Relating to A National Emergency Declared By the President on May 2012

Floor Speech

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Mr. GOSAR. Mr. Speaker, Golda Meir once said that there would be no peace in Israel until Palestinians love their children more than they hate Israelis. Can't that be the same way?

Why I say that is, let's talk about Yemen. Heartlessly, while this emergency has been extended, Yemen stifles the donation of food, clothing, and medicine intended for human suffering in Yemen.

It is estimated that 130 children die each day because of the famine in Yemen. That is more than 85,000 over the past decade.

I thought love meant a lot to children. Is it our way or the highway? Is it thinking outside the box? A child needs very little. A child needs very little, and this is one of those things that we ought to be looking at, those children.

Right now, because of our sanctions, no international groups will even give food or medicines. Not one. That is sad. That is the result of the United States. I would hate to be that individual.

Nearly 80 percent of the people in Yemen need treatment for malnutrition, and 20 million lack access to adequate healthcare. I have to tell you, I think we need to start thinking outside the box.

If we are building these futures that hate America, that hate all, where is the joy in that? There is no joy. This is one of those that we can actually seemingly give some help to, and those children are not going to balk.

Now, once again, let's go back. National emergencies every 6 months have to be brought up and reviewed by Congress. To this date, none of these five have had any review whatsoever. I have heard a lot about the Presidents here and there--President Obama, President Trump, President this or that--all saying that they looked at it and anted up, but I have yet to hear where Congress has reviewed these designations. Not one.

Therefore, when I saw these, when I looked at these and my staff looked at these, we said, oh my God, we are not doing our job, and we are not doing our job. We are not doing our job at all if we are not reviewing each one of these to find out whether they pertain, whether they don't. If they are not a national emergency, where do they belong?

I hate to give a lot of additional thought to the Foreign Affairs Committee, but this isn't the place for these national emergencies, even with the involvement of IEEPA. We have to do something a little bit different. These have to be mainstayed, where we are actually looking at these and saying: ``Okay, here are all the different bad actors in the world. Here are all these bad institutions going on across this world. How do we involve all our assets, whether they be humanitarian, military, or just a little bit of everything?'' That is what we should be doing.

However, once again, Congress hasn't done its job. Let me say it again. Congress hasn't done its job.

We just went through the COVID national emergency, where $4.8 trillion had been allocated to fighting COVID. Not one inventory on that disbursement record is actually there. Not one, for $4.8 trillion. That is a sad state of affairs. That is a really sad state of affairs.

Mr. Speaker, when I look at these and then turn and look at--the United Nations actually looks at this as the worst humanitarian crisis in the world.

Let me also ask you this. Did the United States do this on its own or was there somebody else that they are speaking up for?

I will let you answer that question, but I will actually tell you that I hope you will vote for this if nothing else for children, the malnutrition, the medicines. Let's see if we can get a new tomorrow where people love the United States instead of hating us.

Mr. WILSON of South Carolina. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time to close.

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Mr. GOSAR. Mr. Speaker, may I inquire as to how much time I have remaining.

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Mr. GOSAR.

With that 4 minutes what I will do at this point in time is speak up on behalf of my good friend Eli Crane, who is looking at the Iraq national emergency, and then my good friend Matt Gaetz, who is looking at Syria. These are all from the same area, same detail. None of them have had renewals by the National Emergencies Act. That is flawed. We allow Presidents to re-up them, but we don't do anything on the Congress side.

As a Congress, we need to step up. We need to step up our game.

If these aren't part of the National Emergencies Act--and I find it very atrocious that they are--then we need to find a home for these. We need to find a home where they manage it properly, that everybody gets a chance to see them, look at them, and inventory them. Other than that, we have to make some serious changes.

It is sad that we are here on these five. There will be 36 more coming your way because, once again, when Congress doesn't do its job, somebody has got to squawk, and I will be one of those that squawks from here to sunset.

I have to tell you, we have to do something different.

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Mr. GOSAR. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

The yeas and nays were ordered.

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