Raising A Question of the Privileges of the House

Floor Speech

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Mr. JORDAN. Mr. Speaker, on January 3 we said the 118th Congress is about three things: pass the bills that need passed, do the oversight work that needs to be done, and stop the inevitable omnibus that comes from the United States Senate right before the holidays.

Kevin McCarthy has been rock-solid on all three. We have passed the bills we told the American people we would pass: the 87,000 IRS agents, that bill passed; Parents Bill of Rights, that bill passed; energy legislation, passed; border security immigration enforcement legislation, the strongest bill ever to pass the Congress, passed earlier this year.

We have done what we told them we were going to do. We can't help that the Senate won't take up those good commonsense bills. They will have to answer to the American people come election day.

Oversight. We have done the oversight that we are supposed to do. Because of our oversight, we know that parents were targeted by the Department of Justice. Because of our oversight, we know that 51 former intel officials misled the country weeks before the most important election we have.

Mr. Speaker, because of our oversight, the Disinformation Governance Board at the Department of Homeland Security is gone. Because of our oversight, the memo attacking pro-life Catholics has been rescinded. Because of over oversight, unannounced visits to Americans' homes by the Internal Revenue Service has stopped. That happened under Speaker McCarthy.

On the third one on this side, we know there is a big, old, ugly bill coming at the end of the year with all kinds of spending and garbage in it. We are still in that fight. Frankly, to Mr. Gaetz' point, we don't know how that one is going to shake out.

We do know this: On Saturday, we didn't take the Senate's bill. The Senate tried to send it over and shove it down our throats on Saturday, but we didn't take that bill. The Speaker was in a tough position.

There were five options on the table last week. Option one was to send a long-term CR over there that would have leveraged the 1 percent cut--something a bunch of us voted for, both parties. We couldn't get the votes for that one.

The second option was to focus on the one issue the country is now completely focused on, the border issue. We couldn't get the votes for that one either. When the Senate tried to send us that bill, he said ``no'' to it.

Mr. Speaker, I think the Speaker has kept his word. I know my colleagues and friends are saying different, but I think he has kept his word on those three things that we talked about on January 3 and, frankly, that entire week.

Mr. Speaker, he has kept his word, and I think we should keep him as Speaker.

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