Providing for Consideration of H.R. Postal Service Reform Act of Providing for Consideration of H.R. Further Additional Continuing Appropriations Act, and for Other Purposes
Floor Speech
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Mr. BURGESS. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.
Mr. Speaker, as you have already heard, today's rule provides for consideration of yet another continuing resolution 5 months into the fiscal year and not a single appropriations bill has been signed into law.
This time, the Rules Committee had less than 2 hours' notice before considering the continuing resolution rule in the Rules Committee yesterday leaving no time for Members who might want to offer an amendment or might want to come to the committee to speak on this CR.
This is no secret. This has not been an easy year for the American people; crisis after crisis, and this Democratic leadership in this Congress has not really led on those issues. We are still facing a crisis on our southern border. Mr. Speaker, 2 million migrants have crossed without documentation since President Biden took the oath of office. And in response, what did he do? Well, he halted construction on the border wall, and he tried to eliminate the remain in Mexico program except the courts wouldn't let him do that, so now they are slow-walking the enforcement.
At the same time, Ukraine is facing down 130,000 Russian troops that look poised to invade, and President Biden just recently used his waiver authority to ease the sanctions on the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, a direct link between Russia and Europe for oil and gas. If we had been given time to consider this CR, we could have revoked this waiver authority and reinstated sanctions on the Nord Stream 2.
Another problem exacerbated by this administration is their continued push for vaccine mandates. We see it literally every day on the news. Mandates do nothing but drive unnecessary opposition, and we need to let people make an informed choice for themselves with their doctor. Taxpayer dollars should not be spent on enforcing mandates.
Finally, it has been nearly impossible to get a response back from the executive branch agency and the reason is, we have delegated our spending authority. We have delegated our appropriations authority basically to the Speaker's Office, and as a consequence, no Cabinet Secretary feels obligated to answer a phone call from a Member of Congress from either party.
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