matter where the president decides to give a speech, right? for him it is an opportunity to speak directly to the american people and that's what you're going to see him do. you know, whether it's in maryland, whether it's in a red state, the president always takes those opportunities incredibly important, not just to speak in front of all of you who report on what he's going to say and how he's engaging with the american people, but directly to them as well. and so in this case, location is not -- doesn't matter. he wants to give a really important speech, a major speech, as you heard us coin it, on bidenomics. i think it's important -- what's important is that the american people are going to hear from the president about an issue that matters to them, which is the economy and how he continues -- [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2023] >> we're going to leave this but you can find it online at c-span.org, as the u.s. house gavels back in. recognition? >> unanimous consent to revise

and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. >> thank you, mr. speaker. i rise today to honor and thank louisiana's brave first responders who valiantly rose to the occasion this summer as our state was hit with unprecedented wildfire, the largest of which is still burning today. tens of thousands of acres have been charred. nearly half the parishes in my district were ablaze. at one point pooforts sabine, caddo and desoto parishes and others were on fire. we received support from the state fire marshal and the u.s. forestry service dispatched firefighters. many other first responders have been -- many of the first responders very volunteers and louisianans who donated time and shelter to their neighbors in need. louisiana is home to the most resilient people you'll ever meet and we will bounce back from these filedfire -- wildfires just as we've done from every disaster we've ever

faced. it's a great honor to represent so many of these heroic individuals in congress. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from utah seek recognition? >> to address the house for one minute and revise and extend -- and revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. >> i rise today in full support of the house republicans' formal impeachment inquishry -- inquiry into president joe biden. some months ago, house republicans returned oversight to the people's house. mr. owens: we worked day taf day to make our government more accountable. since january, concerning incredible -- concerning and credible allegations against president bide have occurred, including abuse of power corruption, and influence peddling scheme that was led to tens of millions of dollars into several member of the biden family.

our impeachment inquiry is not a political ploy it's an opportunity for congress to continue its duty, digging into corruption and bringing fags to light. the evidence is deeply troubling. our witnesses have testified to president biden's involvement in phone calls, interactions and dinners that resulted in significant financial gains for his son and his son's business partners. the treasury department alone has flagged more than 150 transactions involving the biden family and other business associates as suspicious activities by the u.s. bank. even a trusted -- the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. mr. owens: thank you so much. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from the great state of missouri seek recognition? >> i rise to address the house for one minute and ask unanimous consent to revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. >> i rise today to voice my strong support for the impeachment inquiry into president joe biden. house republicans have uncovered

serious and credible allegations into his conduct, a culture of corruption. we now know this to be true, the biden family received more than $20 million in foreign payments from china, russia, ukraine and romainia. that 10% cut for the big guy? yes, that was for joe biden. the bidens created over 20-plus shell companies to conceal the money. joe biden joined 20 phone calls with hunter biden's business partners, texts invoking bide son shake down a chinese business partner for cash. joe biden using pseudonyms on emails an at least 150 suspicious activity reports. joe biden's pattern of behavior is deeply disturbing and concerning for our national security. mr.allford: mr. speaker, we need answers. we need those bank records, we need the truth. thank you, i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: members are reminded to refrain from engaging in personalities toward the president.

under the speaker's announced policy of january 9, 2023, the gentleman from louisiana, mr. johnson is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leered. mr. johnson: thank you, mr. speaker. i ask unanimous consent that all members have five legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the subject of my special order. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. johnson: mr. speaker, barring declarations of war, impeachment is the most awesome power that congress has. it shouldn't be a threat, it shouldn't be a political exercise. it is certainly not a pledge to be made on the campaign trail. this is the most serious business that we can engage in.

no one should want to impeach a president. can't take any pleasure in. that but after months of blocked investigations by agencies in this administration it became clear that an impeachment inquiry was the only course of action to complete our necessary and important investigations. let me explain why. because there's been some confusion and some controversy about. this mr. speaker, there are three irrefutable facts that have taken us to this point. number one, president biden lied directly to the american people. number two, president biden's family and their associates profited millions through shell companies. number three, president biden's federal agencies are stonewalling our legitimate congressional inquiry. that's just the tip of the iceberg. there's so many scandal, so much corruption being uncovered. every stone we overturn leads to more and more corruption. because of that a lot of the american people are getting last

in the barrage of evidence, the barrage of aldwaitions of corruption and the evidence itself. let me go through a couple of highlights here to help explain why we're doing what we're doing. in august, 2019, president biden said, quote, i have never discussed with my son or my brother or anyone else anything having to do with their businesses, period. two months later he said, quote, i never discussed a thingle -- a single thing with my son anything about having to do with ukraine. no one has indicated that i have. we've always kept everything separate, end quote. he doubled down on those claims during the debates and both jen psaki and others have doubled down on that. let everyone know those were bold-faced lies. we know now while he was vice president he had dinner with his son hunter and russian and cause

zack stani oligarchs. he spoke on the phone many times with hunter's associates, at least over 20 tiernlings at least that many, we know. he met with cefc a chi meze energy company, while hunter was working on their behalf. here's a text message from hunter biden alone that's justification for an inquishry. quote, z, please have the director call me, not james or tony or jim. have him call me tonight. i am sitting here with my father and we would like to understand why the commitment made has not been fulfilled. unquote. a confidential human source known well to the f.b.i. and relied upon often alleged that president biden received a $5 million bribe for services rendered. the house oversight committee investigation has been going on for a while and the investigation has yielded many important facts. the investigators have found, here's a couple of samples. number one they found that hunter biden flew on air force 2 at least 15 times and engaged in

activities which devon archer testified was to sell the brand and enrich the biden family. they found an email from biden associate james galar which break downs the profit agreement for a deal involving the chinese communist party linked cefc include, quote, 10 held by h for the big guy, unquote. they found a text message later that month from galar to tony bobolensky which read, quote, don't mention ejoe being involved. it's only when you are face-to-face. i know you know that but they are paranoid. this is a sampling of what we already know. this impeachment inquiry will offer house investigators greater subpoena authority to receive information from evasive federal agencies. see, we have been impeded in the collection of all this evidence because the federal agencies under the executive branch are openly, aggressive trying to protect the president.

we're going to have advanced authority now and a larger platform to share this information with the american people. mr. speaker, remember how we arrived here. when the new york post reported the existence of the hunter biden laptop, now secretary of state anthony blinken organized a group of 51 former intelligence officials to claim the laptop was russian disinformation. social media accounts were banned from sharing the story and individuals who believed it were labeled russian assets and conspiracy theorists. we now know that in the only was the laptop not russian disinformation, of course, it was known previously to the intel community and many of the individuals that signed that letter. they knew it was legitimate. they knew it was not russian disinformation. they knew it came from hunter biden. and they hid it from the american people. and on july 4, just a couple of months ago, the federal district court in the western district of louisiana, my home state, issued

155-page court opinion. the state of louisiana, state of missouri, sthied biden administration. because they had a hunch and they knew that the white house and its agency, incluing the f.b.i., the d.o.j., other federal agencies were engaged in a coverup. they were censoring and silencing the veups of americans they disagreed with. they would not allow conservative speech on the social media platforms. we know from evidence produced in that case and listed in the court opinion that issued an injunction against the white house, by the way, just last saturday, upheld by the u.s. court of appeals for the fifth circuit, the court points out elvis chan, the f.b.i. official in the san francisco field office of the f.b.i., was meeting regularly with the big tech platforms in silicon valley there, regularly, leading up to the election and telling them things they had to pull off the internet. conservative voices and social media postings they didn't want people to see. the f.b.i. coerced, the court

said, and then coordinated with the big tech giant, make sure that on facebook and google and twitter at the time and all these other platforms that you couldn't see that information. it wasn't just the hunter biden laptop story. it was a lot of categories of things. it included negative information about the economy. it included people's opinions, conservative's opinions about the efficacy of covid vaccines and the lockdowns and how crazy that was and what they were doing to schoolchildren. all that stuff was censored. they even took down jokes about the president. if you made -- if you posted parody about president biden, or even as a candidate or when he was elected, it was pulled off the internet. unbelievable. staggering. the judge said and the judge's words, this is arguably the largest and the greatest attack on free speech in u.s. history he was called it orwellian, he said it was dystopian. this is what we're facing. this is what the white house has been involved in. they did not want the american people to have the facts. that's one they have reasons we have to go to this next step.

that's why mr. speaker, we have to follow these facts where they lead. the facts are irrefutable. they have understandably set washington ablaze even though the american people weren't able to see it, the judge said millions of protected post wrings taken down, not seen. it has set washington ablaze. why? because we're bringing these facts to bear. we're laying them out for people to see. our klees here, some of them don't want to see it. as john adams said, facts are stubborn things. as expected the d.c. and national proses corps have blindly accepted the white house's spin and they're trying to convince the american people that our inquiry, even the impeachment inquiry is illegitimate. just three years after they carried the water for adam schiff and the democrats on their crazy impeachment quest against donald trump. here's a sampling of the headlines so far. we just announced the impeachment inquiry step yesterday. here it is so far from "time" magazine. biden inquishry may be weakest in history. from cnn, the most predictable

impeachment investigation in american his iry. from reuters, mccarthy opens long shot impeachment probe of biden. from msnbc, mccarthy's impeachment proceedings are the benghazi investigation on steroids. we know they're working against us, against the american people and for the white house. they're on their team, we get et. cnn is reporting that the white house you are is urging news executives to ramp up coverage of our investigation. as if weaponizing the federal agencies one enough, president biden is directing the free press to play defense for him and they're willingly going along wit. mr. speaker, why? it's a rhetorical question, nobody here an answer it, but why. if there was no impropriety, why wouldn't the president provide congressional investigators with all the information we requested? what do they have to hide?

the president could make the short trip from 1600 pennsylvania tomorrow, he could sit down with our committees and clear his name. we could do it behind closed door, discreetly work the protection he needs. we welcome it. let this be an open invitation to president biden. i know the white house is recording all this. they're watching what we do here. here's the open invitation. president biden, secretary blinken, any of the biden family members and associate, anyone who seeks to clear their name. anybody involved in this investigation at all. you can come height right here. you are welcome here in congress to our committees. we on the house judiciary committee, house oversight committee, weaponization committee, the ways and means committee, any of them. pick your committee. we'll bring you in and you can clear your name. mr. speaker, we would love to return our full focus to our regular and important work here. but the facts and our sworn oath to defend the constitution require this inquiry. and i'll close this with this and i'm going to bring up a

couple of my colleagues who will share their thoughts as well. remember that article 1, section 2 of the the constitution expressly states that the sole power of impeachment belongs here to ths house. then article 2 section 4 says, listen to the language carefully, it's expressly written in the constitution, this is not political talking points, we're not making this up. it says in article 2, section 4, that the president shall be removed from office on impeachment for and conviction of treason, bribery or other high crimes and misdemeanors. i just listed a small sampling, just the tip of the iceberg of the credible allegations and the mounting evidence that shows that joseph biden has engaged in bribery schemes. pay to play schemes. this is what the evidence shows. we have to follow it. we took an oath to uphold the constitution. the constitution requires this action. the inquiry's the appropriate step.

we have no choice but to pursue the facts wherever they lead and we will leave no stone unturned. mr. speaker, i yield time next to the great gentleman from utah, burgess owens. mr. owens: thank you, my friend from louisiana. i rise today in full support of house republicans' formal impeachment inquiry into president joe biden. seven months ago house republicans returned oversight to the people's house, we worked consistently day after day to make your government more accountable as promised in our commitment to america. since january, concerning and credible allegations against president joe biden have emerged, including abuse of power, obstruction of justice, corrupt business -- foreign business dealings, influence peddling schemes that led to tens of millions of dollars in

the pockets of several members of the biden family. so far $20 million in profits to a family that has nothing to do with our government at this point. i think we can all agree americans deserve accountability from our president. our impeachment inquiry is not a political ploy, it's an opportunity for congress to continue its duty, digging into the potential of corruption and bringing facts to light. the evidence is very troubling. our witnesses have testified to president biden's involvement in phone calls, interactions and dinners that resulted in significant financial gains for his sons and his sons' business partners. the treasury department alone has flagged more than 150 transactions involving the biden family and other business associates as suspicious activities by u.s. banks. even a trusted f.b.i. informant has alleged a bribe to the biden family. there's evidence that president biden used his official office to coordinate with hunter biden's business partners regarding hunter's role with a

ukrainian energy company. these actions and more raise serious questions about the integrity of our highest office. our government serves the interests of all americans, not just a selected few. rest assured house republicans will follow the evidence wherever it leads and the truth will come to light. thank you, my good friend from louisiana, representative johnson, and for bringing this team together tonight and i yield back. mr. johnson: thank you, my friend, well said. mr. speaker, i yield next to the gentleman from idaho, mr. fulcher, for so much time as he may consume. mr. fulcher: thank you, mr. speaker. and to my colleague from louisiana, thank you for the time. this is an important week when it comes to the vehicles that we have and the access to those vehicles. so to that end, i rise in support of an upcoming bill, h.r. 1435, preserving choice in

vehicles purchases act. if the leftist central planners get their way, the internal combustion engine could be outlawed by 2035 or sooner. the biden administration and big city do-gooders want to ban the internal combustion engine with climate change as the excuse. but the facts speak otherwise. in 2021, 93% of light duty vehicles sold were powered by gasoline or flex fuel variants. from cleaner technologies, advanced fuels and lower carbon emissions, the internal combustion engine continues to be valued by consumers from all walks of life. consumer choice is essential in rural areas where farmers, ranchers and small towns need access to reliable transportation and fuel. forcing electric vehicles on the masses through compulsion defeats the very purpose of the consumer marketplace. h.r. 1435 stops the attack on reliable and affordable

transportation options. consumer choice in vehicles keeps education accessible. , employment a reality and health care options in reach. with that, mr. speaker, i urge support of h.r. 1435. thank you, again, to my colleague from louisiana. mr. johnson: can i ask you a question before you leave the podium here? i was told today by automobile dealers who were in my district or in my office from the district that california, the state of california has banned the combustion engine. is that a rumor or is that true? mr. fulcher: only in california can something like that be brought up. yes, that's my understanding. that's the direction they're going. mr. johnson: isn't it true then that if california, which is one of the largest markets for vehicles, bans the sale of the combustion engine, then car manufacturers, if they want to do business in california are going to have to shift a lot of their production lines to these vehicles that, by the way, no one wants, and they're not affordable and maintainable because i understand if the battery goes out it costs you another $100,000 for an already overpriced vehicle that no one wants or can charge up.

but then isn't that going to effect the automobile market in every other state, your ability to get a truck or car? mr. fulcher: that effects everyone else. a weekend didn't even get into the whole topic of just the overall economic and environmental impact. the resources necessary to build these electric cars, the resources need to be sourced in unfriendly areas because we don't allow ourselves to produce those components here. talking about lead, talking about lithium, talking about the things that those need. and you probably know this, but if not, the places where that gets sourced is not exactly economic or environmentally friendly. mr. johnson: exactly. mr. fulcher: so this is a very bad situation and it's up to us to try to do something about it. mr. johnson: i think the people are calling up on us to bring common sense to this equation because the other team, the other side, whoever is pushing this radical climate agenda, is engaging in fantasy economics. the people in my state of

louisiana need their trucks and cars. they can't -- they're not going to buy electric vehicles. they can't afford them, first of all. it's not practical, there's nowhere to charge them in my state. so if we have a shortage of vehicles on the market, that's going to be a real problem. and i'm told delivery trucks are involved in this in california and if you can't get the fruit, ship from california -- fruit shipped from california, that means grocery price -- prices at the grocery store are going to go up as well. everyone's going to suffer from this. mr. fulcher: that's true. this is not the only answer but it's a step in the right direction. just keep our internal combustion engines alive and going and by the way, the cleanliness of the vehicles that we have, the internal combustion engines we have now has been getting continually better and better and better and more efficient. and so this whole ruse about climate change being the purpose that this needs to happen is

just totally flawed. mr. johnson: about it's government control. i thank you for your work on that and we urge our colleagues to support the bill. mr. fulcher: thank you. mr. johnson: thank you. mr. speaker, i'm happy to yield now to the gentleman, speaking of california, the gentleman from the northern portions of california, mr. lamalfa. mr. lamalfa: thank you, mr. johnson, from louisiana. and also mr. fulcher from idaho, on -- i just happened to be going to speak with you about that subject on california. now, california is a beautiful place. beautiful climate and terrain its policies are upside down in the last -- pick a number of years. 40 years, 50 years. i'm not really -- on not really being there to serve the people anymore but to serve climate agendas and other crazy agendas i won't go into tonight. i live in the rural part of california, i like to say the normal part still, in the far north, where we farm and we ranch, we still attempt to do mining, in order to produce the

products that city people need and that they didn't have us around to do those, then i don't know -- they want to, i guess, import all of it, which seems to be the direction here. let's import it all from china. so, you know, one of the interesting things -- i won't say funny because -- well, the people watching might think it's funny, because we do this ourselves, but our california air resource board released a rule requiring all new cars in california that will be sold new to be zero-emission vehicles by 2035. now, this was tried back in the 1980's, where they said, well, we want, i think, i believe -- maybe it was 1990, 10% of all cars sold by the year 2000, if i remember my numbers correctly, to be zero emission vehicles. what did we end up with? car companies were trying to make battery-powered vehicles that looked like glorified golf carts or maybe those rigs you saw on fantasy island that

tattoo was driving around in, to be legitimate vehicles you saw out on the roadways. oversized golf carts trying to meet this mandate. they figured it out at the time that it wasn't going to get there so they relented on it. now they're not relenting. we have this mandate, not passed by the legislature and signed by the governors, but made by a board that is famous more being heavyhanded on truckers and offroad vehicles and everything else. so here's the funny part. just a few days after this mandate came out, our esteemed governor newsom had to publicly beg electric vehicle owners to not charge their cars due to concerns of the power grid and blackouts. he told them, hey, please don't charge your cars right now because our grid is overstretched during that particular time. so, you have also a few months later, when the winter came in,

residents in sierra, nevada, lost power for many days due to heavy snowstorms. knocking t the power out. so they couldn't heat their homes and do normal things there. but if they had had also an electric vehicle, they couldn't even have gotten out of there to go someplace where it was warm or for other needs, maybe emergency medical or what you he you. we also have rolling blackouts that are common in the state, either from overuse and not enough power on the grid to keep things going. so industries in california, many of them have agreements with the utilities that they'll voluntarily shut down if they're called, if the grid looks like it's going to be overtaxed at a particular point. so you have manufacturers that have to lay off their workers for the rest of the day, stop production in order to pull offline and not use power because we don't have enough of a power grid in california. and then up in my area, because we have a forest issue, which

our forests aren't managed as well as they should be, especially federal land, the u.s. forest service, where the power lines have been run through for many decades, where there's hyd hydrogeneration, et, power may be coming in from another state. we don't maintain around the power lines like we used to because there might be an environment concern. we can't take the trees down that you need to to make sure they can't swing if they're falling -- they might fall within the path of those power lines, if the tree, you know, is taller than when the clearance is, right? so i had to pass a bill a couple years ago to make the process just a little bit easier to get a permit from forest service to do that on federal land. it's still not easy, it's still not very timely but it got a little bit better. so we have that to deal with. they call it a public safety power shutoff. especially effects part of my district, seems like when i drive-through a county during that time of year, they've improved it a little bit, but

the whole county would be cut off because the wind blew and it might cause branches to blow into the power lines, therefore bad things happening, such as the campfire which 85 people died in paradise, california, due to a power line problem a few miles east of there blowing through. and other fires like the car fire near redding, and many others. and then we saw, of course, the effect tragically in hawaii that we just mourned this week and that's what this red ribbon represents. because we're not managing the lands around power lines. and this is happening right in california. at the same time that they're mandating more and more electricity use, forcing us into vehicles we can't afford or don't want, also they want to ban gas stoves and gas water heaters and make them be on the grid as well. i mean, you couldn't get any dumber with the stuff we're doing in that home state. that beautiful home state i have of california. rolling blackouts, by miracle last year they decided, we need

to keep the canyon nuclear plant going for another five years instead of maybe a 40-year permit. it was put in in about 1982 when i was going to school down there. and it had a much longer life than what they're allowing because, oh, we don't like nukes. nukes are scary. even though they make zero co-2, as does hydropower. right now they're in the process of tearing dams out to make hydroelectric power in my district and they have their eyes on more up in washington and other areas because, oh, there might be an environment issue, you know. it's really absurd what we're doing ourselves. we're putting ourselves into the stone age so we can go live in caves and eat insects that these guys are prescribing for us. it's just -- it's disgusting. new they want to apply this toward our vehicles. we have the cleanest burn, most efficient vehicles ever being put out by car manufacturers. but no, they don't look at it that way. they don't give credit for how much better and cleaner -- l.a.

basin's air is cleaner than it has been -- you remember the 1960's, the 1950's, all that and such. it's so much cleaner now. we made so much progress on. this they want to because they have the power to or think it's a feel-good policy, take these away from us, take car choice away from us. i remember andy wheeler was trying to make it to have more affordable car, not have this 54 1/2 miles per gallon mandate. what's a 54.5 miles per gallon vehicle look like to you? is that a car choice to you? most car, good gas mileage cars get 30, 35. a lot of others,2025. depending on what you want. but it isn't about your choice. it's government deciding what you need or should have. what is your neighborhood going to look like? how much do you get to travel anymore? all this. massive control issues. so we have public safety power

shut you'ves, they're tearing down hydroelectric dams and the dams we do have require more and more water to go out in such a way they don't even turn the turbines. instead we want toe the cold water to go out to lower the temperature of the river one degree and it'll be better for the fish in the river. or we'll have water come off the too much the lake that can't go through the turbines because we want to see the colder water for later in the season so it'll be colder down river for the fish. it's crazy. so -- when this first was announced by the governor of california, we sent him a letter and asked him to consider alternate policies to reduce emissions that don't add additional strain to the energy grid or restrictions on consumer choice you know, choice. we all like that around here, done we? soy thank my california republican colleagues for joining me on sending a unified

message and i believe that letter helped us get a bill on the floor this week, h.r. 1345, the bill would prevent the u.s. e.p.a. from issuing a waver to california resources board in order to enact the rule the state is trying to do without, again, legislation by the elected legislators. so -- this is what they've been using for a lot of years to put california under tighter scrutiny than a the rest of the country, it makes us uncompetitive in a lot of aspects. so while most of americans roads are run on internal combustion engine, they're calling them i.c.e. these day, they're setting unrealistic mandates to force car manufacturers to prioritize e.v. manufacturing. where are we going to mine the materials to make these? where are we going to have the power on the grid to run them? you'll have to change the power grid in neighborhoods to have the massive amount of

transformers, wires, poles, insulators an all that in order to have charging units inside people's homes in garages. they aren't taking that into account. it's this la-di-da, pie in the sky deal. we'll mandate, it'll be great by 2035. the idea that people just can't afford these vehicles as many of them are $17,000 to $20,000 more for the equivalent, same size, same usage type vehicle. they done care. a whole bunch of the country's economy would be affected by this because probably a bunch of other states would follow california's idea on this with this waver they're seeking. so it's a real market napelation that nobody has asked for other than the do-gooders in congress, at the state level and others that are forcing us in many ways, they want to force what kind of home we live in what we eat, what we drive, how we power our stoves and water heaters.

i mentioned a bitago how the grid got knocked out in mountainous arias after the storm there you think, at least people could go turn on their yen rater in order to provide some electricity and heat in their home perhaps. no, no. they want to ban gas-powered or fuel-powered generators too so i'm wondering, what are you supposed to run a generator on if you can't run it on gas or dee sorel natural gas or a propane tank you might have nearby? what are you supposed to run it on when the power goes out? if you live in a rural area where frequently public safety power shutoffs or other things to knock out the grid, what are you supposed to do? they just make up the mandates. governor newsome, who is maybe aspiring to be president, i warn you people across the country if you're watch, don't fall for this stusm i like to joke around a little bit. i'm from california, people don't doe -- people, don't do what we do. it's going to affect your praif sith going to affect your freedom.

affect basic choices, affect your economy, of your household, of your state. so we don't even nearly have the e.v. charging systems that it would take to have them close enough and enough of them on site. you ought to see the lines, there's one place down in san luis obispo, you can see the cars lined up, teslas an other folks lined up, waiting for the opportunity to plug into one of these things to go on their way. i'm sure you heard the story of the guy from michigan, he bought the new ford e.v. truck, going to go camping a few states away. he gai up on it, went and bought a dodge diesel to complete his family's camping trip. because it was way oversold what it could do versus what it actually could do. we don't want to overburden this

e.p.a. waiver to force this stuff on people, take away their choices, their mobility to do what they need to do. ask a guy who is a contractor, roofing company, a farmer, a rancher, a miner. do they need their f-250 or do they want a fleet of five prix uses to do the same job? they need to have choices. these mandate, this is at a time when we've got, as i said, the cleanest run, most efficient vehicles we have ever made. and oh, we got to cut down the co-2, climate change. climate change, give me a break. co-2 is only 0.04% of our t atmosphere. they act like it's the end of the world. co-2 is an important building block for plant life, everything is made out of carbon. they act like, because they've been able to dream this up as a killer, that we have to do -- stop all things that make co-2. if we're too good at this, we go below .02%, plant life starts dying awful we'll never be that good at getting rid of co-2 but

we're going to spend trillions doing it. we're going to make ourselves a third world country here while china and others keep going ahead even though i believe governor newsome is running over oto china for a visit to talk about climate change, meanwhile we have one of the worst homeless problems in the state of california and our economy isn't that great either and our water situation isn't that great either. even though we were blessed with so much rain this year we need to build water storage for people, build it for agriculture so we can supply this nation with the food it needs from california work so many of our crops, 90% plus come from chasm you wouldn't have almonds, pistachios, wouldn't have many things that come from california. but we're prioritizing the nonsense of taking away people's vehicles and climate change, clie chat major -- climate change that gets preached on half the time around here. everything has to be run through a climate change filter even though it's nonsense that co-2 is once again only .04% of our

atmosphere and it's not a killer because carbon is a building block of everything we live of off. so please. call your congress member. and tell them to support h.r. 1435 and don't empower california to control your state, your economy, by mandating what kind of vehicles not only -- it's going tooskt, it will ripple out from our whacked out state to your state. ok. what vehicles you're going to drive, how you're going to do business in your business. please check that out. support the bill. thank you for the time, mr. johnson. i appreciate it. mr. johnson: thank you, my friend. sadly what happens in california, that giant market out there, affects the entire country. i appreciate you shining light on that. mr. speaker, i will wind down our special order hour just by returning to the issue of the impeachment inquiry. even if i -- even as i have been sitting here, i'm tired tonight, it's been a long day. i got a question from a hill

reporter about some of the senators in the other chamber and their reaction to our bringing forward the impeachment inquiry and i just want to say that, you know, to speak very frankly, whether or not the senate is courageous enough to confront the alleged corruption of president bide season not really the house's concern. as i mentioned earlier, it's article 1, the constitution, section 2, that gives the sole power of impeachment to us in the house. we are supposed to investigate these things. we have to do it. it's our constitutional responsibility. they will later try the matter if it comes to that. if our committee uncovers evidence if our investigations uncover evidence that lead to an impeachment vote, then it will be incumbent, we send it to the senate to see if they want to engage with those facts. they'll have to answer to their own constituents and voters. we will have done our job here. if the inquiry comes up fruitless, you know, let's say some evidence is determined and

uncovered that exonerate, completely exonerates president biden, then we will have concluded a legitimate congressional inquiry. as directed by the constitution. and we will be satisfied with that. and the american people will be satisfied. some will be frustrated whatever happens with the outcome of. this but the constitution will have been followed and upheld. on our side, that is the most important thing here. mr. speaker, i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: members are reminded to refrain from engaging in personalities toward the president. the chair lays before the house the following enrolled bill. the clerk: h.r. 2544, an act to improve the organ procurement and transplantation network and for other purposes. the speaker pro tempore: under the speaker's announced policy of january 9, 2023, the gentleman from maryland,

mr. hoyer is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader. mr. hoyer: thank you very much, mr. speaker. today, mr. speaker, we once again see -- have seen the majority party unable to govern. defense bill was scheduled today. and apparently the majority party cannot get its act together. so we're not considering the defense bill today. unfortunately, republicans seem to be frozen by their own dysfunction. it is interesting that we have scheduled today to show the work that the 117th congress did that is making such a positive effect today in america. today, we ought to reflect on what democrats accomplished by standing together last congress with some bipartisan support. the 117th congress was one of the most productive in american

history. because democrats united behind a common cause, investing in america. making us stronger, safer, healthier, and more competitive in the 21st century. now the historic investments we made to create jobs, lower costs, and build the economy from the bottom and middle out are coming to fruition. conveying the scale of these laws' positive impact on our country is no easy task, especially in a single hour. and we do not expect to do it in this hour alone. we can look at the past 32 months of consecutive job growth in america, however we feel can point to the 13.5 million new jobs, including 800,000 new manufacturing jobs. in the last 2 1/2 years. added to our economy under the

biden-harris administration. the previous administration, by comparison, mr. speaker, added 500,000 manufacturing jobs to the economy in the first three years, before the pandemic. indeed, we create master's degree jobs in two years than any prior administration has added in a single four-year term. we pushed the unemployment rate to a generation aloe. with more americans working today than at any point in our nation's history. rather than stalling out into recession, our economy continues to boom. because democrats put people over politics to invest in america. goldman sachs just put out a report estimating that we will see another 200,000 manufacturing jobs in the next

two years alone. that makes a million new manufacturing jobs. incorporated in what will then be a 15 million new jobs accomplishment. with inflation threatening to eat into more take-home pay for working americans last congress, democrats stepped up to pass policies to reduce costs, raise wages, and create jobs. the results are now in. it worked. and it's still working. wages continue to go up, inflation continues to go down, and our economy continues to grow. at a steady pace. there are many factors at play, mr. speaker, in the global economy. but we owe these strong economin no small part to the laws we enacted in the last congress. economic strength alone, however, doesn't capture all that these laws are accomplishing. for the american people. the best way to understand how these laws are transforming our

nation for all americans is to meet americans where they are. to hear firsthand how these policies are making a difference in their lives and the lives of their families. this year, mr. speaker, members of the regional leadership council, appointed by minority leader, democratic leader jeffries, have had those conversations with countless americans at schools, hospitals, union halls, small businesses, v.a. clinics, farms and factories across the country. we have also sought to identify further funding opportunities, implement these policies, and inform the public about how they can access these programs and opportunities. mr. speaker, tonight we want to show americans how their tax dollars are building a better future for their families and communities. we're working with democrats to ensure that those investments reach every community in every corner of the country.

and we look forward to working with republicans to do the same. it doesn't seem to be your focus -- their focus right now, but maybe it will be. all americans deserve to feel the impact of these policies, whether they live on the quietest country road or the loudest city street. because investing in america, mr. speaker, means investing in all of america. over the next hour, the members of the regional leadership council will detail our implementation progress and show how investing in america agenda is changing lives. i will now turn over to my colleagues and i yield first to the gentleman from florida, mr. soto.

mr. soto: i thank the gentleman from maryland for this great opportunity. the last congress was the most productive in over 50 years, with the leadership of president biden and democrats in the house and senate, with the help of some moderate republicans, we were able to pass landmark legislation, the core of which in our economic agenda was the infrastructure investment and jobs act, which had a bipartisan vote. the chips act, also bipartisan vote, and the inflation reduction act. i'm honored to serve on the regional leadership council as we talk about investing in america. this is about progress. and i'm honored to represent on that council both my home state of florida and georgia.

in florida, we're slated for up to $50 billion in infrastructure improvements. it means roads and bridges in places like i-4 in central florida, which has been meyered in traffic for years -- mired in traffic for years because of our great growth. it means a new airport tower in tampa that our representative worked on for their growing city. it means for ports across the state, we literally quadrupled the budget for ports in florida because of these efforts. i got to visit cape canaveral and the work they're doing there, the top cruise line destination port in the world, expansions there. south florida, water projects to help with clean water, as well as ports have also been huge. and we see these types of expansions also at our airports. like orlando international airport, with the new term noll c -- terminal c and expansions there. we've seen hundreds of thousands

of jobs be created in florida because of these infrastructure projects. we're seeing local iron workers and electrical workers, local operating engineers working on these major projects, as central floridians are gathering together, as well as floridians from across the state. you know a surprising fact? florida had more lead pipes than any other state. that was a big surprise and now we have funding coming in to help out everything from school kids to seniors that live in mobile home developments. we're also seeing a huge amount of work around the inflation reduction act. georgia is cleaning up right now in making electric vehicles, electric batteries and even recycling e.v. batteries with both hyundai and others joining in those areas. in fact, when we were in our energy and commerce committee, we had gentlemen from georgia

who had to change their tune on the very bill that was being discussed before, attacking e.v.'s, because there are so many jobs coming into georgia to help out. and of course the chips in science act. these coupled with these other bills are doubling the amount of manufacturing investment in our nation. we are the envy of the world right now in the manufacturing that we have going on. in our own state, we focus on aerospace chips, chips to help out with satellites and rockets, to help out with the harsh conditions of space and arrow space -- aerospace. and we were just named a finalist for the biggest chips act in the state and central florida and we're going to continue to work with them and also green garden village, the biggest inflation reduction act project, making e.v. batteries. and so thank you so much to the gentleman from georgia, my leader, always will be my leader, steny hoyer, for bringing us together to talk

about progress, talk about jobs, to talk about manufacturing, and clean energy, as we continue to invest in america and move our nation forward. i yield back to the gentleman. mr. hoyer: i thank the gentleman for his comments and i now yield to the gentleman from northern california, congressman huffman. mr. huffman: i thank the gentleman from maryland and, mru for doing such a great job steering this regional leadership council through our work so that we can highlight how democrats are investing in america and putting people over politics. others have mentioned the legislative package that we were able to put on president biden's desk in the last congress. all the transformative, historic bills, the american rescue plan, bipartisan infrastructure law, the inflation reduction act, and much more. we are bringing down inflation. we are growing the economy. we're rebuilding this country

for the 21st century, lowering prescription drug costs and a lot more. and, you know, during that incredibly productive two-year period where president biden had a democratic house and a democratic senate, we also showed you can govern in congress and you can do big things that matter to people. contrary to what we're seeing with this keystone cops episode in the republican majority in this congress. now, as the representative from region two, and that's northern california, alaska and hawaii, i've had a lazer focus on -- laser focus on bringing these investments home for some of the most consequential issues that we're up against and today i want to highlight two of those big priorities. investments for tribes and solutions to manage our increasingly difficult water challenges in the west. i proudly represent a region rich with indigenous diversity, throughout my time in congress i've worked with tribes to address the various issues affecting these communities, from critical infrastructure to

reviving ecosystems on the brink of collapse. and one element of critical infrastructure that's been neglected for way too long is broadband expansion. in today's digital age, access to affordable high-speed internet is not a luxury, it is a necessity. but there's still a staggering digital divide, especially in indian country. under the biden-harris administration, we're beginning to change that. we've been building out broadband infrastructure to connect tribes with internet access that is essential to economic development, education, public safety and quality of life. a lot of the grants are flowing to our communities. thanks to the $3 billion tribal broadband connectivity program that we created last congress. just last month i got to tour a local project with the round valley tribe. very remote part of my district. and they are working with this grant funding to expand broadband to connect 726 tribal

households, three tribal businesses, seven tribal community anchor institutions, including a health clinic. this is game-changing stuff. the infrastructure law is also helping with the project that's incredibly important to tribes in my region, restoring the klamath river basin. tribes' way of life has revolved around the klamath river since time immemorial, but four hydrodams on that river have decimated it. now with the help from the bipartisan infrastructure law, those dams are finally coming down, they don't impact anyone's water supply, but they are going to help bring this river back to life thanks to the work that we've done. on top of all that, the interior department just announced $150 million from the i.r.a. to electrify homes in tribal communities. these are real results happening for populations that have been underserved and left to the wayside for far too long. now let's switch quickly to talk about the looming crisis with

water infrastructure and resiliency in the west. every community in our region, rural or urban, has to deal with the impacts of crippling droughts year after year. the climate crisis is driving severe conditions, historically low water allocations, we have our work cut out for us. we need to prioritize equitable, green and proven to work solutions that help communities adapt, like large-scale water recycling. and that's exactly what we're doing. we included the largest investment in western water infrastructure in decades in our work in the last congress. and to date we've invested $310 million from the biden infrastructure law for projects that advance water recycling and reuse. in fact, in the northern bay, where i represent, a reuse authority program just received $6.9 million for these types of projects. there are a lot of groundbreaking initiatives under weigh right now to -- under way

right now to combat drought in the west because of the work that we did. under the i.r.a. we made $25 million -- a $25 million investment to do a pilot project. we have all of these ac which ducts and canals that have evap are ative water loss and could have solar panels covering them to reduce that loss and generate clean, renewable energy. we now have a pilot project to enable that kind of innovation, a win-win solution because of the work we did. all of this is happening on the ground, in our communities, and it is proof that investing in america pays off. we should all take note. thank you, mr. hoyer, and i yield back. mr. hoyer: thank you very much. investing in america, making a difference for people, that's what we're doing. and i now yield to the gentlelady from delaware, ms. lisa blunt rochester. ms. blunt rochester: thank you, mr. hoyer. to my good friend and to the leader, thank you for organizing this special order hour.

and especially for your steadfast leadership of the regional leadership council. what i love about steny is that his whole focus was, this is about implementation, but it's also about informing people about all the things that have been done to support the american people. so i want to thank you. i want to thank leader hakeem jeffries for creating and organizing our group and i'm honored to represent my colleagues of region nine, which includes the states of new jersey, maryland, virginia, the district of columbia, and my home state, delaware. our region, like the entire regional leadership council, has been focused on the implementation of the historic legislation passed in the 117th congress and signed into law by president joe biden and vice president kamala harris. when democrats put people over politics and delivered

transformational change. leaders like representative jennifer mccullen in virginia's fourth congressional district have delivered results for her constituents. funding to reconnect richmond's historic jackson ward neighborhood that was split in half during the construction of the interstate highway system. this funding was delivered through the bipartisan infrastructure law, reconnecting communities. chairman bobby scott was able to secure over $400 million for the city of norfolk, virginia's, third congressional district to help create more climate-resilient infrastructure in the face of increased flooding. mr. mfume, the congressman, as well as john sarbanes and dutch ruppersberger, also celebrated the launch of a new work force hub in baltimore that came as a direct result of the chips in science act and the hub will

help train workers to step into good paying jobs and build the region's skilled work force, all while catalyzing investments in clean energy. these stories are just some of the stories all around region nine. including delaware. where after decades of effort, families waiting and struggling when nobody believed them, our veterans in this country started a movement for better health care. and we under democratic leadership not only believed them, but fought for them and were able to turn that into action with the passage of the pack act. -- pact act. before you here is the result of a resource fair that we did in delaware, my office did a constituent resource fair where we had hundreds of delawareans come out to learn about resources from dozens of federal, state and nonprofit

agencies, but on the spot, 30 veterans were able to sign up and be screened for the pact act. those those were benefits now those families will be able to have. in addition, and for me this is personal and goes back over 20 years. finally, i want to tell the story of a small down in delaware -- a small town in delaware called ellendale. they rely on well water. they'd been forced to bathe, cook with and drink dirty water. they fought for decades to secure a local connection to clean and reliable drinking water. they're holding the water in their hands. with the passage of the bipartisan infrastructure law and historic investments made through the infl inflation redun act, small rural towns like ellendale will be able to oche their taps and know that clean,

drinkable water will be flowing from them. meaning that they will be healthier and able to thrive. again, i am so proud of the work that we have been able to do. lastly, i would just say this. all of our work has expanded drinking water across this country. state revolving drinking water funds have gotten $14 billion, provided over $500 million directly to small and disadvantaged communities, over $500 million to remediate lead contamination and included was provision i authored for the first of its kind low income water bill assistance program. i will end with this. we came out of a pandemic as a country. don't forget where we came from. this congress, the 117th, with president joe biden, passed historic legislation that will provide for the american people, clean drinking water, clean air,

access to internet, cheaper health care. newer roads and bridges, more jobs. bottom line, we put politics to the side and we supported the people, and we didn't just do it with words, we did it with action. we delivered. delaware, delivered for you and we deliver for the american people. thank you, mr. hoyer and i yield back. mr. hoyer: i thank the gentlelady for talking about how the impact of the investing in america agenda has worked for america and americans. at this point in time i want to yield to grace meng from new york. ms. meng: thank you, mr. hoyer and for your leadership and for organizing this special order hour for the regional leadership council and our democratic leader hakeem jeffries for giving me the opportunity to represent our new york region. when democrats held the majority

in the 117th congress, we did not waste a moment making president biden's investing in america agenda a reality. i am proud to report, our bold agenda is delivering unprecedented federal investments to the state of new york. i see, every day, how these investments are creating well-paying job, improving my state's infrastructure, increasing green energy production, lowering energy costs for families, and bringing 21st century industries to our state. in just two years, new york has received over $12 billion in public infrastructure and clean energy funding and is slated to receive billions more in the coming years. but beyond the numbers, what do these investments look like in new york? it looks like micron investing $20 billion within this decade in semiconductor manufacturing

in clay, new york. $254 million to make more train and subway stations access to believe people with disabilities. $175 million for infrastructure improvements for our airports, including $111 million for j.f.k. and $56 million for la guardia, but also for dozens of smaller regional airports that so many communities rely on like $14 million for long island-mcarthur. $18 3*7b9 million for the purchase of over 50 electric school buses for our public school students, and $664 million for providing fiberoptic infrastructure to cities and towns without internet service. these investments are transforming new york right before our eyes. so the next time you see a lane closed on the highway for construction, or a neighbor installing solar panels, or an e.v. charging station open on

your way to work or a decrepit bridge being replaced, there's a good chance that the investing in america agenda helped make that possible. i also want to take time today to talk about the investing in america ajeb ka's -- agenda's climate resilient infrastrkture investments. the largest in its kind in american history. the impacts on climate change are here and millions of americans suffer the consequence. storm, flooding, heat waves and wildfires are occurring with greater intensity and frequency. it is causing unprecedented damage. tragically taking lives and even entire communities. in my own queens district, lives were lost to storm water flooding two years ago during hurricane ida. but the investing in america agenda is making our communities safer and our infrastructure more resilient to these impacts. we're investing $8.7 billionto ensure roadways can withstand

natural hazards and that communities have safe evacuation routes. $8.2 billion across programs designed to reduce the risk of -- and detect and fight wildfires. $3.5 billion for the flood mitigation program to help flood-prone communities reduce the risk of flood damage to homes and businesses. and so much more. these investments from democrats and president biden and vice president harris, in addition to the massive investments we're making in fight thinking climate change crisis will help protect communities and save lives. i yield back to the gentleman from maryland. mr. hoyer: again i thank the gentlelady for bringing to the american people's attention the consequences of the investments we have made in america. and how it has impacted our families and our friends all over this country. i now yield to the gentlelady from pennsylvania, mad den dean.

-- madeleine dean. ms. dean: thank you, mr. hoyer. it's a delight to be with you tonight. last congress was the most productive congress since 1964. democrats in the house and senate alongside the biden administration invested in america and in our communities. the infrastructure investment and jobs act, the inflation reduction act. the chips and science act. the scope of just these three bills is immense. for everyone, everywhere. because whether your district is red, blue or purple, these monumental laws will reach you and help transform where you live, where you work, where you play into something greener and safer. with the largest investment in our planet, in our lifetime, we're reimagining the fight against the climate crisis. that means building more resilient roads, stronger bridges, to withstand a changing

climate. it means expanding our e.v. infrastructure. it means manufacturing. and in region 10 that i represent, these dollars will guide us from the rust belt to revitalization. we're seeing this work already. in pennsylvania, in chris de-- in representative chris deluz io's district in the west of pennsylvania, we've invested $3.5 million to connect moon township to a new economic hub to create 1,900 construction jobs and generate $14 million annually for the community. in susan wild's district in the northeast, we're investing more than $36 million to upgrade roads, highways, and bridges. like cementon bridge to better connect the lehigh valley. in the entire southeastern region of pennsylvania where i'm from we're investing more than $200 million to improve roadways. i-95, 676, the boulevard and route 1.

our commonwealth is becoming better connected. the same can be said for west virginia. $1.6 billion for its roads, bridges, public transit and so much more including i-64, connecting west virginia's two largest cities, charleston and huntington. making an hour commute safer and more efficient. making a huge difference for residents, commercial vehicles and tourists who love west virginia's wild and wonderful scenery. the federal government is helping to fund an upgrade toirvetion-64 that's long overdue and because of our work, more than 26 million -- more than $26 million has been dedicated to upgrade i-64, u.s. 35 and more to come. whether it's u.s. 35 or i-75, ohio is using this federal funding to upgrade their roads as well. congresswoman marcy kaptur's district celebrated the reopening of desale bridge, a newly built section of i-75 in

toledo with the help of more than $12 million from the infrastructure law. in northeast ohio, my colleague, congresswoman amelia sikes' district has seen more than $125 million to upgrade highway, interchanges and offramps in. congressman greg lanceman's district we're investing $1.6 billion into the bridge, ensuring safety. in a state like ohio, upgrading roads and bridges means better connections that will grow its economy, ensure safety and better prepare us for climate change, not just for communities in highway but for its neighbors, like kentucky. and speaking of kentucky, it is the number one producer of cars, light trucks and s.u.v.'s. per our -- in our nation. and it's one of the nation's leads for the electric vehicle battery parks. look at that. a so-called red state is leading us in being green. and recently, e.v. battery plants in kentucky alongside neighboring tennessee received the largest federal investment

ever made to the auto industry. across kentucky, like in my colleague congressman morgan's district officials are committed to smartly serving growing hybrid and electric vehicle market. it's not just where we're drive, it's what we're driving. it's not only good for our planet but it's good for jobs. e.v. manufacturing will provide more than 10,000 jobs for kentuckians. so whether a red state or a blue state, we are all in this moment together. a moment where we can once again transform our nation into a powerhouse of manufacturing. that's what government is about. it is not about bickering or faux impeachment inquiries or shutting government down. no. because what we are doing with this impressive list of investments is showing government can work and must work for the people, for our planet, for our children. with that, mr. hoyer, i thank you, and i yield back. mr. hoyer: i thank the gentlelady for her comments making it clear that we

invested, didn't just spend money, we invested to make america better and american lives better. i now yield to the gentlelady from minnesota, the gentlelady, angie craig. ms. craig: thank you so much, mr. hoyer. mr. speaker, i rise today to recognize the work of the regional leadership council. my colleagues and i just got back to d.c. after an extended work period in our districts. it was a busy, busy time in the south metro of minnesota but also across the midwest. to me, being busy is a really good thing. busy means things are happening. small businesses are opening. round table discussions, ribbon cuttings, shovels in dirt, town halls, and yes, a whole lot of harvesting is about to be happening across the midwest. including corn and soybeans across my congressional district. but this work period was busy for a very particular reason.

we passed the one-year anniversary of the inflation reduction act. and we were able to celebrate the benefits that this legislation has already brought home and in particular to rural communities. i want to take a minute and put this legislation into perspective about what it's already done and what it will continue to do for midwest communities. let me start with the inflation reduction act's historic investment in homegrown biofuels infrastructure. the large it's the nation has ever made. e-15 and biofuels production are key for our ag communities and environments. they expand markets for family farmers, support economic growth in rural communities, and they are a solution that we have available today to help us address climate change. you know,

across region 3 they are providing producers with the resources they need to sustain and grow their operations, enabling them to continue feeding and fueling their country. you know, earlier this summer the department of agriculture awarded their first awardees for the i.r.a.'s higher blend fuel's infrastructure program. half of the awards went to states in region 3 alone. you know, the signing of the inflation reduction act also signalled a historic investment in our nation's infrastructure. infrastructure investments are a win-win for america's workers, business and communities. they just make sense. in minnesota, we've received $3.8 billion in infrastructure and clean energy investments, including federal dollars to make our roads, bridges, public transits, and airports safer, deploy clean water projects and provide broadband funding to

make sure our rural communities can access the high speed internet they deserve. and these investments we're building right here in region 3. we have about a billion dollars headed to wisconsin. if you know anything about minnesota, we're very competitive with wisconsin but as a region 3 representative, i'm so proud to say those dollars are going to the midwest through the broadband equity access and deployment program to provide high speed internet to $253,000 homes and small businesses. $73 million heading to michigan through the bipartisan infrastructure laws bridge investment program to replace the 85-year-old lafayette avenue bridge which serves as a critical passage point in the state's economy and the list, of course, goes on. you know, each of these infrastructure projects will play a critical role in building a safer, stronger america and i

personally cannot wait to see every single one of them come to life. you know, i'm going to end with personal privilege, mr. hoyer. i spent about 20 years working in the med tech industry and since entering congress, working to lower health care costs has been one of my highest priorities. given that, i thought i would just enemy remarks by sharing a story of a man, a constituent of mine named bob miller. bob relies on medicare, and for years, about a decade, he's relied on a prescription drug to treat his debilitating m.s. flare-ups but over a decade bob has seen the price of his drug skyrocket and was ultimately forced to stop taking the drug that he relies on because even with insurance, the price of that drug was just too expensive. bob's story is heartbreaking but unsurprising. we all know people across america who have to make those

same critical decisions each and every day because here in the richest country in the world, people like bob have been forced to make the decision to forego life sustaining medications because it's just too expensive. when we passed the inflation reduction act, we allowed medicare the power to start negotiating drug prices across our country. good old-fashioned competition to help lower drug costs for our seniors. i don't understand for the life of me how my colleagues cannot be in favor of good old-fashioned competition. many american seniors are now and will be able to live happier, healthier lives as a result of this legislation, and that, my friends, deserves to be celebrated. i look forward to continuing to see the benefits of all of these important pieces of legislation, and with that, mr. hoyer, thank you for convening us and i yield

back. mr. hoyer: i thank the gentlelady for her contribution for showing how investing in america has made a difference in rural america and make a healthier america. now i yield to the gentleman from washington state, mr. kill her. mr. kilmer. >> you'll find the agenda in full swing in my region since the law was sent to the president's desk, investments amounting to $6 billion have been announced in my state alone and roads and bridges and ports and water systems and even some investments that haven't led cable news. just last month in my district we celebrated nearly $20 million to support healthy salmon populations which are vital to our culture and way of life and to jobs for hatcheries, for habitat and culverts when the founders of my state built our roads they did so over rivers

and streams. we have culverts intended for fish passive that simply put don't work. you don't hear about that piece of infrastructure law but it's a big deal whether you're a sportsman or citizen of one of the 12 tribes i represent or someone who appreciate nature, these things matter. to the second district, rick larsen, the ranking member of the infrastructure committee recently hosted a bipartisan forum showcasing the benefits coming to ports. as leader hoyer said time and again, let's make it in america. these investments in ports, to make sure things we make in america can get sold all over the world, in my own district, the port of grace harbor has been awarded a $25.5 million grant for an export terminal and to be clear that will help export american products all over the pacific rim. in downtown seattle, our colleague from washington's

seventh district organized an event at the salmon bay bridge, which is on track to receive $25 million for its moveable span to ensure it can accommodate fishing boats efficiently. listen, washington isn't the only state residents are benefiting from these investments. in colorado, diana degette, our colleague from the first district of colorado celebrated the north worthy replacement of the 112 alameda bridge in denver, spanning interstate 25 and the south platte river is the oldest bridge in the state. it's no doubt we are seeing the president's agenda working with our caucus and at its core is about critical infrastructure investments happening in our nation every day because infrastructure is fundamental for a thriving economy and community. i've seen it firsthand and worked in economic development before i got to congress and

we've seen these investments. it's not just about the roads under our feet, the bridges we cross, it's not just about pipelines for clean water and trains delivering to our hometowns but technology, too. a while back i visited a tribe in my district on the coast of washington. it's as rural as people in this chamber could possibly imagine, and we stopped at their library and i said, is this where your students study? they said we don't have internet in this library. that's just unis acceptable and the fact is the bipartisan infrastructure law is going to connect people to broadband in a big way, so that if you're an entrepreneur or a senior or student in a rural classroom, you can get online and connect your business or have a telehealth visit or take an online class. we're seeing the benefits of this investing in america agenda and the commitment to re-energizing and strengthening our communities including rural communities we represent and we

are helping people make it in america and we're seeing that in the region that i come from in the west, and i couldn't be more excited about what's ahead and i thank the leader for pulling us together and his leadership. mr. hoyer: i thank the gentleman from washington state who has made such a difference in this congress making sure that people understand that we have invested in america and their lives are better. now i yield to the gentleman from california, mr. cardenas. >> i rise with an update for the american people and we are investing in america and it's paying off. like every other representative, i returned from a district work period and i heard story after story about transformative changes going on all thanks to bills and programs that president joe biden signed into law after we passed them right here in congress. i met with employees at capstone

energy corporation, one of the many successful clean energy companies that employ over 37,000 people in my district and are working to advance our carbon reduction goals. with support from the inflation reduction act, businesses like capstone will grow and hire more employees to help us transition to a cleaner energy future. i sat down with veterans to speak with them about what we're doing in congress to go beyond thanking them for their service. we talked about benefits they can access through the p.a.c. act and support they can receive from 988 veteran crisis line, initiatives championed by house democrats and signed into law by president biden. recently at a roundtable, local health care workers explained to me how lower drug prices for people on medicare are making a big difference. house democrats and president biden are committed to making health care more affordable and that includes lowering the prices of drugs that our seniors need.

that's why we capped the price of insulin. anyone who takes insulin every day to stay alive knows just how life changing lower insulin prices are. before we brought the price down it forced many people with diabetes to make extremely risky decisions like rationing insulin because they couldn't afford to buy more. i know how devastating diabetes can be, especially when you can't afford to manage it. my dad died at the age of 67 and i can tell you that from personal experience how painful it is to watch someone you love choose between providing for his family and getting life-saving medicine. no one in america should ever have to do that. no family should suffer through that. that's why congressional democrats and the biden administration are working so hard to lower drug prices for americans so that no one has to watch a loved one suffer from an illness that they just cannot afford to treat.

thanks to the inflation reduction act, the biden administration has successfully capped out-of-pocket insulin prices for those on medicare at $35 a month. it was momentum behind these policy ideas that moved insulin manufacturers to lower costs across the board on insulin products. this will allow people to live longer healthier lives. we know mental health is just as important as our physical health. this summer, america celebrated one year since the launch of 988, the number for the new suicide crisis lifeline that anybody in america can call 24 hours a day. the 988 system is saving lives. back home, the lead crisis center for the lifeline in california released data showing that california centers answered over 280,000 calls, chats, and texts with 98% of these contacts getting resolved. communities across america are

thriving because of the investment that congressional democrats and president biden has made in our future. we're rebuilding crumbling infrastructure and ensuring all americans have access to high speed internet lowering drug prices and giving our veterans the resources they need and kick starting job creation around the country. i'm so proud of what we have been able to accomplish, and i look forward to all that we will accomplish with president biden and i invite our republican colleagues to join us. with that, i yield back to the gentleman. mr. hoyer: i thank the gentleman from california for his observations with respect to investing in america, making a healthier america, healthier families, both from a physical health standpoint and a mental health standpoint. now i'm pleasedded to yield to the gentleman from louisiana, mr. carter. mr. carter: mr. hoyer, thank you very much for this great opportunity and your incredible

leadership for leading this regional leadership council. a special thank you to our leader, leader jeffries, for this very significant appointment to serve on this committee with so many outstanding members of congress. i'm proud to be the representative of region 7 on the house democrats regional council representing alabama, louisiana, mississippi, tennessee, north carolina, south carolina, puerto rico, and the virgin islands. in louisiana, the month of august is known for its hurricanes. to see what climate change looks like, i invite you to visit us, storms, flood, sea level rise, our lives, our homes, our cultures are literally on the line. i was honored to have my friend, senior adviser, mitch landru, back home to talk about critical funding the democrats secured through the 117th congress through the bipartisan infrastructure law to help

combat the crisis in our climate. we announced new funding through two competitive grant programs marking a pivotal moment in safeguarding our communities and building a more resilient nation. democrats are dedicating more money to fema to empower communities nationwide, to proactively reduce the vulnerability to floods, hurricanes, droughts, wildfires, extreme heat, and other climate-induced hazards. these are real, as it was said earlier, what a shame some would suggest it isn't real, that it's a hoax. ask the people throughout america if they believe it's a hoax. louisiana will receive funds through both grant programs, specifically we have 55 projects selected totaling $207 million statewide and in my district alone, receiving $96.5 million. these dollars reflect recognition of the growing threats posed by climate change and a commitment to addressing

these issues head-on. the benefits of these programs are happening all over region 7. f.m.a. and brick grants are awarded to alabama, $27, 500, mississippi, $2.4 million, north carolina, $7.6 million, south carolina $1.2 million, brick grants, mississippi, $315,000, north carolina $163 million, south carolina $40.7 million. these investments in region 7 are being used for projects like installing stand alone emergency generators to be used in power failures affecting some 30, 308 protecting north carolina's water supply and alleviating flood loss to critical lifeline and support services and ensuring a south carolina water plant supplied during flood events. millions of americans.

and impact every year whether through drought, wildfires or floods, louisiana knows the truth better than anybody else. these projects are not just infrastructure but lifelines that strengthen the fabrics of our community. we know these are real and making a difference. democrats have been fighting for these and not providing talk but real ac. the cost of war has been real and we have seen it in every way. the honoring of our act addresses the full scope of addressing toxic exposed to veterans, access to veterans, care and benefits by the decision making process. it will expand the eligibility for 3.5 million veterans exposed to burn pits and service

connection and it would eliminate the requirement that veterans are exposed to toxic substances and from the care they earned and deserve. this expands to veterans who are exposed. it expands benefits to their loved ones and family members. i encourage veterans to apply. one year after its passage, more than 800,000 claims and counting have already been filed. veterans deserve more than a hollow thank you. democrats are making good on our promise to care for all veterans exposed to toxic substances. we have 2.6 million, louisiana,

279,000. alabama, 359,000, arkansas, 187,000, tennessee, 453,000, north carolina, 703,000. south carolina 393,000. most importantly the families of veterans who lost their lives because of being exposed to toxic substances. tonight we are fr celebrating it and seeing lives changed. democrats will make life better regardless of race, social background. i am proud to be the representative of region 7. we are working for you.

>> as a proud representative of region 6, texas, new mexico and arizona, i join my colleagues in recognizing the laws that we passed in the last congress and the effort now to ensure that these investments in america or investments in every community in every corner of our country. we are seeing the impacts of the infrastructure of the chips and science act and so much more. they have the purpose and effect of ensuring that the united states remains a beacon of excellence in science and

technology and engineering and innovation with the support. to ensure that the things we dream up we make right here at home. i am glad to report that the agenda is seeing historic levels and a private private sector investments bringing manufacturing back. just last month, i got to join in a ribbon cutting at a new facility in my region because they were producing so much, 16 million coolers annually and needed to create new storage and shipping space and that is not surprising. at the end of last year, american manufacturing growth began outpacing the rest of the world. and in july, region 6 is at the

heart of that growth. in arizona, l.g. energy is quadrupling to $5.5 billion that will produce enough batteries to produce electric vehicles per year. so far, companies have committed in the grand canyon state. in new mexico, we are investing $3.5 million of semi-technology creating an expected 700 new jobs.

texas instruments is in the early stages of a $30 billion chip project. six projects totalling investment are expected to create 8,000 new jobs in texas alone. since the chips and science act was introduced, more than 50 new u.s. semi-conductor projects have been announced. and we are just getting started. i look forward to continuing to work with my colleagues and president biden and his administration to continue the work to invest in america and to ensure that these laws benefit all americans. not blue states, not red states, the united states. we are putting people over politics. thank you. and i yield back. mr. hoyer: i yield to the gentlelady from massachusetts.

>> i thank the chairman for yielding and highlight the investments being made. over the past two years, every states have invested. we have heard from my colleagues on the regional counsel and families and the good paying manufacturing jobs we are creating and the strides to close the digital divide and they are being felt on the home state of massachusetts. tonight, i would like to focus on an issue that has improved the lives of almost every family in new england. president biden's infrastructure law. new england is home to oldest roads and bridges. and it was fired in concord it

is still standing to this day and roads that connected concord to lexington is memorialized to experience. not every single bridge and road is that old but thousands of these critical pieces of infrastructure that are centuries old and due to year after year, state and local governmentsville struggled to keep up with increasing repair costs. i saw it as a kid growing up in local. and what was supposed to be the work bridge. and come back and replace the bridge but it never happened. the temporary work bridge is still standing and until we take up the law there was no telling if it was going to be replaced.

but this landmark legislation is delivering to get this project done. this is once in a generation having and wood stock the 175 was one of the first projects to receive funding and new london, connecticut, $320 million is supporting the rehab of the gold star memorial bridge on i-95 and supports 42,000 vehicles each day. by the time the bipartisan infrastructure law has allocated the last dollar it will have improved the lives of every single american and made roads and bridges safer and get children to school on time and shorten commutes given each evening to spend with their loved ones and car maintenance

costs that are the bain of every family's existence. presidents have failed to promise and president biden and democrats in congress got it done. bridges small and large are going to be completed because of it. i am proud of the work that we passed and i look to work asal member of the regional leadership council to make sure the bipartisan infrastructure law is implemented. i thank the chaimple for inviting me. mr. hoyer: i will now yield to the gentlelady from illinois, ms. kelly. also a member -- everybody has been a member of the leadership council. ms. kelly: i'm a proud member of the regional leadership council

region 4. this is one of the largest public health threats. our nation's children are returning to school and should be worried about is passing their next test. too many children live in fear of gun violence and -- the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. under the speaker's anonessed policy the chair recognizes the gentleman from arizona. mr. schweikert: as a courtesy and gave me a kindness a while back, i'm going to give mr. hoyer mr. -- to finish his closing. mr. hoyer: thank you. i appreciate that. i yield to the gentlelady from illinois. ms. kelly: and the stress from

living in a community impacted by gun violence has been proven to lower test scores like anxiety and ptsd. i was in a place in danville where 25 young people with stories i heard were devastating. one young man talked about two brothers and his father were killed because of gun violence. last week, 42 shootings in chicago, a 15-year-old was shot in the park and 14-year-old was shot while riding in the car and eight-year-old was shot walking on the sidewalk. congress has combatting this public health crisis. the first time in 30 years that congress meaningful action on august 31, torn general merrick

garland directed the a.t.f. licensing requirements we made progress but so much more to do. democrats are prepared to take the next steps. the american people are asking us to deliver. we put people over politics and we passed the bipartisan safer communities act. we can and must do more. we cannot afford to wait. i yield back. mr. hoyer: i thank the gentlelady for her comments. i ask unanimous consent that all members may have five legislative days to revise and extend their remarks on the former special order and to submit extraneous material into the record and i thank mississippi friend from arizona for his courtesy and i yield back to him. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. schweikert: look, you have been kind to me even whether you remember we were beating each up

on the floor and sometimes you remember those things. mr. speaker pro tempore, i'm well caffeinated and angry and have the truth on math. i'm terrified of what is going on around here because we are making crap up. let's do math. mr. speaker pro tempore, this is what we are borrowing second. we are borrowing 72,000 932 and 20 of that is interest and it gets dramatically worse between now and the rest of the decade. there is a punchline here i need you to understand. how many times have you listened to members and say well i don't get to vote on mandatory

spending, only on discretionary. seriously, you have been here how long? . . . . every dime we as members now vote on is now borrowed. it's all borrowed money. look, i threw together this chart, thank you for staff. but in the current budget year, the appropriation was about $1.8 trillion and in the july update we spent about $1.7 trillion on discretionary. this is not medicare. this is not social security. that's this orange part here. but we're functioning in the last two months and bored $2.3 trillion. does anyone see the math problem? the 2023 budget discretionary

spending was going to be $1, 831, 000, 000 and when the fiscal year is over my math is approaching on $1 poise 2 trillion and my staff thinks it's $1.21. what's $100 billion between friends? if there's any staffers sitting in your office watching the television, understand everything a member of congress votes on, everything, is borrow ed money. tell me, you remember, it was -- let's actually go back where i can say something personal. in february, march, i came behind this very microphone and i said we're heading towards

borrowing $1.8 trillion and i got mocked. i have to apologize, i was wrong, it wasn't $1.8 trillion, we're heading towards $1.121 trillion. explain how in may of last year, a year ago, may 22, we thought the budget deficit for this year would be about mid 800's, $170 billion and now we're heading to $2.2 billion. what happened, medicare went up dramatically and tax receipts have fallen. you heard how wonderful this economy is. we're doing all subsidized loans and we nationalized the chip industry, isn't it wonderful? think of what's going on. and yet the tax revenues have fallen actually fairly

dramatically. brilliant economics again from what the left did last year. and the third thing no one wants to fix eight on, the inflation reduction act that they passed and were celebrating here, if you even read the left wing economists in their journals, ok, half of inflation was supply strain, stress, yes, and half of it was the excessive spending. ok. so the people in my community, unless you've had a 20% pay hike if you live in the phoenix, scottsdale area, you're poorer today, you're poorer today than you were 24 months ago. well, will the left take responsibility for that? will they take responsibility for the 50% of it? and this is the insanity. the wheels are coming off and no one wants to come behind these microphones and tell the truth.

what's happening? every dime we vote on, because remember, social security, veterans benefits, those things are on autopilot and mandatory and earned benefits and a formula and no one votes on them. it's borrowed money. the old days when you heard republicans come behind the microphone, if we'd just get rid of waste and fraud and if we'd just get rid of foreign aid, we'll be fine. it's about 12 days of borrowing. i'll show you a number of things, the democrats, the left, makes crap up, the dollar amounts. well, if we'd just tax rich people more, if we'd just get rid of the threshold on social security. i'll show you that gets nowhere near the types of moneys they misrepresent to you. we won't use the word "lie" tonight. i'm going to try to do my best. all right. so we're just going to run through a number of these because i gave away a little

time and have a half-hour tonight, actually have only probably 20 minutes left, to actually start to demonstrate how fragile we are. there was a bond auction four or five hours ago of 30-year paper here and it all sold at the very top of the market. basically meaning if you thought interest rates were going down tomorrow, they're not. and you're starting to see actually how fragile we are. we're starting to look at numbers in 10 years, the calculations on what we're going to pay on the debt are absolutely wrong. they're absolutely wrong. we're now starting to see math saying we may be missing, in nine budget years from now, total interest was predicted to be as high as $1.4 trillion, just the interest. i need you to now add another $315 billion, and that difference is just the marginal interest rate increases we've had over the last several weeks.

when you're borrowing $26 trillion from the public, when you hear the $33 trillion, a bunch of that is money we borrowed from the trust funds which are also running out of money. so why this is important -- this big red hump here, that's defense spending for 2024. it's like $830 billion. this one here is interest, just interest we're going to pay in 2024. my math, there's a very high likelihood, interest this government pays in next fiscal year will be equal to every dime we spend in defense. interest will equal the defense budget. so next time you're talking to a

leftist who says if you'll just cut defense spending. interest now is equaling defense. and that's next year. that's the budget we're working on right now. understand how much trouble we're in. i'm going to go through some of these fast because there's not a lot of time. but this one is really important. almost no one here understands or talks about it. it's not the $2 trillion we're going to issue as new debt next year, it's functionally the almost $10 trillion that comes to market next year. we have about $7.6 trillion that gets refinanced. those are bonds from years ago that were at remarkably low interest rates coming due. we're going to bring almost $10 trillion to market of u.s. sovereign debt next year. what happens when we bring that

debt at these new higher interest rates? anyone here paying attention? we've gone off the rails. oh, but we don't care, we don't do math here. it's a math free zone. pay attention to this, this will be a story as we move through next year when you bring $10 trillion to market. and you've got to convince investors to buy this debt, they won't get a better return buying paper over here or rolling over u.s. sovereign and we'll be issuing another trillion of virgin debt. this is where we're at. and you start to look at, we were doing this calculation a couple months ago, by raising the interest by a single point which we've more than succeeded, you start to look out a few years and by the 10-year window, you might be having a $3.7

trillion a year shortfall. a deficit of $3.7 trillion. it's mostly that growth -- it's not calculating in the higher new medical costs. this is basically interest fragilitiy. and this board is important to my democrat brothers and sisters. the comment we get, if we'd just tax rich people more. please, buy a cool cue later and read the comments your leftists produce. because if we'd confiscate next year -- a lot of caffeine today. if we'd confiscate every dime -- you make $500,000, the next dollar you make, we take it, we take everything. you make $500,000, everything up. the guy makes $1 billion, we

take every dime of it. that would bring in about $1.5 trillion. a lot of money. this number is already wrong. before we were projecting a budget deficit in 2024, now we're thinking if that year's 2.2, what will next year's be? confiscate everything over $500,000. if we just tax the rich, we'll be fine. it's an absolute fraud. remember, the number one driver of debt here is not democrats, it's not republicans, it's demographics, the one thing we're not allowed to talk about. we're not allowed to tell the truth. we made promises and we have no cash to keep them. and at some point here i'm going to set myself on fire after soaking in care seen. we'll talk about social security and how ugly the basic math is. let's start that right now.

and look, some of these -- we've put together these slides just trying to demonstrate on this side over here, these are the taxes you've paid over your lifetime, the average couple, the average couple. the one bar here i want you to get your head around is this orange bar is medicare. you see that gap? this is the benefits you receive. that gap from here to here. that gap right there is 75% of all future debt. we're not supposed to talk about this because it gets people unelected but the fact of the matter is unless we have a revolution in delivering the cost of health care, the 130 -- maybe dramatically more now, that number hasn't been updated in a while, the u.s. sovereign debt we plan to issue the next 30 years, 75% of it is medicare and 25% if we cover the shortfall in social security. i'm not going to make you go

through that one. so let's actually have some fun with math. i had sort of a group discussion, most of the room were people on the left but very polite, every other person claimed to have a p.h.d. and we got to the discussion of saying hey, the actuary reports, the c.b.o. are basically saying nine a billion dollars is the shortfall. if you're an average couple in america, that's a $17, 200 cut to your social security check. we'll double senior poverty. how many people have you seen come to the microphone and say i give a damn about seniors, i don't want to double senior poverty. have you seen the stories of how many baby boomers are starting to live on the streets in america? and the projections, this is an

article today -- i'm not sure where this was published, actually, it may have been "the wall street journal" today. read the article. understand what's happening, the fragilitiy and we're telling these people we're taking 25% of their social security check from them? it's nine years from now. but the problem is that first year -- let's just do one-year math, 2033, that's $616 billion. let's do the democrats' suggestion, we're going to tax people over $400,000. so there's a doughnut hole, you play your social security and fica tax up to $262,000 and you don't pay anymore but once you hit $400,000 you pay the 12.4% social security tax. great. it's $80 billion and the shortfall is $616 billion, does anybody see the math problem? let's go to the next one. let's do the bernie sanders suggestion.

let's get rid of the capital. every dime you earn you pay 12.4%. when you do the dynamic score on it, that's about $158 billion. did i mention the first year shortfall is $616 billion? $616 billion removing the cap, tax everything, only produces $158 billion. what is that snl $437 billion shortfall. what would you like? democrat colleagues, you refuse to have the discussion and how to pay social security and you won't have the conversation because the president stood right there and said aren't allowed to talk about medicare and social security and everybody applauded because you tried to talk about doing the moral thing and save this

program. mr. speaker pro tempore, how many minutes do i have? the speaker pro tempore: 11 minutes. mr. schweikert: good. we are going to have some fun here then. so, let's actually walk through what this means to you. you are right now expecting $17, 400 is the cut you are getting in as an average couple in america in nine years. yay. ok, let's do that thing let the democrats and tax over 400,000, that is 13,000 and first year. you tax completely remove the cap and tax every dime without the dynamic score of how much

the economy you slowed down. the cut that average couple on social security is going to be approaching $11,000 and democrats' moral solution. does anyone here own a calculator and let's go a little bit further. the hard left hearsay let's do the tax, it is unconstitutional and in front of the supreme court this coming year where the democrat solution is we know we have been lying to the public but offer another tax proposal where democrats want to tax. huh, what's that. you have a building, you have a business, asset here and haven't sold it. and every year the government is going to come in here and the

really rich, 10%. and every year you might have to pay and capital gains and that's where the real money is. but the problem is the fantasy of going at that money without a dynamic score. how does it change behavior. we won't do the economics. produces about $137 bill i don't know. -- billion. that first year it would produce $is is 37 billion. remember the previous board, social security has $616 billion in shortfall and the most radical tax proposal produces

137 billion. do you understand how difficult these numbers are? and said we are going to come theater. we are building a factory and no one wants the and iowa, nationalize -- you know -- sorry, in our office, our new nickname we call new soft nationalization and the big business is hand them cash. as republicans, we say fix the tax code so you have to compete with each other and go up there and engage in creative destruction. democrats say make it so we give you the cash to do it. insane economics. and, look, this board is a little harder to read but we

were trying to figure out if the hard left's theory of we were going to have these taxes and sweep the assets of rich people which is unconstitutional and find out if any opinion is true but the principle of this board is c.b.o. has told us we are heading towards 115, 120% of debt to g.d.p. with all these new taxes, we are still pretty much 111% and this is assuming every dime comes in. it's a fraud. and this is supposed to make you feel better. we have a tax proposal and they won't let us blow up the economy. and look, i know this is hard to

read but why this is so difficult is you see these gaps and those are -- these lines are saying, you see the gap and the tax proposals being to save the social security trust fund and as you go out further in time, the dpap gets bigger and bigger. i need someone to process. that's in nine years. and less time than that medicare part a trust fund is gone. the transportation trust fund is dpon. and we're hitting numbers, we are hitting numbers, the $2.1 trillion we weren't supposed to

hit for a decade. we are borrowing at a rate that we weren't supposed to see for years. this is the dome catso economy and nationalizing the chips energy and green frg energy and building these industries and getting no tax receipts from it. something has gone wrong out there. and instead of our brothers and sisters on the left and those of us on the right saying we have a moral obligation not to have baby boomers on the street as part of their retirement, not to double senior poverty, to my young kids, i have a 14 month old and eight-year-old, c.b.o. math said in 20 years if we want to maintain baseline services as

they are today, my kids live in a world where they are poor. and you want to why the middle class is so cranky. once again, back to something i said in the beginning, the middle class in this country is poorer today, poorer today than they were 24 months ago. if you live in my community, if you haven't had over a 20% may hike, you are poorer today than. this is morality. let's have the most difficult discussion this place is capable of. what are we going to do? i have come behind this microphone dozens of timings and

showing a revolution and i brought the ways to do it and i brought charts to say, 33% of all health care spending. are we going to do the same old farm bill and understand that we have ways to help our brothers and sisters and come back into the labor force and this is the next decade, we will have more americans dying. we are dying as a society and fining -- financing it ourselves. there is hope. there is a way at work. there is a way at works. is this place of actually capable of thinking are we going to -- so and so hurt my feelings so i'm going to oppose this. i'm not going to read this.

i can't go home and explain it to my chamber of commerce. screw you. this is a moment of action. i'm going to give you a radical proposal. i accept has no chance of passing. and i'll use this year's numbers. in the 2023 budget year, nondefense discretionary spending, let's talk about 740 billion, 326 billion is money that we are borrowing and sending to state, and many programs i love. i have supported these but we are borrowing money to send to entities that have their own taxing and borrowing authority. that is the definition of insanity. those who say i want to defend the 10th amendment. stop borrowing money over here

and states have to lobby at your over office every six weeks. it would be hashed the hall ways might be depopulated and won't be begging for more cash, but is it rational for us to borrow hundreds and hundreds of billions of dollars and happened it to entities that have their own taxing authority. this is the punch line, you bang on this. we just need to raise tax is. great. and make it so we stop borrowing the money. with that, mr. speaker, i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: under the speaker's announced policy of january 3, 2023, the chair recognizes mr. good for 30

minutes. mr. good: mr. speaker, the constitution gives the responsibility for the nation's finances to the house of representatives. if the house responsibility to pay the nation's debts, to manage the nation's finances and borrow when necessary, although the founders warned us about the dangers of excessive debt, the dangers of perpt tall debt and yet we find ourselves with the highest level of debt to our g.d.p. that we have had since world war ii. world war ii generation came out of a literal battle, a war to save the world from japan and germany which caused to fund that war and fund that conflict, but that generation paid that

debt down to a manageable level. but here we are today with 32 trillion in debt. nearly $100,000 per american citizen. i have said that many times in this floor in speeches and interviews, $100,000 per american citizen. one time i said this, it was opposite the then budget chairman from the other side and when his time came to speak, he said stop asking it as if it was not real andmon op apply money and didn't manner matter. however the days of spending without consequence are over. and american people are able to connect the numbers, the stats and dollars a that they hear to

the very lives because the american people are suffering from 40-year high inflation. the consumer price index showed today that prices have risen 17% in the 2 1/2 years since president biden took office. that means $1,000 in 2020 is 832 today. americans are experiencing 40-year high inflation and higher for this for essentials, for groceries, gasoline and utilities and for housing costs. the average mortgage today, the average mortgage today is $1218, which is more than double than what it was when president biden assumed office. that is direct result of the

causing massive inflation that raised interest rates and we have had our credit rating lowered for just the second time in our history. americans are suffering under this debt. americans' future is suffering. terrible threat to our children and grandchildren and we as a republican majority must do something about it. we as republican majority we as the republican majority, after running on a platform of fiscal responsibility, are leading a house of representatives that will have a $2 trillion deficit this year. so we're here tonight with this special order time to talk about our spending, to talk about our deficit, to talk about our national debt and to talk about the budget battle we're in at this very moment they have appropriations process to fund

our government and what we will do with the faith and the trust the american people placed in us last november when they gave us the house majority. so i'm pleased to be joined by a couple of my distinguished colleagues tonight. i have with me congressman ralph norman from south carolina. and congressman clay higgins from louisiana. and i invisit mr. nor noon share thought he is has on this topic tonight. mr. norman: thank you, bob. i want to thank you for calling this special order. folks, for those listening, we're in a -- i guess a pivotal point in the history of america. i have never felt the weight as i do now to, i guess, save the republic as i grew up in. to save the opportunity to

realize your god-given talent and to realize the goals and aspirations that each individual has. folks, i feel like it's under threat and i know it's under threat since i was first elected in congress in 2017. you know, we can all talk about what we're going to do, what we want to do. folks, we're at a pivotal time. we have to do what it takes to save this republic. as congressman good said, basically the debt is rampant. what's happening to this country at every level is, in one word, evil. i can't think of any other word to describe what we're going through in america that's evil that threatens the democracy, that we have known for 240 years. now what do i mean by -- what's

evil about what's going on? what's different now than in years ago? let me ask each one of you watching, when have you ever seen a country that basically has no borders? when have you ever seen a country that is letting everybody from every country in? no checks, no balances, come in and enjoy the fruits of the great republic? when have you ever seen the lawlessness that's taken place in, many. when have you ever seen the criminals being basically protected over the victims that they have victim ides. when have you seen that? when have you seen americans scared to use their voice? and to express their outrage?

as congressman good has mentioned, when have you ever seen, and i think it's the last date i heard was 2008, when there's been a steady decline in the take-home pay of americans. when have you ever seen our school system under attack? when have you ever seen young children who are being surgically -- trying to think of the word. mr. good: maimed. mr. norman: surgically destroyed as you see today for the sake of a dollar by a medical professional? when have you ever seen the -- a sitting lead or of the free world, sitting president, give $9 billion to contry that will blow us up every day of the week? when have you seen that? i don't think we have. and folks, i just -- i've just

gone over just a few things. that is different than it was today. than it was yesterday. it's wake up, america. it's wake up to what we're facing. and i was just having a conversation with congressman higgins in what we face now. we're up here, we got here tuesday. yesterday. we will leave tomorrow. we do not have a budget. we do not have a top line on the 12 appropriations bills. what do we have? you tell me. i'm a sitting member of congress, i don't know all i do know is, i'm not willing to spend this country into oblivion and continue to support what has been going on by this administration. i'm simply not willing to do it. i'm not willing to give more

money to a executive office that is promoting lawlessness in this country. south carolina has 5.2 million people. we have exceeded that on the illegals that are coming into this country. they're going to different cities, in and all over this country. i guess the ones at the forefront are in new york city. when i heard eric adams talk about the crisis area, where was he when he declared new york city a sanctuary city? where was he when he said how are question we going to pay for this? where was he when he told the school districts that's being overrun by illegals that are taking the place of people who have been in america, who have paid taxes, who have contributed to our economic system? where was he? and now he's complaining he wants a bailout. so that -- all to say it's our time to shine.

it's dependent on each one of us to answer the call. now, how do we do that? well, we insist on fiscal sanity. economic security is national security. and we have got to insist now to have regular order which is what we thought we had when we voted for the speaker in january, regular order. having the 12 appropriations bills on the conservative downward spending trend. and have a budget like every american business. every american family has. what do we have now? nothing. what's it up to us? it's up to us now to do whatever it takes to make sure we have a fiscally sound budget, to make sure each of the 12 appropriations are less than the precovid levels. to have a border that's secure.

that's enforceable. and to have the wokeness out of the military that's destroying the readiness of our great military people all across this country. so my message to each of you tonight, get active in your communities. get active in telling your congressman, if it means shutting the government down before you get it right, shut it down. shut it down. until you get it right. it's easy to spend other people's money. but we want to give it back. that's one thing the freedom caucus and other members with me tonight, congressman good and congressman higgins, we want to give you money back. we're not going to add to the continual debt that is bankrupting our system. the cancer in this country cannot be cured by asterisk. what i'm asking you today, take ownership in your communities.

take ownership from the local level, school council, state and up. take ownership in it. let your voice be heard. you know what's at take? one word. freedom. freedom is at stake. let's answer the call as we have always done. the onus is on us. god bless each and every one of you. congressman good, thank you for allowing me a few minutes. mr. good: mr. speaker, as the gentleman from south carolina, mr. norman, has said, debt is the opposite of freedom. there's a biblical principle of that. it says the borrower is enslaved to the lender. the funkers warned us about the consequence of excessive debt. i'm reminded as mr. norman is speaking i feel like i'm living thru the movie "how to destroy a country" produced by president biden. if you were going to set out to destroy contry 2 1/2 years ago,

what would you do different than what mr. norman has outlined? bethe border instlairks national debt, predm nantly responsible to the democrat party but also contributed by republicans. and we have the opportunity to do something about that now in this congress. so i'd like to recognize my friend from louisiana, mr. clay higgins. mr. clay higgins, express your thoughts. mr. higgins: i thank my colleague, congressman good. and i appreciate the words of wisdom of my colleague, ralph norman. mr. speaker, i'll begin with an uplifting statement. god is still on the throne. and we his humble children, we have a responsibility to be worthy. of his love and his grace. and the anointing of what it is

to be an american citizen. every generation of americans has risen to face the challenge of threat. that our nation has endured now, 240 years. and in our generation one of the most insidious threats that we face is the degree of debt that we have allowed in my generation our nation to assume. we -- we now face a $33 trillion debt. that's 33 thousand billion dollars. mr. speaker, if this body were to balance the budget, which sour goal, by the way, it's why we are here tonight, addressing

this chamber and the nation that we love, standing shoulder-to-shoulder with each other. so that our words are forever inscribed on the historical record of our country. that some stood to fight for the future of our republic. to restore fiscal sanity. to this so were this body to -- budget, and we were to run a $1 billion surplus, mr. speaker, it would require 33,000 years to address a $33 trillion debt. with a $1 billion surplus. and $1 billion is one thousand million. every american has imagined, what would i do have i had a

million dollars? pay off my house. settle my debts. take care of my family. build mother-in-law a house. set aside some moneys for my children and my grandchildren. i'd bring generational growth to my family. if i won the lottery and had a million dollars. and in this time we throw around trillions. like it's nothing. every dollar that we spend in deficit every year is put upon our grandchildren. is this reflective of anointed value that our lord has bestowed upon us as american citizens? as we stand beneath the glory, mr. speaker, of one flag, we are

ultimately one people. and the challenge of this generation and this body and this majority party, this republican party, and honor that i wield not upon my lapel but within my heart, what it is to be a conservative constitutionalist republican american citizen and i stand in the body that's responsible to correct course that our nation has taken up. because mr. speaker, it was 1980 before america had accumulated $1 trillion in debt. 1980. since then, we've added $32 trillion of debt. it took 200 years to accumulate $1 trillion in debt.

and now we have $33 trillion. it's unsustainable. so we are demanding a correction of course because our nation is headed precipitously to a fiscal cliff beyond which we may never recover as a nation, and we love our country enough that we're willing to stand and fight for the future of our republic. and fit if it makes some of our colleagues uncomfortable, oh, well. if you are willing to participate in the change of spending trajectory that this generation is required to produce, then stand with us. if not, if you don't have the courage, at least get out of our way. if you oppose us, prepare for a

fight. but we love our country enough to stand in this chamber and make some noise about the debt that we have accumulated and the deficit spending that we continue to add. and i ask my colleague, congressman good, perhaps you have a comment to share with the speaker the difference between our national debt and our annual deficit and how quickly we are adding to our debt at a rate thats never been seen. mr. good: we are going to spend $20,000 per citizen this year. 330 million americans, in a republican majority congress, we are going to spend and we will

borrow $6,000 of that $20,000. this year alone borrow $20,000 per citizen. of the $20,000 we will spend this year, only $3,000 per citizen that we will spend will be for the primary responsibility of the federal government to defend the nation, spend $20,000 and borrow 6,000 of that and will be for protecting the nation from foreign invasion keeping the nation. thorp congressman higgins' point the interest on the debt, what we are paying to service the debt is trillion dollars a

year. and interest rates rising that cost is going to go higher. so what are we prepared to do. it doesn't matter what you believe in. it doesn't matter what you say you stand for. if you are not willing to have the courage of your convictions to fight for that which you claim to believe. and no secret and no coincidence and the gentleman, mr. norman. and i believe the american people are counting on us and hope on us that we will make the stand and not betray them and not let them down. i go back to january. what january speaker battle was about was that as a renewed republican erm majority and

therefore fail as we have failed particularly when it comes to fighting to cut our spending. yes, democrats are better at spending but republicans have contributed with the failure to follow through on the things that we run on. we had commitments and cut spending to precovid levels for nondefense, discretionary spending which was the highest level, the most reckless spending. we voted together as a republican conference in april. we voted together for precovid level spending. however, that was discarded with the debt ceiling agreement where the republican house came

together with the democrat majority of the house and the senate and the white house to for a debt ceiling agreement that is unlimited until january, 2025 and come together and spend between now and january, 2025 and 36 trillion in debt by that time. we were told when we were negotiating the debt ceiling bill and when it came forward and we did not forward, we will fight during the appropriation process. matter of fact we were told when we were negotiating the energy bill we will fight during the appropriations process, and we were told toward the cut spending during the appropriations even during the n.d.a. and use the appropriations process and we were told we would pass 12

appropriations bass implementing republican priorities at prepandemic levels. and now we are at a crisis point and deliver for the american people. $115 billion in spending cuts. $115 billion and running a monthly deficit of $150 billion a month. and so we need to do as the republican majority pass our 12 bills that implement our policy priorities and do our job here in the house, cut our spending to precovid levels that he we were committed to doing in scwan and april, send it to the senate and demand they pass those house bills that the american people. if the senate wants to shut down

the government. mr. higgins, in my district, we both came from our districts, the american people didn't concern to me that the government might shut down but the national debt and spending and rising crime and the border invasion and the weaponization of the federal government, a two-tier justice system and the way for us to address those issues is to cut our spending. mr. higgins, some final thoughts. mr. higgins: mr. speaker, mr. speaker, we can succeed reflective of the will of the people we are sworn to serve.

what we require in order to deliver is not an imagined unreachable goal or an unreasonable demand. what we require of our republican colleagues is that they embrace the core principles upon which the republican party has been built. just stand upon the core principles that you claim to possess and help us save our country from bankruptcy. we have the power of the purse and also with respect to my colleagues in the senate, the founders knew what they were doing when they created a

bicameral congress. if they wanted a uny cam rail and i stated last night, words of wisdom spoken. we are the house of representatives. we are the voice of we the people. we control the nation's wealth or squander it. and we have reached a point that is untenable to continue. so we ask our colleagues, my brothers and sisters, the most conservative rank of our conference, the freedom caucus we asked our brothers and sisters, we asked our speaker whom we elected to stand with the conservative voice that is it self reflective of the voice of the people we are sworn to

serve. let us change the trajectory ever of spending across our 12 appropriations bills which are filled with conservative policies that is transformative that if we can pass those bills and stand as one and pass those bills reflective of our agreement at 2022 spending levels and precovid 2019 levels. none of us would say the federal government was too small in 2019 or didn't spend enough money in 2022. all we ask is a reasonable adjustment to the trajectory of spending. this is why we speak to you tonight, mr. speaker and ask that our voices be heard by our colleagues.

let us save our republic. mr. good: may we be that transformation that cuts spending. mr. norman, the final minute. i yield to you. mr. norman: we have a great opportunity and in the words of winston churchill, in the depths of the lows of great britain, there will be a time when doing your best isn't doing enough, we have to do what is required. that is going to require courage and require stamina and that's going to require the one word that we all live under, one flag, one people, representing freedom. god bless each and every one of us. mr. good: we yield back. >> thank you congressman good,

thank you, mr. speaker. the speaker pro tempore: the chair would entertain a motion to adjourn. the question is on the motion to adjourn. those in favor, say aye. those opposed, no. the yeas have it and the motion is adopted and the motion is adopted until 10:00 a some republicans that they will not voteo allow debate on the 826 billi dollar measure. at the same time lawmakers need to figure out aay to keep the government funded after september 30 to prevent a government shutdown. you can watch live coverage of the house on c-span. >> tonight, policy advocates testify on ways to protect children from online sexual abuse in sex trafficking. watch the house judiciary

subcommittee and 9:00 p.m. eastern on c-span, c-span now, our free mobile video app or online at c-span.org. >> c-span's washington journal, our live forum involving you to discuss the latest issues in government, politics and public policy. from washington and across the country. coming up thursday morning, the congressional reporter julie grace discusses the latest on congressional efforts to pass the funding bill before the september 30 deadline. new york democratic congressman talks about the funding deadline and immigration. south carolina republican congressman ralph norman, a member of the freedom caucus on the funding deadline in the house gop's by an impeachment inquiry. political reporter david weikel previews the d&c committee tomorrow. what's being decided in how the d&c is relaxed -- reacting to

criticism from robert kennedy of junior. also, the american public health association discusses a new cdc recommended covid-19 booster shot. who should get them, and the outlook for the virus is the winter months approach. c-span's washington journal, join in the conversation live at 7:00 eastern thursday morning. on c-span, c-span now, or online at c-span.org. >> c-span is your unfiltered view of government. we are funded by these television companies and more. including buckeye broadband. buckeye broadband support c-span is a public