Providing for Consideration of H.R. Agent Raul Gonzalez Officer Safety Act; Providing for Consideration of H.R. Consequences for Social Security Fraud Act; Providing for Consideration of H.R. No Immigration Benefits for Hamas Terrorists Act; and Providing for Consideration of H.R. Protect Our Communities From Duis Act
Floor Speech
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Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Texas for yielding me the customary 30 minutes, and I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, let me set a couple of things straight.
The border is not open. Now, maybe some people think it is because my Republican colleagues every day for the last 2 years have come to the floor screaming, ``The border is open. The border is open. The border is open.''
However, the border is not open, and that is just a fact. Today, there are approximately 38,000 people in immigration detention, which is 4,000 more than what DHS is funded for and roughly what the Trump administration averaged in fiscal year 2018.
The Biden administration has also significantly increased removals in ways that many on our side of the aisle are concerned violates due process. Since the end of title 42 last year, the Biden administration has removed or returned to Mexico close to 500,000 individuals. The total is nearly equivalent to the number of people removed in all of fiscal year 2019 under the Trump administration.
Please, please, stop making things up and stop claiming the border is open. It is not.
Do we have a problem at the border? Absolutely. Absolutely, we do. However, listening to the gentleman, he seems to have no solutions. I mean, I think he thinks this is Beetlejuice, if you say ``crisis'' three times, the problem goes away. No; you have to take some action. You have to work to try to address the issue.
Democrats and President Biden want to find real, comprehensive solutions to fix it. What we need is Republicans to stop playing political games, and that is the exact opposite of what is happening here and what has been happening under this Republican-controlled House of Representatives. It is shameful.
I know that because we called their bluff. Democrats said, yeah, we care about border security, too. Let's get to work. Now Republicans tell us that they would rather wait until after the election. They don't actually want the thing they have been talking about for the last year. It is all a big lie. It is all a big lie.
Why? Why would they want to wait? Why don't they want to work with us to fix the border right now? I think we all know the answer. Trump called--the guy they all worship, the guy they are all frightened to death of. He called, and he is demanding that they do nothing. No action at all on the border, that is what he said because he wants to campaign on it. I mean, what the hell is wrong with them?
The Senate is working on a bipartisan border security bill, and Republicans tell us here in the House that they don't care what is in it. They will oppose it no matter what. From what I hear, I am not sure that I can even support the bill they are working on over in the Senate. It has things in it that cause me a lot of angst, but Republicans are sure that they are against it because Trump told them to be against it.
That is because, at the end of the day, all he wants is to be able to scare people by demonizing immigrants and whipping up hate and fear and appealing to racism and bigotry. It is disgusting. It is that simple. I mean, I am not surprised. This is the guy who says: ``Immigrants poison the blood of America,'' echoing the words of Adolf Hitler. We can't get anyone on the other side of the aisle to try to disassociate themselves with those remarks. That is who the Republicans listen to. That is who is calling the shots here. Trump says no action on border security, period.
Please, spare us the outrage and indignation. It is all theatrics. It is all for show, all so you can go on FOX News and blame President Biden for something that they refuse to fix. Republicans tried to cut Customs and Border Protection personnel. They rejected President Biden's request for $106 billion in funding to fix this problem, and they have consistently voted against funding for border security.
You can't make this stuff up. They say we don't need more money. We just need a President who follows the law. We hear that again and again. We heard that last night in the Rules Committee. I hope that they are not implying that the former President--a rapist who was just ordered by a jury to pay $83 million for defaming his victim--follows the law.
He has been indicted 4 times with 91 felony counts. I mean, this guy has been indicted more times than he has been elected. Give me a break. That is who is calling the shots around here? It is shameful.
The bottom line is that they simply do not want to fix the border crisis. House Democrats, Senate Democrats, President Biden--hell, even Senate Republicans, some of the most conservative Republicans in the Senate, have been working together in a bipartisan way to solve this country's problems.
We acknowledge we need to address our problems at the border, provide a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers, fix our broken immigration system, and address the root causes of migration.
What does the extreme MAGA clown show in this House care about? Not fixing the border. They care about Trump, about bending over backwards for his campaign and turning this place into a circus. What a shame. What a waste of time. What an embarrassment.
I missed a lot of what the gentleman from Texas just screamed because I couldn't follow it all.
Mr. Speaker, it is being intimated that this bill that is being worked on in the Senate somehow does nothing.
The bottom line, Mr. Speaker, is that people like Senator Thom Tillis--I didn't think he was a liberal Democrat. Unless I missed something, he is a pretty conservative Republican--said: ``Don't pretend that the policy isn't strong. If you want to admit you're just afraid to tell President Trump the truth, that's fine. But for you to take a look at this framework and say it's a half measure, either you're not paying attention or you're not telling the truth.''
That is Senator Thom Tillis, a very conservative Republican Senator, saying that. It is not me. I would say that to the gentleman from Texas.
Senator Lankford, is he now a Democrat? Is he now a traitor to the cause? We heard some Republicans at a press conference yesterday talk about those who were supporting a compromise. He said the other day on ``Face the Nation,'' and I quote, House Republicans actually do not want a change in the law because it is a Presidential election year.
I mean, this is ridiculous. This is all theatrics. Shame on them for exploiting this issue. Shame on them for ginning up all this hate and all this vitriol and not wanting to be part of the solution, not wanting to do anything to fix it.
I am also puzzled. I think I need to go to the Capitol's attending physician to see if I can get a neck brace because I have whiplash following the logic of some of my Republican friends.
We heard all year that we need to pass a bill in order to fix the immigration crisis at the border, and then last night in the Rules Committee we are told we don't need a bill, we don't need a law. Then here we are today dealing with four more bills that, by the way, most of which is already covered in existing law.
What is it? Do we need a law, or don't we need a law? If we don't need a law, what the hell are we here for?
Why are we wasting our time? This is not a debate club, right. We are here to actually get things done. If the gentleman wants to be part of the solution, then be part of the solution.
If the gentleman just wants to complain for the sake of complaining, then just do it in the press conferences. Don't waste time here.
Mr. Speaker, if we defeat the previous question, I will offer an amendment to the rule to bring up H.R. 16, the American Dream and Promise Act, which would provide a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers, temporary protected status holders, and deferred enforced departure recipients.
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Mr. McGOVERN. Barragan), to discuss our proposal.
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Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, you need a map to follow the logic of that last speaker. First of all, the border is not open. We have more people in detention right now than we have funding for. My Republican friends continuously vote against more funding, so figure that out.
To the listening audience here, I am a little bit confused by the debate on the other side of the aisle. The gentleman from Missouri just talked about, oh, we are serious about securing our border. We passed H.R. 2.
The gentleman from Texas, Mr. Burgess, opened up by saying the President has every tool he needs to fix this. Last night, we heard in the Rules Committee that we don't need to pass any more laws.
Which is it? Do we need stronger laws, or do we need to do nothing? If we need to do nothing, why are we here?
Let's be clear about the bills that we are dealing with here. These are messaging bills that are going nowhere in the United States Senate.
I would say to my Republican friends that you might want to look up ``Schoolhouse Rock'' and figure out how government works, but we have a divided government right now.
My Republican friends barely control the House of Representatives. In fact, yesterday there were more Democrats voting than Republicans.
The Senate is controlled by the Democratic Party, and we have a Democrat President. If you want to have a chance to get something done, if you want to move the ball, you have to work in a bipartisan way.
The United States Senate seems to be doing that, and they are making progress on things that my friends in the House here have said they wanted time and time and time again. Now, Donald Trump calls, they don't want anything. They don't want anything.
This is not serious, what my Republican friends are doing. Their messaging bills are going nowhere. They vote against funding for stronger border security on a regular basis here in the House. Then you have a negotiation going on in the Senate with some of the most conservative Senate Republicans.
All of a sudden, because Trump doesn't want it, we don't want it. We don't need laws. If we don't need laws, why are we wasting our time here on the floor today? You can't have it both ways.
Garcia).
Mr. Speaker, to illustrate the point that I made earlier that my Republican friends are not serious about governing or about getting anything done, I point out to people in this Chamber maybe something that they don't really know.
I have served on the Rules Committee for a long time, and the Rules Committee used to be a place where people showed up to try to get things done, where we would discuss big and pressing issues facing the country, and where we would debate how each side thought these problems should be solved. We would pass consequential legislation to improve the lives of Americans.
It has been difficult to be on the Rules Committee lately to just deal with messaging bills--bills that don't do anything, that don't mean anything, that don't help anybody, and that don't solve any problems.
This is a Judiciary Committee bill that we are dealing with right now. I ask this question of my colleagues here in the House: Do you know how many bills the Judiciary Committee has brought before the Rules Committee that have become law in the last year?
The answer to that question is zero. Zero.
It seems like the Judiciary Committee is up in the Rules Committee every other day. Not a single Judiciary Committee bill that has come before the Rules Committee that has come to this floor has become law. That is absurd.
Now, you may say I am cherry-picking, but do you know the last time the Rules Committee met on a bill that actually was brought to the floor that got signed into law?
Eight months ago. That is when we met on the Fiscal Responsibility Act.
Even that moved forward because Democrats came to the rescue and voted for the rule to avoid a debt ceiling disaster.
That is 8 months, more than half of our time in this Congress, wasted on messaging bills. At this point, I am not sure if that is a bug or a feature for this Republican majority, but what is clear is this: None of these bills that we are talking about here today will address our border challenges.
None of these bills that we are dealing with today are going to ever become law. Republicans don't really care because they don't want to do anything real to solve problems at the border.
The economy is getting better. Their presumptive nominee for President is ethically challenged. He has more legal problems than--I don't even want to compare him to anybody. We have never seen anything like this before.
He was just ordered to pay $83 million for defaming a woman who he sexually abused, and this is just the beginning.
They are not interested in solving problems or governing. What they are interested in is trying to hold on to a campaign issue. I am tired of it, the American people are tired of it, and frankly, it is just sad.
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Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, may I inquire from the gentleman how many more speakers he has?
Mr. Speaker, here is the difference between Democrats and Republicans. Democrats want to work to get things done. We want to work with Republicans in a bipartisan way to fix our problems at the border. Republicans, well, let me just use their own words. Last night in the Rules Committee, we heard from the other side that we aren't going to fix the border crisis with laws. I mean, that is what was said in the Rules Committee last night.
I mean, what the hell are we even doing here then?
Why even pass any laws at all?
Why try to fix any problems?
Republicans say that Joe Biden and Democrats are single-handedly responsible for the crisis at the border. That is just not true. That is just not true. It is simply not true.
Look at the facts. Democrats voted to increase border funding by 17 percent. Democrats provided $65 million for 300 new Border Patrol agents, $60 million for 125 new personnel at points of entry, and $230 million for technology, like autonomous surveillance towers.
Republicans--Republicans--voted ``no'' every single time. Why? It is simple. Because Trump calls the shots around here, and Trump wants a crisis at the border. Somehow he thinks it helps him politically.
Unfortunately, there is not a lot of courage on the other side of the aisle in this House to stand up to the bully and to do what is right. In fact, we have our House leadership standing up and saying no to a deal that the most conservative Republicans in the other Chamber are saying is a good deal, is a tough deal. And they are saying no. Why? Because all of a sudden, Trump doesn't want it. How pathetic. How pathetic. What a cynical, rotten thing to do.
This is a serious problem that requires a serious solution, but they don't want to solve it. They don't want any action to secure the border. That is their strategy for November.
Well, guess what, it is going to look a lot less strategic when they lose the next election because the American people see through their BS and vote them out of office.
I mean, we have an opportunity here to potentially do something that will actually address the problems at the border: something meaningful, not messaging bills that are going nowhere, not talking points, not press conferences where people have meltdowns, but actually do something meaningful. All they can say is no, no, because Trump doesn't want us to do it.
You know, I don't know how we progress here. I am hoping that there are some sensible Republicans who will stand up to Trump and stand up to their leadership who seems to have caved on trying to work together. I point out, again, that we have a divided government. I wish the Democrats were in control of everything. I am sure my Republican friends wished the Republicans were in control of everything. But the fact of the matter is, they are not, and they continue to act like they are, but when they behave that way nothing gets done.
So the way this is supposed to work is that we work across the aisle, we try to come up with some areas of commonality, and we move forward, and we work with the Senate, and we work with the White House. That is what the Senate Republicans and Senate Democrats are doing right now.
I mean, Mr. Speaker, I say to my Republican friends: You are not in control of everything. You don't have a dictatorship--at least yet. I know that is what the former President would like, but that is not what we have right now. If we want to get something done, we are going to have to compromise. We are going to have to give and take. We have to listen to each other. We have to try to move something forward.
For the life of me, I can't understand why we are wasting so much time coming to the floor with stuff that is going nowhere that serves no purpose, other than to get people all riled up and maybe continue to appeal to the worst instincts in people: hate, racism, and bigotry. Enough. Enough.
Mr. Speaker, if they want to solve the problem, then we are willing to work with them. If they don't, then please go away.
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Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.
The yeas and nays were ordered.
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