemployment claims for millions of americans. madam speaker, i've now spoken on this floor several times to make sure that americans are aware of that track record. and understand the risk that elevating ms. su poses. it is a reasonable infor instance that a nominee who -- inference that a nominee who failed in her past role would fail in this role and certainly has failed to earn such a promotion. well, now that is no longer merely an inference. it is the reality. because as her nomination has stalled, ms. su has all the while been serving as the acting secretary at the department of labor. and unsurprisingly, she has brought her record of mismanagement from california to the department of labor as acting secretary. with terrible consequences.

a recent report from "the new york times" has uncovered evidence of a major spike in unaccompanied migrant minors, children, being funneled to work in dangerous jobs in violation of federal labor law. the article is titled, as migrant children were put to work, u.s. ignored warnings. "the times" reports the white house and federal agencies were repeatedly alerted to signs of children at risk, the warnings were ignored or missed. to take one example from "the times" article, a boy working construction said he felt ashamed about not knowing how to read. he was released in 2022 at age 12 and put to work by a man who had sponsor at least five children. in another case, at a day labor pickup site, a 13-year-old released last year to a man he had never met, said he wished he could enroll in middle school and start learning english. the problem is much broader than a handful of cases. signs of migrant child labor

have been uncovered inside industrial workplaces, including several auto part factories. additionally, over 100 children were found working the overnight shift, scouring meat packing plants across the country. according to the ti times $. monday -- "the times." monitoring workplaces to prevent child labor is the job of the labor department. julie su was deputy labor secretary and is now acting labor secretary. and she held those roles as children were exploited to work in grueling conditions in violation of federal labor law. this pattern of conduct almost exactly mirrors su's tenure in california. repeated warnings of a serious problem, little to no preventive action, followed by a refusal to accept responsibility or change course when her failures are brought to light. and unfortunately this isn't the only major concern that has emerged during julie su's short time as acting u.s. secretary of labor. at the same time that children

have been exploited in workplaces, ms. su has failed to properly manage the h-2-a program for bringing in temporary agricultural workers on a legal basis. just this morning house education and the work force chairwoman, virginia foxx, and i send the an -- sent an oversight letter to acting secretary su regarding serious delays in the processing of those applications. in the letter we write, it has come to the attention of the committee on education and the work force that employers applying for labor certifications at the department of labor for agricultural workers are facing substantial delays. these delays can be tremendously harmful for american agriculture. the arrival of workers can be delayed by weeks, causing inefficiencies and supply chain disruptions. the planting andujar vesting windows offer -- and harvesting windows offer only a short amount of time to meet the season's needs. our understanding is this worsening problem is caused by unnecessary and avoidable delays at the department of labor. incredibly, a department of

labor official, mike rios, who serves as an ers forcement -- an enforcement director is, quoted a -- director, is quoted as saying this. you can see that the program is the purchase of human beings. is literally the purchase of humans to perform difficult work under terrible conditions, sometimes including subhuman living conditions. this is a bipartisan program that has been created and has existed for a long time. he says, but that's what he had to say about it. he's also quoted as saying, you can throw a rock and hit a violation in thing can all thal industry -- in the agricultural industry. that's a strange thing for him to say considering it is his department and julie su's department, the department of labor, that is responsible for preventing those sort of violations. for enforcing our labor laws. so under julie su's leadership, the department of labor is failing to protect workers, including children, is unfairly attacking america's farmers, and is failing to support our agriculture sectors' work force

needs under a program authorized by federal law. she has been acting secretary for only a matter of months and was deputy secretary for two years. in that time, she has directly transferred her record of mismanagement from california to the rest of the nation. and i should say, in california right now, we have the nation's largest budget deficit. we have the nation's second highest unemployment rate. we have the nation's lowest rate of income growth. we have the highest rate of poverty. this is the direct result of the mismanagement and the anti-worker, anti-business, anti-opportunity policies from the likes of julie su and gavin newsom. with everything we now know, to elevate ms. su would be to take our country down the failed path of california with eyes wide open. i urge president biden to choose a different course. it is past time to withdraw this nomination.

madam speaker, i rise today to support the halt all lethal trafficking of fentanyl act. which passed the house of representatives earlier today. this bill fixes a critical loophole and empowers law enforcement to continue to have the tools they need to prevent fentanyl distribution in communities across america. we are seeing staggering amounts of fentanyl pour across the southern border. flooding our communities with illicit and lethal pills, killing tens of thousands of americans every year. this is now the leading cause of death for young people in our country. more than car accidents, more than suicides, more than anything. it is affecting every community in our country, including my own. during the state of the union a few months ago, i was honored to have as my guest two of our nation's leading advocates for fentanyl awareness. the parents of a young man named zach didier who tragically lost his life to fentanyl. he was a senior at whitney high

school, a standout student, with no history of drug use. and from one pill he tragically lost his life. his parents had to go through the gut-wrenching experience of seeing him get letters in the mail accepting him to some of our nation's leelanding universities -- our nation's leading universities after he had passed away. there's simply no doubt that addressing the fentanyl crisis will save the lives of many of my constituents and of people in every community in our country. and this act, the halt all lethal trafficking of fentanyl act, is a major step in that direction. in fact, the act itself is common sense. fentanyl is currently classified as a schedule one drug, which gives the drug enforcement agency the power to enforce and arrest criminals involved in producing and distributing fentanyl. to avoid prosecution, criminals manufacture drugs chemically identical to fentanyl. they don't fall under the

technical definition of fentanyl. the department of justice and d.e.a. temporarily classified these fentanyl-related substances as schedule 1 drugs. this commonsense approach makes it permanent. giving law enforcement the tools they need to prosecute those responsible and involved in the fentanyl crisis from producers to dealers is a critical component of the approach needed to save lives and stop fentanyl from destroying our communities. we know this approach works. after d.e.a. classified them as a schedule 1 drugs, use fell by over 90%. i urge my colleagues to support a proven measure that will save lives and vote aye, which just passed the house today with bipartisan support and has the support of president biden as

well. i rise today to address a situation surrounding the senior senator from california, the latest news is that our governor is now talking about appointing oprah to the u.s. senate as a replacement. the governor has been talking about replacing senator feinstein for over two years. he started publicly speculating about this in 2021 and who he would replace and senator feinstein was barely a third of the way in her term. senator padilla got his appoint mountain by the governor. if there was an appointment of senator feinstein, then both

senators have been hand picked by a single person to initially get their jobs. at this moment, pressure is coming from all directions when it comes to this situation and with a race in 2024 already underway. a number of sitting members of the house actually owe vertly called on senator feinstein to resign. representative khanna said we need to have senator feinstein to resign. not speaking out undermines our credibility as electives of the people. and congresswoman tlaib and others made similar comments urging the senator to vacate her office and the individual being supported by representative khanna is barbara lee.

she said she would accept an appointment to the job if the governor offered it to her. nancy pelosi is supporting another candidate, congressman schiff and there have been a number of recent headlines related to this. this comes from politico, which says that feinstein's primary caregiver is pelosi's daughter. a quiet caretaking arrangements had senator feinstein's at heart. and another, pelosi office denies that she i had aiding senator feinstein. this is a mess. not what is in the interest of senator feinstein, interest of our state or country.

it is all about politics. i believe the solution is to do away with the possibility of a gubernatorial appointment. senator feinstein can make the decision on her own terms. she will know whether they finishes her term or steps down, it is california voters who will decide who her successor will be. that will allow her to make a decision without the distractions of politics at the moment. i have introduced a constitutional amendment, doing away with appointed senators. this would make it so the senate is the same as the house. you don't have any appointed members of the house who step on to this floor but a lot of appointed senators. if you want to represent your state as a united states senator, you need to be elected to do so. and this process of appointing

senators in the case of a vacancy and subject to rampant abuse. we had a governor of illinois go to prison after he auctiononned off a senatorial seat. so i am calling on members of the house and senate to join me in passing that to do away with this antidemocratic process of appointing senators. this will not take effect prior to the current situation with senator feinstein being resolved. i am calling on the state legislature in california which has oversight over election laws and itself is responsible for

. and i raised an issue with the legality of senator padilla's appointment and the legislative counsel's office in california agreed with me that it would not be constitutional for the governor to appoint a senator who would serve out the remainder of senator harris' term which was set to expire in 2022. the 17th amendment only allows temporary appointments. so the legislature did in response to the legal issue i raised and the legislative counsel's office agreed with me on they passed a bill to say ok, we will have a special election to determine who the new senator is going to be and who is going

to finish the term but not have the special election until the next election. that actually happened in november of 2022 at the same time we held the election for who who would serve the next six-year term. same election on the ballot twice, one for the six-year term and then the lame duck session of the existing term. that's the way the legislature gave as much advantage to the governor's chosen senator and abiding by the senate's 17th amendment. i have been in conversation with the members of the legislature, they should make an exception to the current situation with senator feinstein to say if there is a vacancy, there will not be an appointment but an immediate special election and how the successor will be

chosen. i think that this is what it will allow for fairness in the process of choosing our next senator and give many californians a say rather than just one individual and give senator feinstein the ability to make a decision that is best for her, the state and the country. i urge that action on the part of the legislature. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: under the speaker's announced policy of january 9, 2023, the gentleman from texas, mr. green, is recognized as the designee of the minority leader. mr. green: madam speaker and still i rise and still i rise a

proud descendant of the enslaved people who are the foundational mothers and fathers of the united states of america. they are the foundational mothers and fathers because many of them had their entire lives sacrificed so that the country could have the economic foundation that it had in the early stages of its existence. these foundational mothers and fathers are the persons who were kidnapped, brought to this country, placed into slavery, forced into labor, centuries of labor, not compensated, no renew mexico regulates -- renew mexico

regulates -- renum emp r arch t inch omp n. time to rm the foundational mothers and fathers upon which this nation stands today. i am proud to tell you that i'm here today to mention the conscious agenda and make sure that we have a slavery remembrance day, august 20 because on august 20, 1619, the white lion docked in point comfort, virginia, near what we call norfolk, virginia. and these were persons on this white lion, who were placed into slavery in this country, august 20, 1619. a moment in time that will impact the rest of time. we will never escape the fact

that it happened. it was a see himinal moment in time. we ought to also do something to acknowledge those persons whom i call the foundational mothers and fathers, proud descend ant of them. in 1946, we accorded a congressional gold medal to confederate soldiers. a congressional gold medal to confederate soldiers. to those persons who would enslave persons or maintain slavery, this congress did it, a congressional gold medal. well, why not have a congressional gold medal for the enslaved? the foundational mothers and fathers, this is part of the conscious agenda. a optional gold medal for the

enslaved. in this country that i love, i salute the flag. i say the pledge of allegiance. i stand for the national anthem. it means something to me to be an american in this country, i do all of these things. the greatness of the country will be measured by whether i will defend those who choose not to salute the flag or the pledge of allegiance. the greatness of country is how we tolerate persons who have opinions that are not popular. it's the greatness in america. but the truth is, in this country that i am proud to be a part of, proud to say i'm an american, united states is my home, my origin of my descend

ants, but in this country we revere the enslavers and revial -- revile the enslaved. these were human beings. if we can give a congressional gold medal to the enslavers, the confederate soldiers, we can give one to the foundational mothers and fathers and worked hundreds of years to make this country the great nation that it is. all apart of the conscious agenda. today having spoken on these things briefly, i'm going to talk about the third item on the conscious agenda. the third item is removing the

name of richard russell from the russell senate office building. to properly address this, i have to lay a predicate, we ought to talk first about beneficial bigotry. and to properly explain beneficial bigotry. we have to address a concept and it is this notion that those who tolerate bigotry perpetrate bigotry. those who tolerate bigotry, because of that toll regulates of bigotry, you are perpetrating it because you are not doing what you can to stop it. we ought not tolerate bigotry. the russell senate office building named after richard russell, a self-proclaimed white

supremacist. . a person who fought anti-lynching legislation. that means he didn't want us to pass anti-lynching legislation. a person who fought integration. if he had his way, there's a good likelihood i would not be standing here today. a person who co-authored the southern manifesto. richard russell, his name is on the russell senate office building. identified himself as a white supremacist. well, dear friends, his name ought not be there. we ought not tolerate his name being there. because to tolerate his name there is to perpetuate the bigotry associated with his many exploits. richard russell's name should be removed from the russell senate office building. and it should be replaced with

the name that it had before it became the russell senate office building. i don't have a person's name that i'd like to call to the attention of the congress. i don't. because there will be some debate about that. but i do believe that we can let it revert to the name that it had prior to becoming the russell senate office building. and that was the old senate office building. i think it should be called the old senate office building. let it revert back to this. and then take as much time as you need to acquire an honorable name to go on the building. the russell senate office building currently is a symbol of national shame. it is. and the senators ought to be ashamed because they have the power to remove this name from the building. they have the power to do it, the senate. same senate that voted on removing names from military

bases can remove this name from the russell senate office building. the toleration of bigotry is the per pet situation of it -- per pet situation of it. allowing -- per pet situation of it -- perpetuation of it. we ought to use that awesome power that the senate has to do not the right thing but the righteous thing. it would be a righteous thing to remove this name from the building. i'm going to talk about beneficial bigotry. this is a part of my predicate. when you benefit from bigotry, if you believe it benefits you in some way, you tolerate it. i by the way have not been afforded that luxury. if i say something that's bigoted, if i am near bigotry, i

have to apologize. and i have apoll jietzed, by -- apologized, by the way, for things i found to be unacceptable. i have. i have to. i'm not allowed the luxury of having the benefits that beneficial bigotry can afford people. but there are many who fight bigotry until it benefits them. and they don't have to apol apologize. they can let a building be called the russell senate office building, fight bigotry everywhere but in the building wherein they happen to have offices. fight it everywhere but right here, the russell senate office building with its name. let me give you some examples of what beneficial bigotry

alowls -- allows. beneficial bigotry will allow a country to name a town after a bigot. beneficial bigotry. beneficial bigotry allows some people the luxury of associating with bigots and justifying it. that's what beneficial bigotry accords some people. but we ought not allow the benefits of bigotry to allow us to tolerate bigotry such that we perpetuate bigotry and that's what's happening with the russell senate office building. my friends, i live today to live to see the day that this name will come off of this building.

i don't know when it will happen, it will. but i do know how the system works. and it's beneficial to know how it works. the system functions such that when some people demand things of others who have the power to make the change, they will not make that change because of the simple fact that the demand was made and they don't want it to appear as though they had to succumb to the demand that was made. and i am demanding. i'm demanding. i'm not begging, i am in a sense pleading, but i'm demanding that the name come off. so you see, when you do this, when you're bold enough and you have the courage enough to demand that the righteous thing be done, there are some people who are not going to do the

righteous thing simply because they can't let it be said that they've caved in, as it were, to borrow the parlance of many persons, that they caved in to a demand to do the righteous thing. they can't accept that. so what they will do is they'll try to find a way to do this, to remove the name, and proclaim victory because it was done for some other reason. not because of the demand, but for some other reason. you know, i'm ok with that. just remove the name. find a clever way to do it. and usually they will find some person that they find favor with to become the person that actually caused it to happen. history is replete with examples

of where persons of african ancestry have not been properly credited for what they've done in history. i can think of some examples that are in my book that i'll share with you at a later time. but the point is this. we cannot allow persons to simply decide that because they have the power and they get to set the agenda, that they won't do it. there is nothing preventing the senate from changing this name, removing it, saving will. just the will. remove the name of the bigot from the building. nothing preventing it except for will. my prayer to the senate is that the senate would do the righteous thing. don't tolerate bigotry. you don't have to.

your offices are in the building. your offices are in the building. in the russell senate office building. a symbol of national shame. you ought to be ashamed that it's there. your office. what is wrong with us? i know how the system works. i'm a part of it. i ought to. but there is some positive news related to richard russell. and the positive news is that one of my colleagues of whom i am proud to associate with as it relates to this, the honorable bonney wattson coleman -- bonney watson coleman -- bonnie watson coleman. she's proposing legislation that would take richard russell's name off a bill, off

legislation. i came to this floor some time ago and i brought up the fact that his name is on more than a building. his name is on legislation. there's a lunch program that his name is on and mrs. watson coleman has legislation that would rename the national school lunch program act and it is going to take his name, remove his name and substitute it with another name. i compliment you, my dear friend, m mrs. watson coleman, i compliment you for doing this. this is the honlrable thing to do -- honorable thing to do. i appreciate it. i'm going to appreciate it and i'm going to, if allowed, be her co-lead on this legislation.

but i made a commitment and i want the world to know that i try my best to honor my commitments. i made a commitment and the records of the congress will reflect that on april 28, 2023, volume 169, number 72 of the daily edition, there's a topic styled the conscious agenda, part of the congressional record, and i stood right here in this very spot and i made a commitment. and about halfway through my message, you will find the commitment where i'm speaking of legislation that bears the name of richard russell. same person whose name is on the building. and i said it, the richard russell national school lunch program is what i'm talking about, i indicate that this legislation bears his name.

and then here are my compact words. his name -- exact words. his name shouldn't be on a school lunch program. and i go on to say, i am filing legislation, and i said, this is an update, because last time when i spoke on this topic it was an update, i say, this is an update. i'm filing legislation, this is an update, to have richard russell's name removed from all legislation that happens to bear it currently. all legislation, i say. and to never have his name listed again. and i go on to say, he is a symbol of national shame. his name should be removed. i still stand by that. so, while i am going to support and co-lead and proud to know that mrs. watson coleman is filing her legislation, i will

file my legislation to keep my commitment that i've made to people who chronicled the things that i do. i want them to know that i'm following through. so i will be filing my legislation notwithstanding the fact that i would support proudly mrs. watson coleman's legislation. friends, we live in a country that accords us free speech. this is a priceless possession to have. free speech. there are so many places in the world where one could not stand as i'm standing today before the world, literally, and say the things that i've said. this is one of the reasons why i love my country. because of the free speech. but here is a question that we have to ask ourselves. if we have free speech and free speech can be the methodology by

which we can bring about change, and if we are tolerant of bigotry, is that free speech really being used to the benefit of the people who actually accorded us, afforded us the free speech in the people who -- speech? the people who are the framers of the constitution. i have great respect for thernlg the framers, who -- for them, the framers, who thought this thing was so important that they put it in the institution. so i'm standing here to take advantage of and use that free speech, that free speech that allows me to stand here and tell you that beneficial bigotry is going to become the shame of many persons in this country. i have here invitations, these

are all invitations. i won't turn them toward the camera because i really don't want to, today, expose the names of the persons who sent me these invitations. but here's one that is for a luncheon that took place in the month of may, won't give the date, because, again, i'm not interested in identifying the organization, inviting me to an event taking place in the russell senate office building. obviously if you know me you know that i didn't go. i am a one-person protest. i refuse to go into the russell senate office building except to protest. i'm not going i'm not going into that building unless to protest. my friends, whose names i shall

not reveal sent me this request and i wrote this in response. i'll come back to that in a moment. i have another friends having an event in the month of may, russell senate office building. i didn't attend. i sent them a letter. another offer to attend the russell senate office building and be a part of an event. i did not attend. i sent them a letter. now all of these were just for the month of may. and while not calling names, some of the people who sent me these invitations are people who fight bigotry veemently. who stand against bigotry in all

its forms. they do. but they have events in the russell senate office building. how can you events in the russell senate office building and say that you are antithet call to bigotry, the that you are going to fight bigotry. there are some places if i want into, i would have to apologize, because those places are associated with bigotry. but not my friends over in the senate in and out on a daily basis, friends inviting me to come to events there, be a part of programs. russell senate office building is a benefit to them.

you cannot allow beneficial bigotry, my friends, because you tolerate bigotry. when you do this, you perpetrate bigotry. i told you i sent a letter to my friends explaining my position. i'm going to read excerpts from the letter and the reference is invitation to luncheon, leaving out the rest of it. and it's in the russell senate office building. dear, i'm going to sayp friend, so as not to identify the person. thank you for your invitation to the luncheon. i am compelled to decline your invitation as i am boycotting the russell senate office building where the luncheon will take place.

yes -- the yes isn't here, but just a part of me expressing myself, because i feel good about what i did. yes. i write, richard russell was an unapologetic bigot and a white supremacist who claimed that america was a white man's country. check the records if you don't believe me. it's all there. same richard russell that the building is named after, a white man's country. and he goes on to say, we are going to keep it that way. it's a white man's country. and we are going to keep it that way, meaning we are going to keep it a white man's country. i know this is uncomfortable for many people to hear.

we would rather have al green simply tolerate bigotry and perpetrate bigotry. that's what we would like to do when it is beneficial bigotry and benefits other folk. let me go on, if i may. he not only successfully filibustered antilynching bills, but also voted against the 1964 civil rights act. richard russell. that's my commentary. calling it -- these are his words, shortsided and dangerous. the man whose name is on a building paid for by taxpayer dollars many of whom are people of color, indicated that the

1964 civil rights act was shortsided and dangerous. richard russell, a beneficial bigot whose name is on the russell senate office building. permit me to read on. these are my words, he co-authored the southern manifesto in opposition to racial integration. i won't read it in its entirety. i'm going to the next to the last line in the letter. i indicate, for these and other compelling reasons, i will not enter the russell senate office building except to protest, until the name of the bigot is removed from the building.

i know there are people who are saying, who let him say that? how could you let al green come to the floor of the house of representatives and say these things? here's how. free speech. here's how. speaking truth. this is how it happens. i'm here to do to say what to do. i'm here to speak truth to power. yes, there are consequences, but at some point in life, you ought to decide that you are not going to tolerate beneficial bigotry especially when you are not allowed to tolerate it. and to see others tolerate it

while demanding that you do not tolerate it, that's also hypocritical. i indicate, until his name is removed from the building, upon which i still stand. i want to go on record saying this. just as i went on record saying i will file the bill to remove his name, in legislation, and i will and i'm going to sign on to congresswoman watson coleman's bill. but now my commitment is this, i'm going to send a letter now to all of my friends in the human rights, civil rights movement because many of the folk who wrote me these letters that i have, many of these people are in the human rights, civil rights movement. so i'm going to send them a letter, do not invite me to

attend meetings in the russell senate office building. be so kind as to not insult me. i'm not a perfect victim or the victim who is going to tolerate the bigotry and witness your toll regulates of it because it is beneficial. don't invite me. i'm not coming. continue to tolerate the beneficial bigotry that you enjoy by being in the russell senate office building. but know this, there will come a time when his name will be removed. the universe is constructed such as dr. king put it, the arc, the moral arc is long, but it bends towards justice. this will be the just thing to

do remove richard russell from the senate office building. i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. under the speaker's announced policy of january 9, 2023, the chair recognizes the gentleman from texas, mr. roy, for 30 minutes. mr. roy: i thank the speaker. and i always appreciate hearing from the gentleman from texas. don't always agree, but he's a friend and a gentleman and i enjoy seeing him down on the floor. i yield to my friend from texas. mr. green: if i may call you chip, you are congressman roy, but if i may so, people don't know the relationships that people have, they don't know.

you can respect people that you don't agree with. that is the greatness of america. respecting people that you have opposite views, but you can respect them. and if you work with them long enough, you'll find common ground. i yield back. mr. roy: amen. i appreciate the words from my brother and friend from texas. he is exactly right. last night, i was on an interview on fox with my friend byron donalds and staked out two different positions on the nomination for president and we will be coming together in a year and carrying forward in the general election. but we have to remember we can agree to disagree. we can have a vigorous debate and engage. i wish we would have much more

down here on the floor having actual debate. we want to start turning some of our special orders into special debates. that would be better use of our time and go back and forth. and two minute intervals and engage in the body of the people's house. i have to take some issue with some of the one-minute speeches that my colleagues on the other side of the aisle were engaging in about an hour ago. i saw that the democrat majority leader was on the floor with a chart and that chart said house republicans are running out of town to cause an economic meltdown. sounds ominous. sounds terrible and threatening and calamity is going to ensue. where is senate democrats or

chuck schumer. they have been m.i.a. they have been m.i.a. all year except being the personnel office for the administration. that's all they do. run through nominations and they aren't even good at that. where was the president last week? japan. you see this ominous threat of a looming debt ceiling date, x date, june 1 is manufactured crisis and theater. we know that. americans know that. secretary yellen wants to figure out how we need a deal with whatever interest payments need to be paid in june. she can make decisions figure out how to carry this country forward and walk on down here and meet with us long before the june 7 date she is planning to

come down and talk to us. how about taking those covid dollars back that are sitting there? how about taking the i.r.s. dollars that are there to expand the internal revenue service, i.r.s. targets the poor and minorities three times more. that is the true. take that $80 billion and combine it with the covid money and voila, no problem. they won't do that. my democratic colleagues that the fear created by a manufactured crisis and prefer to use that crisis as rahm emmanuel said, never let a crisis go to waste. they prefer to manufacture a crisis to jack up more debt on our children and grandchildren to the tune of $4 million. that's what they want more than

anything on earth, they want to spend more money and undermine our freedoms and destroy the american way of life and they are doing it right now. that's what's happening. the fact is we had some of our democratic colleagues and one individual said, quote, make no mistake, they, meaning republicans, have no plan. well, i'm sorry, we passed a bill in april. we actually passed a bill off of the house floor that raises the debt ceiling and provides a path to fiscal responsibility and we did it in april. but we have no plan. we have to have this manufactured crisis. . we have another quote. president biden already lowered the deficit by $1.7 trillion, they say. his budget will cut another $3

trillion by eliminating wasteful spending on big oil and pharma, we're told. but it is in fact our democratic colleagues who prefer to maintain their massive subsidies for the elites and the wealthy in their so-called inflation reduction act just last year. my friend from new york, ms. ocasio-cortez, said, quote, i ask you, think about the last time a person has said in this country that the government does too much for them. when was the last time anyone has heard or seen that? i'll say it. i'll say it right here. i don't want the government doing most of the things that the government is doing to interfere with the ability of the american people to carry out their lives. federal, state, and local. when was the last time you had a bureaucrat show up and you said,

oh, joy, thank you, i'm really glad there's a bureaucrat here? when was the last time you were thankful for $32 trillion in debt, $100,000 almost for every man, woman, and child in america? anyone thankful for $32 trillion in debt? anybody? anybody thankful for a border that's wide open, being exploited by cartels while fentanyl comes in and kills our children? everybody thankful for that department of homeland security that doesn't actually secure the homeland? everybody thankful for an f.b.i. that went after scott smith and labeled him a domestic terrorist for daring to defend his daughter in a school board meeting because she was assaulted in a bathroom? anybody thankful for the i.r.s. knocking on your door, auditing the poor, the minorities three to five times more? people thankful for that? are you thankful for the e.p.a., department of interior that sent a man to prison because he had

some ponds on a ranch in montana? we have a government that's undermining our liberties and they want more of it. my colleagues on the other side of the aisle want more. more government. they want more taxes. they want more spending. they want more bureaucrats knocking on your door, like mark in philadelphia when he woke up to his door being knocked on by local law enforcement teamed up with federal law enforcement to go carry out a warrant to arrest him because he had defended his son exercising free speech because he's a pro-life activist in philadelphia. that is your government at work. the fact is, we have a decision to make here. what are we going to do? are we going to listen to the

wailing and gnashing of teeth of our colleagues on the other side of the aisle projecting a manufactured crisis to exploit fear to try to raise our debt limit, credit card limit by $4 trillion? i want to be very clear, and i want to be clear to my colleagues on this side of the aisle. anybody making a deal right now? $4 trillion, are you out of your freaking mind? when i came to this town as a lawyer on the senate judiciary committee, the entire debt was $6 trillion. and what are doing? we're having a conversation, blowing my mind, a conversation about raising our debt another $4 trillion. why? so we can continue to fund the very bureaucrats that at least my colleagues on this side of the aisle campaigned against. well, guess what, you have the power of the purse for a reason.

you should use it. federalist 58, james madison said the power of the purse granted to the people of the house was the most powerful tool you can give against the tyranny of the executive branch. my colleagues on this side of the aisle like to go around and campaign against all of the things that the bureaucracy's doing or that my colleagues on the other side of the aisle support. but when it comes down to gametime -- and it's gametime right now -- when it comes down to gametime, are we going to use the power of the purse to defend the american people against the onslaught of the tyranny of the executive branch? are we going to tuck tail, take the first exit ramp off and walk away? because what i'm hearing right now being debated, being negotiated, is taking the first exit ramp off to cut a deal. because that's what we do in this town, cut a deal. but that deal is not a deal for our kids and our grandkids.

we passed a responsible bill in april. my message to my republican colleagues is, hold the line. my message to my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, quit lying to the american people. quit advancing this fraud of a manufactured crisis. stop telling people that you can just continue to spend money we don't have. stop lying to them that there's more tax revenue to go get when we're at the highest level of tax revenue ever in our history, matched only two other times, world war ii and in 2000 at the end of the dot-com explosion. almost 20% of our g.d.p. we are taking in by taxes. my colleagues on the other side of the aisle hide behind that, and they refuse to acknowledge that this government is too big, too burdensome, too weaponized against the american people. so we passed a bill that would

pull back discretionary spending $131 billion to 2022 spending levels. now, that's what we were spending a mere six months ago. my colleagues on the other side of the aisle will tell you, oh, my god, you're going to completely dismantle everybody's life and well-being. it's literally what we were spending six months ago. more than that, you can maintain defense levels at 2023 levels, current levels, and you can return your bureaucratic state, your nondefense spending to merely what we were spending right before covid. recognizing, by the way, that our government is now 40% bigger since the beginning of covid. we can return it to pre-covid levels which, by the way, polls at 60%. most americans say, i think i can deal with that great efficiency, bureaucracy, pre-covid. we can do that. that's what we passed. that's what republicans stood up

and passed and put into the senate's hands. and by the way, if we did that, we could fund n.d.d., that's nondefense discretionary, at the exact same level as that great maga extremist abobarack obama proposed for floor 2024 -- fiscal year 2024 in his last budget. secondly, we passed measures that would repeal the grid-destroying tax credits passed in the name of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle say green, i say unreliable energy in this so-called inflation reduction act. that will enrich leftists, enrich corporations, and enrich the chinese communist party. last year, through reconciliation, which is not the way we should do business. this is how obamacare was

passed. with a mere majority vote in the house and the senate with 158 proxy votes people in this chamber who were not physically present during the august recess on a party line vote, democrats jammed through a giant giveaway to the wealthiest americans. gol goldman sachs estimates over three times the original estimate. if we do not carry through as republicans, if we do not carry through with a measure we passed in april to reduce those subsidies, then the e.i.a., the energy information agency, i think it is, estimates that the i.r.a., the inflation reduction act -- we use too many acronyms in this account -- solar is 60% by 2050. everybody is jumping up and down and schools have been told, wind and solar -- it's the magic unicorn energy.

it's great, clean, wonderful. they don't ever talk about the side effects. they don't talk about the children mining, being abused around the world. they don't talk about the environmental impact of the turbines, the wind turbines in west texas. what happens to birds? they don't talk about what it means about empowering china. they don't talk about you can't have a grid that stays up and powers your homes and hospitals and your lives because you don't have gas-fired plants, you don't have coal-fired plants, you don't have nuclear plants backing up the grid. because i can tell you on a cloudy, windless day in texas, we in trouble. it's true. but everybody's going to go around on the other side of the aisle and say -- i've seen them. they go give speeches to kids on the steps of the capitol. oh, we're doing this great thing for you. don't you know, we care about the environment, we care about our planet. you now have all of this great

clean energy. well, enjoy being in third-world status with brownouts like we're seeing in europe, like we're seeing in other parts of the world where they're retreating, retreating from the full embrace of so-called green, i i. -- i.e., energy resources because you undermine human flourishing. you undermine the well-being and prosperity of the poorest of the poor in this world when you take away the ability for us to have energy and that's exactly what my democrat colleagues did. and in the process, are enriching their fat cat friends. 90% of the subsidies go to corporations of billion dollars and up. oh, but i thought this was all the good stuff, the unicorn energy stuff. no. rich people, financeers taking tons of money on the back of grit, of corporate cronyism, the worst kind of corporate cronyism you have ever seen on display happening right here.

what are republicans doing? running away saying, well, they'll never give up their signature inflation reduction act bill. bull. they'll give it up if we take it to them and hold the line for the american people. stand up and hold the line, to my republican colleagues, against the worst form of corporate cronyism i've ever seen on the floor of this body. how about the 80% of the electric vehicle subsidies that go to people who make $100,000 or $300,000 as a couple? yeah. so the poor guy out there is a plumber trying to drive his pickup around is going to be told, you got to go subsidize the little suburbanite family running around in their e.v. feeling good about themselves, patting themselves on the back while they go plug their e.v. in to charge it using as much power as you use for your air conditioning unit which has to come from somewhere and that somewhere ain't nuclear, ain't

gas, it ain't coal anymore because they're destroying our ability to produce the reliable power that we need for the very e.v.'s they want to subsidize. let's not even talk about how much that's empowering china. directly. chinese companies are eligible for these climate credits. a recent analysis found chinese companies could end up with $125 billion in i.r.a. subsidies. so you are you're giving them -- so you're giving them all the power, the chinese communist party, you're subsidizing them with taxpayer money, you allow the chinese sell the panels back with the minerals they mine. how in the world is this good for our national security or energy security? it's not. democrats should be ashamed. republicans should be ashamed if we walk away, which is what they're about to do. cutting a deal that undermines the american people. taking the very first offramp, the very first exit ramp.

how about the third issue, overturning biden's unfair deficit-increasing and tuition-increasing student loan bailout which will cut the deficit by $400 billion to $500 billion this year? we passed that. yea, republicans. they were all cheering down here. we should cheer it, but guess what we're doing? walking away from it. you know why? because my republican colleagues say, don't worry. the supreme court will strike it down as unconstitutional. guess what, one, don't count on it. don't put all your eggs in the supreme court basket. number two, there's this thing called the constitution, which we're supposed to enforce and support. you don't walk away from your own view of the

constitutionality of the unconstitutional act by a president. it's our job. if i hear one member of the republican party in this house use the term "power of the purse" who walks away from forcing democrats to end this unlawful, unconstitutional act by the president of the united states to unilaterally, unilaterally choose to make individuals in this country pay off the loans of other individuals of this country, how is that standing up for the people? how is that holding the line? 87% of the american people don't have student loans. those who have, 56% have master's agree. the plumber is now supporting

that person subsidizing and that gender studies' degree. the plumber who started a business, didn't take out a loan, worked hard is now subsidizing the gender studies and allows someone to stay at their parents' home. what we are going to do is cut a deal. cut a deal to get what? more about that later, whenever we figure out what that is. i would remind everybody that speaker pelosi said, quote, people think that the president of the united states has the power for debt for giveness.

he does not. he can postpone, he can delay, but he does not have that power. that has to be an act of congress. there was no act of congress, yet we are funding it. we defunded it as republicans but now we're working away -- walking away to cut a deal. we should not do that. number 4, rescinding $80 billion democrats gave the i.r.s. to hire agents that will hurt working class and the poor the most. my colleagues say republicans just want to protect rich tax cheats. that great purveyor of right-wing, the i.r.s. audits the poor five times than anyone else. according to "new york times," a great purveyor of radical right-wing news.

black taxpayers are three times likely to be audited by the i.r.s. rich people have lawyers. rich people get subsidies by the very people who go out and campaign and say they are doing things for the american people while enriching their fat cat buddies like my republican colleagues voted to end and now walking away from alimb fating it. reform number 5, implement the rains act to end the use of executive power to approve major regulations that cost americans billions of dollars. president biden has saddled the american people with $318 billion in costs. but more than that, there are massive regulations being carried out by this administration through executive

order that has a massive economic impact and liberty impact. turning felons. and attaches to a constitutional protective weapon. the student loan fiasco i just described, regulation after regulation by this administration and we want to pass the rains act which we just passed out of judiciary. and are we going to be part of our deal? not in the leaked reports i'm seeing. let's allow the administration to continue to run ram showed through executive orders because we want a deal. reform number 6, strengthen and establish work requirements for able bodied rerequirements that are receiving assistance. i have gotten to one there may be a little fight on this side

of the aisle that tried to get one of the things that we passed. i don't know how much. i don't know what it will apply to, but i can tell you that my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, they don't want people to have to work. president biden voted for it 11 times. president clinton signed it. but your modern democratic party in 2023 wants to pay people not to work. there is no other explanation for it. if they say otherwise, it's not true. we want people to work and give people the benefit off of welfare reform. our country depends on it, our society depends on it and children depend on their parents to work. my colleagues on the other side of the aisle don't want that. but we do. it is part of whatever deal is being discussed.

but it ought to be and ought to be a part of it, because we passed it already. we passed a deal. finally, reclaiming billions in unobligated covid funds. that is the peanuts on the floor. $50 billion of unobligated covid funds. it drove up inflation. we have an obligation in this house to do our job to stop spending money recklessly, to stop printing money, stop driving up inflation. when everyone goes around memorial day weekend and they go salute the fallen and go to

arlington national and cemetery at our national cemeteries, what did they fight for? did they fight for us to cut a deal because i'm pretty sure the boys sitting in a fox hole weren't interested in moving that line back to normandy. hold the damn line. don't back off, republicans. stand up for the country that you go out and campaigned for. hold the line for the american people, because the bill we passed in april, i'm going to be honest with you, it's a downpayment of what we have to do. it's just the beginning. and if we walk away from that, if we walk away from that because people get weak-kneed, they are crying, we are not going to make our debt payments,

yes, we are. the president of the united states knows what you know. we can't walk away from our debt payments. we have to make those payments. secretary yellen and the president know it. we will not default but we are defaulting on the american dream every single day where we continue to spend money that we don't have to fund the bureaucrats. if the republicans walk away with this, they don't deserve to stay in the majority. we should hold the line for the american people and future of this country. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time members are reminded to refrain from engaging in personalities toward the president. the chair lays before the house a communication. the clerk: the speaker's rooms washington d.c., may 25, 2023, i

designate the period from friday, may 26, 2023 through sunday june 4, 2023 as a district work period under section 3-z of house resolution 5. signed sincerely, kevin mccarthy, speaker of the house of representatives. the speaker pro tempore: under the speaker's announced policy of january 9, 2023, the chair recognizes the gentleman from wisconsin, mr. grothman, for 30 minutes. mr. grothman: most of the discussion in this building over the last few weeks has been on the debt limit and i should lead off by addressing it a little bit. the american public is thinking why are people fighting on this bill? what does it difference does it

make? at least the republican party wants a little more fiscal restraint. first of all, the debt is now 100% of g.d.p. it is just shy of that. first time it's happened since world war ii. at the end of the war, we knew we were going to lay off millions of people in the military and stop making ships and planes and tanks and there would be a dramatic reduction in government spending and that's what happened. and slowly, the debt fell from 100% to a little over 20% of g.d.p. before rocketing up in part due to covid and president biden's reckless spending. we are now at 100% of g.d.p. we are seeing more people are retiring and spending more on

social security and medicare. we should not cut those two programs, but we have to restrain fiscal responsibility. the town to do that is now. it will get much worse next year. the other thing, interest rates are going up, we, right now, are spending every year about $2,000 per man, woman and child on interest rates alone. if you are a family of four, think about that, every year, you have to start by paying $8,000 just to cover your share of the federal debt. that is a disaster if we don't address it now. it's going to be worse next year. the public would be outrageous. we do not plan on balancing the budget this year even if the

republicans got all they ask for but even if they got all they asked for, it would still result in a significant increase in debt over the next year, but the brakes should be put on a little bit. the republicans love their children and grandchildren. they don't want to see that country much more in debt and we are approaching the point of no return. in any event, i am proud of my republican leadership that their attitude is we have to do something when we see debt equal to 100% of g.d.p. and every american is paying $2,000 in interest by itself, the only responsible thing to do is put up a little bit of a fight and i wish some of the democrat leadership would acknowledge more that something's got to be done. however, despite the fact that

this is the most covered issue in america, president biden recently addressed the graduating -- the graduates at howard university here in town and he felt, one of the major issues of the day is white supreme asy. i do not think let such a divisive bit of rhetoric go unanswered. and not the first time president biden has done this. this has been a theme whenever he speaks to the american people as a whole. he talked about it in his inaugural and mentioned racism and talked about it in the state of the union speech where he attacked our police and called them race youist and now going before the howard commencement speech, a time for positive

speech and you can do anything in america, president biden got in the mud and talked about white supremacs. do we have a problem in america that people cannot succeed? there are numerous of speeches and say racism is not a problem. if anything, white people are more likely to get killed than black people in a confrontation with police. nevertheless, president biden, mr. negative, decided to use his annual speech to congress to trash the police and refer to them as being racists. now, our people who are not of

european descent having problems in this country? well, we looked at people from different countries from around the world and again and again -- first of all, we find people from all around the worldcoming here. i got a list of the countries that people give up their citizenship to and become american, the top countries, mexico, india, phillipines, dominican republic, china, vietnam, jamaica, el salvador and colombia. none of them are european countries. people are desperate to come into the united states legally. if america were all a country in which you are punished if you weren't of european descent, you would not see the 10 countries most commonly coming here coming

from places other than europe. significant number of russians are coming here but i have been at the border seven or eight times. i see people from africa, central america, middle east. i have attended ceremonies where people are sworn in in milwaukee and when i show up, i would be surprised if 5% of the people becoming americans are from europe. ., ., this weekend i will attend a memorial day for the mong. they are primarily but not necessarily from laos who came after the vietnam war. they did so much to help fight communism on behalf of the americans. when they came here many did not speak english, many were not

christian. some didn't know any rule of law. i talk to the members of the hmong, how are your kids doing? how are your nieces and nephews doing? i get stories, there are 20, 25 kids, everyone is successful. none of them are committing any crimes. they're all having children in a family situation. and i cannot help but think watching the tremendous success story of the hmong how could any president say america is a difficult country to live in if you are not european? then i look at income. i realize there are many definitions of success. i am not somebody at all who says economic success is the most important. but you look at the numbers insofar as they're available on the internet. i look at india, which seems to

be right now the financially most successful subgroup in america, making 80% more than the average american. india, a country in which a relatively small number of people are considered christian. overwhe overwhelmingly hindu. to i look at sri lanka, 33% more. malaysia, 25% more. pakistan, 18% more. people coming here from cuba. to a certain extent. latin american. 15% more than european americans is what they make. it's harder to find some other information, but thomas sowell, who i think very highly of, wrote a book called "ethnic america" 40 years ago and at that time thomas sowell pointed out the average second generation person from the caribbean was making more than

the average american. and that, of course, is largely people of black dissent, people from the bahamas, people from jamaica. so, again, the tremendous financial success of people coming from all around the world makes one realize that america does not have a huge racial problem. does america -- another question is, does america discriminate in favor of european, people of european dissent? and the answer is right now under our affirmative action programs in this country, whether you're looking at hiring government people, whether you're looking at businesses who contract with the government do at least $10,000 with the government, they are required to fill out a form, an eeo-1 form in which they release the race of all their employees and when they fill out that form, because they are afraid of being sued, the average american business is

very conscious and sometimes even told by their advisor to hire people who are not white. affirmative action began in 1965 in this country in earnest. it was around a little bit before that but in earnest in 1965. we're talking over 50 years ago. original affirmative action was designed primarily to help black people. but in the interim, we had added asian people. this is typical of affirmative action around the world. it starts with one group and then every other group says, i want the government to weigh in on my behalf. so we add asian, pacific islander, latin american, added women, and now we recently have had the biden administration weigh in and say we want to add people of middle eastern and north african dissent. so we want to add people from syria, from iraq, from algeria, to the list of people who should get preferences. you'll notice not white.

this comes into play in forms that have to be filled out when you say, who will be getting government contracts, who is going to be getting into colleges and universities, who is going to be the owner of business that gets government contracts? so it is very pervasive in our society. i bet very few americans -- i tried -- are aware that when a big business -- say you're in a business with 100 employees, a business with 50 employees, when they hire someone and they have a government contract, they are paying attention or have to fill out a form as to the race and gender of that person. and as a practical matter, it causes people be a little bit less reluctant to hire people who have historically been here in america. now, i think these programs, when they implement them, are designed to be as divisive as

possible. first of all, in order to qualify as a favored group, you self-identify. and if you are 1/2 or 1/4 or 1/8 of that group, you can say i am part of the protected class. i don't think it's right. it's obviously wrong. people wouldn't know if someone who is 1/4 native american, 1/4 whatever is a member of that class. but you get to check off in a box and get the benefits. wealth has no -- nothing to do with it. you can be born into a family worth millions and millions of dollars, but if you're from the right ethnic group or at least 1/4 or 1/8 of a member of the right ethnic group, you get to be checked off on that form. and it can again be true even if a person wouldn't guess you're a member of that minority.

it affects university admissions. and for quite a while, we had a string of cases -- one case is working through the supreme court right now of, again, trying to get preferences to people who are 1/2, 1/4, 1/8 members of a minority. to push it even further lately on schools or graduate schools, they are removing s.a.t. scores or mcat scores that traditionally people have to take these tests to make sure, for example, the best and the brightest are getting into medical school. we're taking that off the table a in an increasing number of medical schools because, again, they will be afraid they are letting in too many people of traditional ethnic backgrounds in america. we are doing the same thing lately with regard to loans given out by banks, which is kind of amazing. but now bankers have to collect -- they're going to soon

do it for commercial lending. they've done it in the past for residential lending. what is the race or gender or even sexual preference? apparently because the government likes to look over the shoulder of these banks and make sure that they're not discriminating based on race or discriminating based on sexual preference. and it's kind of hard to believe that that's going on but it is. they really keep track of these banks. i talked to a banker a little while ago. he had to put down on the form what the race is of the guy who plowed the snow in his parking lot. now, you might say, why is it the government's business and why are they doing it? we know why they're doing it. because they want to put pressure on the banks to feel that's should be something taken into account before you -- before you fill out that contract. so this becomes more and more part of the american background.

i recently rale into a -- ran into a gal who told me she worked for bank but could not fill the applicant because they were mostly white guys. talking to bankers, that's entirely possible. we should have a discussion whether that's right. you have to say, where is this ending? what is the goal of the biden administration? a study was done a little while ago on the federal judiciary. i wish we had these studies for all other appointments by the biden administration. and apparently his first two years, president biden had appointed 97 federal judges of the 97 federal judges i was expecting maybe 25 or 30 were white guys because i know president biden wasn't heavy on appointing white guys. five of the 97 judges were white guys. of those two were gay. so almost impossible for white guy that's not gay apparently to

get appointed here. to a certain extent, it wasn't just president biden's fault. not long after he was swore in, two democrat senators, one from illinois and one from hawaii, said they did not want to vote to confirm any more president biden's appointees if they were white men unless they were gay. again, the definition of diversity -- and more and more they're talking about diversity as being part of the reason here. as far as the idea that where your ancestors come from will determine what a good doctor you are, what a good electrician you are, whatever, seems a little bit ridiculous. i mean, think, for example -- an example. let's say my maternal grandfather was peruvian and he died before i was born. well, the idea that giving me a special place in college or a special job in management so i can bring the per ufian

viewpoint -- peruvian viewpoint to the table would be ridiculous. we're talking about a grandfather who had nothing at all, was never in peru, never met him, but that is the way the current system works. and it's something that should be discussioned. -- discussed. now, what is the biden team doing now that's going to affect this very pernicious programs in america? the first thing they're going to do is they're going to add another protected class. middle eastern, north african people. right now you're considered asian if you are from japan. we can go around the map. japan, china, thailand, pakistan, india. but it stops in pakistan. there's no preferences if you're from egypt or algeria or syria. the biden administration wants to end that. and end that even though

affirmative action began in the 1960's, so almost all people of this dissent were not even in america prior to that. but they want to be a new group that should be getting preferences. i think that should be discussed in america's news pages. instead, it's not even brought up that it's happening. the next thing the biden administration is doing is they are putting new diversity equity teams in every one of the government agencies. be it commerce, defense, agriculture, energy, health and human services, homeland security, justice, labor, transportation. every agency is getting a new group to weigh in on diversity and to make sure that the right people are getting jobs in that agency. if there are grants going out from that agency, again, to make sure the right people are getting grants. in other words, the biden

administration wants to greatly increase the power and -- the power of this class of people in picking whoever gets anything around society. can't just be like it used to be, let's take the best person. these new programs, i think, causes one to say some more questions ought to be raised by the american public and answered by the biden administration. do we care about marriage anymore? should these programs benefit billionaires? right now if you're worth $20 million but you apply for a government contract, you're given preferences despite the fact that you're wealthy? and by the way, thomas sowell, when he writes about affirmative action, points out frequently around the world it benefits primarily the wealthy. what percent should you be before you get credit for preferences based on your

background? right now it's open-ended. should it be an eighth, 16th? senator elizabeth warren was smaller than a 64th or 120th native americans. should felt she should be given preference apparently as a law professor at harvard university? how about a doctor, should we get the best people we can to become a heart surgeon? i would think so. how about air traffic controllers? how about engineers who are designing bridges? or are all jobs primarily based on ethnic background and not necessarily on this new special interest group put in there by president biden, the middle eastern-north-african group. came to this country after

affirmative action began. and you deserve a step up to get caught up. people who weren't even in america. so, again, thomas soul when he talks about these race preference things and points out it always hurts a country when they identify themselves as a member of an ethnic group first and view themselves as a citizen of that country. i look at canada and it is divided between people who speak french and those who speak english. nigeria, where we had a division between tribes and division between the muslims in the north and christians in the south which resulted in a civil war and millions of people dying. rwanda as the country is divided into races. india has not only ethnic

differenceses and religious differences. sri lanka, same thing. historically america has stuck with this motto. out of many, one. and we come from all around the world but we consider ourselves americans first and we eventually drop or rarely think about where our ancestry. al gore twice embarrassed himself by giving the meaning, out of one, many. we have people who consider themselves americans. but the administration says you should consider yourself based on where your great-great-great-grandparents are from. that is a big mistake. there should be more of an

outcry over the biden administration's plan what amounts to preferences to middle eastern north african people. again, immigrants who came here recently, not prejudice, i'm sure doing well. the only reason you bring them into a loop if you want to destroy america through die advise i haveness and then get rid of racial equity committees and bureaucrats whose job is to divide americans or judge americans by their ethnic background and when i look at what's going on with the bankers, it's not just going to be ethnic background but sexual background as well. is that right? i don't think the banker has to at the end of the month go through the forms that he has

accepted for loans, do i have people of the right sexual background. that is the way we are going in america. i hope we end it. these programs began almost 60 years ago, i think now 57 years ago. like programs around the world when they began these programs, they were supposed to be temporary. when they began them in the 1950's, if you said they are going to be around 57 years later and you wouldn't think these other groups many weren't in the united states. i hope we have a public discussion. i listed the questions that should be answered. and hopefully it's something that if nobody else, at least the pundit class can weigh in on and educate our young people

what is going on because a lot of these preferences, particularly with regard to jobs and businesses that are government contracting, the public isn't even aware. so that is -- that is a summary of what i think is an important issue and ought to be addressed. and i ask to adjourn. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time the question is on the motion to adjourn. those in favor, say aye. those opposed, no. the ayes have it. the motion is adopted. accordingly the house stands adjourned until 2:00 p.m.

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