Failed Policies

Floor Speech

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Mr. ROY. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend from Utah for his time down here on the floor pointing out some of the things that we most assuredly will not hear from the President of the United States and those that we wish we would hear from him.

I can tell you one thing we are not going to hear from the President of the United States tomorrow night in this Chamber is any specific actions that he would take or should have taken or apologies for his policies that led to the unfortunate passing 2 weeks ago of Laken Riley.

We know we will not hear that because our Democrat colleagues refuse to take ownership of the policies that the President of the United States has adopted and that Secretary Mayorkas has implemented on his behalf in direct violation of their oaths to the Constitution and under the laws of the United States. As a result, there are Americans who have died.

We know that the President of the United States is not going to take ownership over the high inflation that is decimating families, the regulatory state they put in place that has made the automobiles that the American people need to drive too expensive, allowing EVs to pile up on the lots of dealers while we put mandates in place, the extent to which we have now been banning liquefied natural gas exports by shutting down the ability to get them out of terminals, which is making us more beholden to the special interests and the corporate cronyism that was all funded by subsidies under the Inflation Reduction Act, all policies led by the radical progressive Democrats that have complete control of the Democratic Party and that are the puppet masters, pulling the strings to which the President of the United States dances.

Tomorrow, he won't talk about those things. He will give a lot of excuses, hiding behind Senate bills and things that allegedly the House of Representatives are not doing.

I think it is a really important day. I need to say something as a Texan. Today is Alamo Day, the day that marks the end of the 13 days of assiegement and fighting and the final sacrifice of almost 200 brave men in the name of freedom at the Alamo.

I am proud to represent San Antonio. The Alamo means a lot to those of us in central Texas, particularly in and around San Antonio.

I think it is really important to note what that meant. I asked a year ago today when I spoke on this issue, or on this commemoration, I should say: What did they declare independence for? What did Travis and the men at the Alamo sacrifice for? A Federal Government that opens our borders to cartels? A group of Republicans who campaign on securing the border yet run away in abject surrender, refusing to actually do it?

That is the question before us right now. That is the question I asked a year ago.

I might remind everybody of the letter from William Barret Travis, commander at the Alamo, February 24, 1836: ``Fellow citizens and compatriots, I am besieged by a thousand or more of the Mexicans under Santa Anna. I have sustained a continual bombardment and cannonade for 24 hours and have not lost a man. The enemy has demanded a surrender at discretion, otherwise, the garrison are to be put to the sword, if the fort is taken. I have answered the demand with a cannon shot, and our flag still waves proudly from the walls. I shall never surrender or retreat. Then, I call on you in the name of liberty, of patriotism, and everything dear to the American character, to come to our aid, with all dispatch. The enemy is receiving reinforcements daily and will no doubt increase to 3 or 4,000 in 4 or 5 days. If this call is neglected, I am determined to sustain myself as long as possible and die like a soldier who never forgets what is due to his own honor and that of his country. Victory or death. William Barret Travis, Lieutenant Colonel Commandant.''

Now, that was nearly 200 men standing on the wall at the Alamo knowing almost certain death--knowing almost certain death is what they faced. It is notable that on this date, today, 188 years ago William Barret Travis who wrote that letter died.

Davey Crockett, who was fairly well known in the history of our country, who served in this Chamber--although not in this building but back behind us in the original House Chamber--Davey Crockett, a Member of Congress from the State of Tennessee, who like a number of Tennesseans came to the aid of Texas at the Alamo, Davey Crockett died that day, today, 188 years ago.

We Americans love to have our parades. We love to commemorate these kinds of events. Ask a Texan about the Alamo, and they will fill their chest and stick it out, and they will talk about how great Texas is.

Ask an American about D-Day or about our history and what George Washington did crossing the Delaware or talking about any of the great battles that our men and women in uniform have carried out on behalf of this great country, and they will well up with pride, they will stick their chest out, and they will talk about how great this country is.

But the question that I think needs to be asked sitting here on the floor of the House of Representatives in, yet again, another empty Chamber: What are we willing to do? What are we willing to do? What are the people of this body willing to do? What are my colleagues on both sides of the aisle willing to do in the face of the massive assault on our country that we are experiencing as we speak? What are we actually willing to do?

I have heard lots of speeches, even tonight, speeches about how much our debt is piling up around us and how we need to cut spending. Every single Member of this body, but particularly my Republican colleagues, talk about the debt. $34.4 trillion. Well, tomorrow it is going to be $34.5 trillion. We are racking up a trillion dollars of debt every 100 days, and yet, we give lip service to it.

So again, I go back to this point about these men standing on the wall at the Alamo facing certain death if these reinforcements didn't get there. They probably knew full well they weren't going to get them. Yet, they were willing to stand there and die.

For what? To be enslaved to $34.4 trillion of debt? To be told that you can't get the automobile of your choice? To be told that there is going to be a kill switch that will cut your car off if your eyes dart a certain way? To be told that you must accept untold numbers of illegal aliens coming into your country getting free services, free education, free healthcare while bankrupting your country?

Is that what those men died for?

Did those men die for criminals to be let out on the streets? Did they die so that one of these men's great-great-granddaughters could get murdered as a student in Georgia, or for example, in Texas a young woman that was found dead in a bathtub? A young cheerleader's mom wanted to go see her, expected to go see her at a cheerleading event, comes home, and she is dead in the bathtub.

Is that what these men sacrificed for? Is that what they put it all on the line for?

When we all talk about the men that sat in the foxholes of Bastogne freezing at Christmas so we could live in this country, did they fight for those things?

I have to be really blunt here. Did they fight so that Republicans could campaign on cutting spending and today on the floor of this Chamber vote to pass a bill that without question, undebatably, unquestionably increases spending significantly in the form of tens of billions of dollars over that of Nancy Pelosi's omnibus spending bill, despite the fact that we had bipartisan spending caps put in place last year, passed in this Chamber with majorities of both Republicans and Democrats and the Senate and signed by the President of the United States?

We ignored those caps, we spent more than those caps, and then we had the audacity to try to claim to the American people publicly that we cut spending. This is what the American people are sick of.

Let me be perfectly clear standing here. My colleagues on the other side of the aisle are, in fact, radical, progressive Democrats, period. They are pushing policies, along with the President of the United States, that is flooding this country with people from all over the world into Texas, into Arizona, into California, stacking our schools, stacking our jails, overwhelming our system, giving out benefits, paying money, all so that people like Marc Elias can challenge in court to stop Arizona from having a law that says only citizens can vote.

Now why might that be?

It is purposeful. It is happening every second, even as we pile up debt around our ears to the tune of $34.4 trillion and counting--a trillion dollars of interest in 2026; more interest than our defense this year.

It is astounding.

And my colleagues on this side of the aisle and that side of the aisle will hide behind either--from my radical, progressive, Democratic colleagues, they will hide behind taxes. They will say, oh, we have had too many tax cuts. Even though 2 years ago we had more revenue in the Treasury than we ever had.

My colleagues on this side of the aisle will hide behind mandatory spending. They will scratch their beards, look at you and say, oh, but, Chip, you're getting hung up on 17 percent of the budget. Can't you do math? Really.

Like they look at you like somehow you are insane because you are focused on the discretionary budgets sitting in front of you that you think maybe, just maybe, we should take the discretionary budget that we have total control of every year and demonstrate an ounce--an ounce of actual responsibility and fiscal sanity by saying maybe, just maybe, we shouldn't give $12.5 billion to the United Nations. I am just throwing that out there--$12.5 billion to the United Nations to undermine our country, to work with NGOs to move people into the United States purposely. That is what the United Nations is doing. They worked with Hamas to attack Israel. We funded it. We did that. And they want to say, oh, well, who cares about that?

Well, what about the $12.7 billion in earmarks that we passed today on the floor of the House filled with all sorts of pet projects so our colleagues can go back home and say: Look what I brought home to you.

Why do I pick those two numbers? Why do I pick those two things, $12.5 billion in the United Nations and $12.7 billion in earmarks passed here?

They are massive numbers for both Democrats and Republicans. You know how much Texas has had to spend over the last 3 years to secure the border of the United States in Texas, which is the job of the Federal Government? $12.5 billion.

Do you know how much Texas has been paid back? Not a red cent.

All I can tell you is those boys that stood at that wall at the Alamo didn't do it for that. March 2, is Texas' Independence Day. I have got to tell you, read about the history of our independence. In 1836, Texas became a sovereign nation for a brief 9 years before we joined the Union. It has got a nice ring to it. But Texas joined that Union, and that Union and that Constitution says this country is supposed to protect its border, and it is leaving Texas exposed.

So with all due respect to Republican leadership and with all due respect to my colleagues on this side of the aisle, when I hear these excuses about we only have a two-vote majority, and sometimes you guys are taking down rules, that is swamp speak for I don't want to make the tough choice and say that we are going to go stand up on that wall like those boys did.

That is what it means.

It means Republican leadership is more concerned about defense spending for the defense establishment in this town. It means that Republican leadership is more concerned about ensuring that warrantless surveillance of Americans under FISA can continue without changing it.

It means that Republican leadership is more concerned about ensuring that we have money for Ukraine's borders rather than our borders.

That is the kind of thing we are talking about.

We are heading into the state of the Union tomorrow with the President of the United States who is in charge of a party of progressive, radical Democrats who want to remake our country, leave our borders open, spend us into oblivion, conduct endless wars, remake us with radical woke policies, DEI, and all the things that are destroying our country and dividing us up by race.

I want a Republican Party that is shoving it right back down and saying, you know what, we are going to pass a bill that funds this government at the caps we passed last year. We are going to send it over to the Senate. We are going to send it over with H.R. 2. It will secure the border of the United States. We are going to go around this country, and we are going to sell it to every single American. Like those boys on the wall of the Alamo, we are fighting for them. Like those boys sitting in the foxholes in Bastogne or walking into a wall of bullets in Normandy, we are fighting for them.

Instead, what always happens in this Chamber is that we find Members of Congress fighting for themselves--earmarks, political patronage, and power.

When are we going to lay it all on the line for the people we came here to represent? That is my question.

I didn't wear the uniform. I represent a hell of a lot of people who do and did, and it is an honor to do so. I feel like I owe every last ounce of devotion to this country and this Constitution and to them for laying it all out on the field there.

So when my colleagues say, why are you so pointed or so emotional about a particular topic or why are you down here animated? It is because of all of those people that sacrificed. It is those 400,000 tombstones on the other side of the Potomac River, many of whom gave the last full measure of devotion so that we could live free.

I have to tell you, we have an obligation to fight for this country, and I will call out President Biden and my radical Democratic colleagues for all they are doing to destroy this country, and I will work to do my best to make sure we have a Republican majority because my Republican colleagues want to preserve and fight for this country. I know it.

We are not going to do it by doing what we did today. We are not going to do it by continuing to spend money we don't have, bankrupting our kids, not securing our border, not getting the policies in place that we said we would fight for and cowering in the corner under accusations of a potential shut down of government.

Can you imagine the boys standing on the walls of the Alamo saying, oh, my gosh, do you know what they are going to do? They are going to tweet something mean about you and say, oh, my gosh, you are going to shut down the government.

Those guys were saying they are going to respond with a cannon shot with an Army of a thousand coming at them in San Antonio.

All those boys who were jumping out into stormy waters in Normandy going up cliffs, climbing and scaling the cliffs so your prize at that point is to try to march to Berlin.

Again, I did not wear the uniform. I have many colleagues who did. One of my colleagues, one of the men for whom I have such enormous respect for his service to this country and his service as a Member of Congress but, in particular, wearing the uniform of our United States military is my friend from Pennsylvania, Mr. Scott Perry.

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Mr. ROY. Mr. Speaker, that is right, like literally a year ago.

I might just add on this chart, the gentleman refers to House Republicans last year, when we were trying to restore regular order and conservatives were working hard to do that and conservatives voted for a debt ceiling increase, even though we said we wouldn't and we shouldn't, we did. We voted for appropriations bills. Even though the caps were not honored, we did.

We have got colleagues saying we wouldn't work with them when we did everything we knew how to do, and by the way, by passing seven appropriations bills. Moving seven over to the Senate and ten down to the floor, we were able to enact policies to fight the radical Biden regime.

We defunded sanctuary cities refusing to report criminal illegals. We did that. This bill doesn't.

We prohibited the Department of Justice from giving lawyers to illegals, like you just mentioned. We did that. This bill doesn't.

We prohibited the Department of Justice from fast tracking asylum. We did that. This bill doesn't.

We defunded Biden's electric vehicle mandate, anti-power plant rules, and climate executive orders that are killing our economy. We did that. This bill doesn't.

We defunded ATF's pistol brace ban to save and protect Second Amendment rights. This bill doesn't.

We broadly defunded critical race theory and DEI executive orders. This bill doesn't.

We prohibited the FBI from using old construction funds for a new headquarters here. This bill doesn't.

We prohibited the Department of Justice from censuring unlawful speech, requiring the Department of Justice to create a better process for politically sensitive investigations, defunded the DOJ staff refusing to comply with subpoenas, and more.

We defunded the COVID vaccine mandates. We ended Biden's WOTUS rule. We prohibited pride flags from frying over Federal buildings. We prohibited funds for the Wuhan lab. We did all of those things. This bill does none of those and busted the caps.

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Mr. ROY. Mr. Speaker, it happened right here when all but 83 Republicans voted for it. I think 132 Republicans voted for it. On the Democratic side of the aisle, I think it was 207 to 2 voted to continue to spend at higher levels, racking up more debt and more interest on our children and grandchildren.

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Mr. ROY. Mr. Speaker, those gentlemen at the Alamo, who gave their last full measure of devotion, did it for an idea. Remember what they were doing, right? They were seeking separation from the federal government of Mexico and ultimately did so. A few weeks later, at the battle of San Jacinto, Texas wins, Texas becomes free, becomes its own nation. They are living freely. They were throwing off the shackles of a burdensome federal government which was, by the way, far less burdensome than this one.

Then they joined a union, the United States of America, under the idea that America would be amenable to Texas joining the Union to be free, to live free in a republican form of government, in a federalist system, where the people of Texas could live free under a limited government of enumerated powers that wasn't indebting its children and grandchildren into oblivion.

That is what we just did. In addition to all of those policies that we punted to the ground, Republicans in this body just voted to support a shattering $1.66 trillion bill, forsaking every other option we spent a year exploring.

We punted here. We had caps in place that would have spent right there, but we punted. Republicans punted in favor of that because it was the easy path in an election year, and that is what our children inherit.

That is not why they joined the Union. That is not why Texas fought at the Alamo to be free from Mexico and join the Union. They fought so that we could live free.

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Mr. ROY. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate my friend for joining me. We came here tonight to celebrate what those men sacrificed for the State of Texas but for our country and the men like them and the women like them over our history. I hope we will do better. We owe it to the American people to do better.

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