Providing for Consideration of H.R. Expanding Access to Capital Act of and Providing for Consideration of H.R. Laken Riley Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. McGOVERN. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from Indiana for yielding me the customary 30 minutes, and I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Madam Speaker, we are here today to debate a rule to bring two more MAGA messaging bills to the floor.

H.R. 2799, which might as well be renamed the expanding access to fraud act, is yet another Republican attempt to help Wall Street and their friends at private equity firms, while undermining protections for retirees and other mom-and-pop investors. Republicans are just obsessed with helping their friends on Wall Street. It is pathological. They can't help themselves. They come to the floor and talk about helping regular people, but every single bill they pass is about helping the Big Oil companies, the Big Pharma companies, the hedge funds, and the lobbyists. Today is no exception.

Today, Republicans are also bringing to the floor H.R. 7511, the Laken Riley Act.

Let me be clear: What happened to Laken Riley is a terrible, terrible tragedy. A 22-year-old nursing student, who everyone says was a deeply compassionate person who spread joy everywhere she went, Laken had her whole life ahead of her. My own daughter is 22, and I can't even begin to imagine what this family is going through right now. My heart breaks for them, and they are in my prayers.

This should have never happened, and there is no question that the person responsible for her death should go to jail for the rest of their lives.

Madam Speaker, I have to say that I am appalled by my colleagues across the aisle who are using this horrible crime to score political points. It is really sick, to be honest. I think they ought to be ashamed of themselves, if they have any shame left.

The bill that we are dealing with here today was referred to the Judiciary Committee. There was no hearing, no markup. The bill wasn't even reported out of the committee of jurisdiction. I mean, my Republican friends used to say they cared about regular order. Obviously, that is no longer the case. I mean, the members of the Judiciary Committee did not even have an opportunity to be able to refine this bill or amend this bill. They just rushed it to the floor because they wanted a quick press release.

Let's call this out for what it is. We are here with this bill because Donald Trump demanded that MAGA extremists make the border their top issue ahead of the election. He wants Republicans to politicize the border at every turn, including politicizing this awful tragedy. He is calling the shots here, and he wants to use this as an opportunity to say that Democrats somehow support killers.

What a nasty, rotten thing to do, especially after Republicans are the ones who killed a bipartisan border security deal. They killed the deal, the strongest, toughest border security bill that we have ever seen come before Congress, a bill that was negotiated by a very conservative Republican Senator from Oklahoma. Rather than try to find a solution and fix the problem, Donald Trump said to them: No, I just want the issue; do nothing.

Now they have the nerve to come down here and lecture us. Give me a break.

Meanwhile, Democrats are working to actually keep our country safe. Democrats want to fix our broken immigration system. Democrats want justice for victims, and we want real solutions that help make our communities safer from all criminals. We tried to work together with Republicans in a bipartisan way, and they have rejected our attempts every single time.

By the way, Madam Speaker, I really wish our friends across the aisle would show this same passion for the lives lost to gun violence in our country every single day. Sixty people died and over 400 people were injured in Las Vegas. They were all real people: mothers, fathers, children, friends. Where was the Republican outrage then? Silence.

Nineteen kids were shot dead in their classroom in Uvalde. Nothing from my Republican colleagues, nothing at all, no action at all.

Twelve children die every day from gun violence. Where is the Republican legislation to save their lives?

If you don't want to vote for that legislation, where is the Republican willingness to allow us to bring bills to the floor to deal with the epidemic of gun violence in this country? Nothing.

The beauty of our job is that we are in a position where we can actually do something about these tragedies, Laken's and others. We could have worked together here to address this tragedy, just like we should work together to address the tragedy of gun violence. Unfortunately, Republicans only talk about crime and violence when it suits them. That is all it is: talk.

To claim that this bill is being brought forward because Republicans care about securing the border, when they tanked one of the toughest bipartisan border bills ever, is a joke. It is a joke, Madam Speaker.

Let's make something abundantly clear. This bill will do nothing to solve any of the problems at the border, not a thing. You know what this bill does? It says let's put more people in immigration detention, including those in the U.S. under a lawful status, like Dreamers and TPS recipients, but let's not allocate any more money to actually detain these people.

You have got to love these people; they are unbelievable.

Our border security already does not have the resources they need to detain everyone the law says they should detain. Why don't they have the resources to do it? Because Republicans have voted time and time again, multiple times, against providing the funding that they need. Now, the other side brings a bill to the floor not to fix a problem but to detain even more people with no new funding to do it.

You can't make this stuff up. You really can't.

These bills they are bringing to the floor, these speeches they are making about border and immigration--look at how they vote. Look at how they vote. They don't want to secure the border. They don't want to fix this issue. They want a campaign slogan for Donald Trump. That is all this is about. It has been their playbook since they took the majority last January, and it is a real shame.

Again, we have the power to do something, to actually solve some of these problems. Rather than coming together in a bipartisan way--and that is what the Senate tried to do--my Republican friends in the House have rejected every single attempt to try to find common ground to bring something forward that can actually pass the House, the Senate, and be signed into law. They are not interested in solutions; they are interested in just complaining. How pathetic.

Mr. Speaker, I have news for the gentleman from New York: Republicans now own this issue. Your inaction is one of the reasons why we are not making more progress on our border.

The gentleman who just spoke was in the Rules Committee last night, bragging about the fact that Republicans increased border security funding in their homeland security bill last year. He was bragging about it. Congress 101 tells us that once you pass a bill in the House, you need to send it over to the Senate for them to consider it.

The bottom line is, and maybe the gentleman has an answer to this: Why is your Homeland Security appropriations bill from last year still sitting in this House? Why was it never sent to the Senate?

Again, I say to my friends who are watching here today: Look at their actions. Don't look at their words. Look at their actions.

The gentlewoman from Indiana was talking about the negotiated bipartisan compromise in the Senate as if it was somehow a reflection of President Biden's priorities. Let me remind her that Mitch McConnell, the Senate minority leader, said it was one of the toughest immigration border security bills that he has ever seen.

Let me also remind her that the person who was the chief negotiator, Senator Lankford of Oklahoma, is the second most conservative Member of the Senate. You can't get any more conservative than he is. By the way, the man whom my friends are all so afraid of, Donald Trump, has said, when he endorsed Senator Lankford, that he is one of the toughest guys around on the border.

This is all about not coming up with a solution. They come to the floor and complain. They complain and point fingers, but they will not work with us on a solution. It is mind-boggling to me. It is cynical.

My friends are in charge of this place. They know that they are in charge of the House by only a small margin. They know that Democrats control the Senate by a small margin. They know we have a Democratic President in the White House.

The gentlewoman says that this is not a ploy. What else would you call it when you bring a bill to the floor that bypasses the committee of jurisdiction and no amendments can be made in order?

You bring it to the floor and know it is going nowhere in the Senate and know it will not become law. What do you call that? It is either a ploy or a total waste of time.

We spend an awful lot of time doing nothing around here, yelling and screaming, but when it comes to actually solving problems, my friends don't want to do it.

My friends, because of your inaction, because of the bills that you have blocked repeatedly, including a supplemental request by President Biden for an additional $13 billion for border security, your actions have resulted in our not being able to make more progress.

So, my friends own this issue. You own the border security issue. You own the fentanyl issue. You own all of it.

I think the American people are seeing through all of this.

The idea that you would bring a bill like this to the floor to exploit a terrible tragedy, a bill that will do nothing and a bill that you know is going nowhere, is really, really sad.

I have news for my Republican friends: If you want to get stuff done, you have to work with us.

I get it. You are in charge. You will probably get more than I would like you to get, but the idea that somehow you are in control of everything and that this is a dictatorship--not yet. Not yet. I know that may be something we might have to deal with down the road, but not yet.

Right now, we are still a deliberative body. This is still a democracy. If you want to get stuff done, then you have to work with us in a bipartisan way.

Nonetheless, if this is all about show business and press releases, then fine. Have at it. Give more speeches, more complaints, but I am telling you, the American people are getting tired of it.

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Mr. McGOVERN. Will the gentlewoman yield?

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Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I have to say facts are important things. There have been no hearings on this bill. There was no markup, and there was no vote to report the bill out of committee. That is a fact.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, this place is no longer a serious place. My friends are turning the House of Representatives into a debate club. None of this is serious.

The gentleman comes up and tries to claim there was regular order here, that the committee of jurisdiction actually did its job because half of the bill maybe was the subject of a hearing previously. Now my Republican friends are coming to the floor praising half regular order. I don't know. When I was in grade school, 50 percent was a failing grade. My friends are failing on regular order.

If the gentleman was serious about this and my friends on the other side of the aisle wanted to get something passed, my colleagues would conduct themselves in a different manner and actually have regular order and invite Democrats to be able to offer ideas and try to work things out to see whether the majority could have a bill that actually had a chance of going anywhere in the Senate or being signed into law, but that is not what is happening.

The gentleman comes here and starts reading the names of victims. I could sit here and read the names of the 21 victims in Uvalde who were murdered by a man with a gun. I could go right down the list and start naming all the children that were killed, all the mothers and fathers that were killed.

The real challenge for this institution is to actually try to come together in a bipartisan way and solve problems and do something. I don't know how my friends could go home and claim that they are doing anything and be able to point to anything that ever makes it past the finish line.

We are in a divided government. I wish we weren't. I wish Democrats were in control of the House, the Senate, and the White House, all at once. We would get a lot more done. When we were, we actually got some stuff done.

However, that is not the reality, and so we have to deal with the reality. The reality is, if my colleagues want to get anything done, work has to be done in a bipartisan way, and my colleagues have to respect at least some semblance of regular order. That this bill had to be rushed to the floor with not a single hearing, with no markup, no amendments, no nothing, and the committee of jurisdiction never even had a chance to report it out, it is awful.

Mr. Speaker, I urge that we defeat the previous question. If we do, I will offer an amendment to the rule to bring up H.R. 12, a bill that would ensure every American has full access to essential reproductive healthcare, including abortion care.

Since the wrongly decided Dobbs decision, every State across America has taken action on abortion in some way. Unfortunately, many Republican-led States, cheered on by Republican Members in this Chamber, have passed laws to either ban some or all abortion care.

Republicans have made it crystal clear that banning abortion nationwide is their goal. Additionally, if trying to ban abortion care is not dangerous enough, extreme Republicans are now doubling down on their attacks on women's reproductive freedom by supporting a bill to ban IVF nationwide. That would criminalize reproductive healthcare.

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Mr. McGOVERN. Brown) to discuss our proposal.

Mr. Speaker, in 2021, U.S. citizens made up 86 percent of convicted fentanyl drug traffickers, 10 times greater than convictions of illegal immigrants for the same offense. Also, over 90 percent of fentanyl seizures occur at legal crossing points or interior vehicle checkpoints, not on illegal migration routes, so U.S. citizens who are subject to less scrutiny when crossing legally are the best smugglers.

Citizens by U.S. Citizens, not Asylum Seekers.''

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Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I will say to my friend from Indiana, my Republican friends now own this issue. The majority had a chance to do something, and my friends on the other side chose to not do anything. My colleagues chose to follow the orders of Donald Trump.

Let me read to you the quote from Oklahoma's own senior Senator, James Lankford, and he said this on FOX News. He said: ``Are we, as Republicans, going to have press conferences and complain the border is bad and then intentionally leave it open?'' That is exactly what House Republicans are doing, complain, complain, complain, and then say, no, no, no, we don't actually want to do anything about the border. We just want to complain.

Again, let me read that one more time. This is Senator Lankford, the second most conservative Member of the United States Senate, who said: ``Are we, as Republicans, going to have press conferences and complain that the border is bad and then intentionally leave it open?'' That is exactly what House Republicans are doing, complain, complain, complain, and then they say, no, no, no, we don't actually want to do anything about the border. They just want to complain.

Senator Tillis, hardly a progressive, who had been working on this deal, called on House Republicans as well, and he said: ``Don't pretend that the policy,'' meaning the policy they negotiated, ``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 is a half measure, you are not paying attention, or you are not telling the truth.

Mr. Speaker, again, this issue now is wholly owned by my Republican friends, and every opportunity to try to do something, from rejecting President Biden's request for additional funding for border security to telling the Senate that any border security bill is dead on arrival, that is now with you, and so my friends on the other side own this.

Mr. Speaker, let me say two things. First of all, yelling doesn't solve the problem; and, two, nobody on this side of the aisle is glossing over this issue.

I have just spent the last 30 minutes telling my colleagues how ridiculous the legislation my Republican friends are bringing to the floor is and complaining about the fact that, every chance my colleagues get to fix the problem, my friends on the other side choose not to.

By the way, it wasn't my words that I was quoting. It was Republican Members of the Senate, impeccably conservative Senator Lankford, Senator McConnell, Senator Tillis. It was my Republican colleagues.

I get it. My friend is now making it clear. It is either his way, or the highway. Well, that is not a good attitude to have when you are in a divided government, but if that is what it is, that is what it is.

I remind my Republican colleagues when they keep on bringing up their vaunted H.R. 2--by the way, I will say to the gentlewoman from Indiana, I think that is more than two words--last week, Senator Cruz from Texas basically had an amendment to the CR to bring up H.R. 2, their bill, their solution. It got 32 votes--32 votes. That is less than a third of the Senate.

I don't know about my colleagues, but I think that is a pretty good indication that H.R. 2 isn't going anywhere. It is dead. Therefore, maybe we ought to come together and figure out what we can do together. For the life of me, I don't understand why Republicans are reluctant to do that.

This is not a debate club. It is not supposed to be a debate club. This is supposed to be a place where we solve problems and pass legislation to help protect and defend this country. Instead, all we get treated to are press release bills, MAGA bills, yelling and screaming and whatever, but never, never, never a solution.

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Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, may I inquire as to the time remaining.

Mr. Speaker, despite the very real domestic and global challenges facing our Nation, House Republicans have chosen to waste time on sham impeachments, silly censures, and extreme policies that will never become law, and the two bills that this rule would bring to the floor, they fall into that category.

This is not serious legislating by any measure. Democrats have come to the table with real solutions on the border, real solutions on immigration, and instead what we get is garbage like this.

I have said it before and I will say it again: Republicans own this issue. Their side owns this. They own the border. They own the fentanyl crisis. They own all of it because they repeatedly reject our attempts to work together. That is both on border security and nearly everything else that has been brought up in this Congress.

Because of that, because Republicans absolutely refuse to work with House Democrats, the Democratic majority in the Senate or the Democratic-held White House, because House Republican leadership continues to bow down to the most fringe, MAGA Members of their ultraslim majority, this body no longer functions under regular order.

In fact, we don't function. This is not functioning. The last bill to become law that came through the Rules Committee was 9 months ago.

Let me repeat that: The last bill to become law that came through the Rules Committee was 9 months ago. House Republican leadership has lost six rule votes since January 2023, and every week there is a legitimate question of whether Republicans even have the votes to pass their own rules and bills.

I have never seen such dysfunction. I have never seen such incompetence. House Democrats have rescued this failing House Republican majority at nearly every turn. Last year, House Democrats ensured that the U.S. didn't default on its debt. That was a big deal because if we didn't help, we would have defaulted on our debt.

House Democrats have kept the government running, despite GOP leadership wasting time pursuing unrealistic draconian spending cuts. It has been our votes that have kept the lights on since September.

We believe in governing. We believe that shutting the government down is a bad, terrible, awful idea. House Democrats have advocated time and time again for viable solutions that tackle the important issues the Americans most care about, but--and here is the sad thing--Republicans would rather play partisan politics like politicizing this horrific crime than do anything to actually keep our country safe.

There is an opportunity here. The stars are aligned. Conservative Republicans are working with moderate and progressive Democrats and working with the President of the United States to try to come to some sort of a compromise that will make a difference, and the response by the House Republicans is forget about it, my way or the highway. No. Donald Trump says we need the issue. Don't ever come up with a solution. Don't solve problems. Let's just keep the issue. Let's keep the press releases coming. Let's continue to exploit tragedy after tragedy after tragedy. Enough.

Again, this is not a debate club; this is the United States House of Representatives, and all of us, Democrats and Republicans, have an obligation to do our job, to make sure we keep the government running, to make sure we are solving problems.

I plead with my colleagues on the other side of the aisle to join with us and with the conservative Republicans in the Senate. Let's do something, but instead we have got this. How pathetic.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to vote ``no'' on this rule, ``no'' on the previous question, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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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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