Providing for Consideration of S. Promoting Physical Activity for Americans Act

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mrs. HARSHBARGER. Madam Speaker, I rise to oppose the previous question so that we could immediately consider H.R. 1897, the REACT Act. It is urgent that we pass this critical and commonsense legislation offered by my friend and colleague from Iowa, Mrs. Miller- Meeks.

We all know that the crisis on our southern border is a national security crisis. My colleague, Mrs. Miller-Meeks is a physician and I am a pharmacist, so we totally understand. What is less discussed is that it is also a public health crisis. Illegal immigrants are coming across our southern border in record numbers and they are coming from countries with low COVID vaccination rates.

My colleagues are right. The ERs are full of a lot of unvaccinated people, because there are 200,000 or more coming across the southern border every month and 209,000 were encountered in August alone. And the Biden administration is then transporting these illegal immigrants to communities all across our country--in most cases, without the Governor's approval, as is in Tennessee.

Currently, there is no requirement for individuals released by CBP or ICE to test negative for COVID before they are released. That means that any COVID-positive migrants released by the administration are spreading COVID throughout our communities.

Just this week, the DHS Secretary admitted that there were at least 12,000 or more Haitian migrants released into our communities who were not subject to COVID testing mandates--and I won't even talk about the non-SIV Afghans.

Contrast this with the Biden administration's policy of forcing American workers to get tested or vaccinated or its policy of only letting fully vaccinated tourists fly into our country. The lack of COVID testing at the southern border is reckless and it is unacceptable, and it is a detriment to our healthcare system.

But it doesn't have to be this way. There is a solution to the border health crisis.

My friend from Iowa introduced the REACT Act to protect American public health from the border crisis. This critical bill would require testing for everyone crossing our border, and it would require a negative test before CBP or ICE can release these illegal immigrants from custody.

The ultimate solution is just to close the border, but since that is a commonsense solution, it is not going to happen. It is time to implement the proper health screenings for these individuals entering our country and stop putting Americans at risk.

Madam Speaker, the House should immediately pass the REACT Act because lives depend on it.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source