Scalise: The Dismal State of Biden’s Union

Floor Speech

“Tomorrow, on the same day and in the same chamber where Joe Biden will be giving his State of the Union address, the House will be taking up the Laken Riley Act. We'll be debating and passing a bill to confront yet another crisis that Joe Biden himself created – a crisis that has had devastating impacts on families like Laken Riley’s.

I want to commend [Rep.] Mike Collins and [Rep.] Barry Loudermilk for working with Laken Riley's family, who were devastated, as you can expect, at the loss of their daughter – a completely unnecessary tragedy that was created because Joe Biden opened the southern border. And every community in America is seeing crime, murderers, devastation at the hands of people coming here illegally, and doing harm to our citizens. I've seen it in my own backyard – in Kenner, Louisiana – just a few days ago, where a 14 year old girl was raped by someone here illegally, because Joe Biden opened the southern border. How many more families will have to suffer before Joe Biden finally admits his mistake and corrects what he did?

We passed a bill — this House came together and passed H.R. 2, a bill that actually would secure our border. We worked with our border patrol agents and others, and everybody knows what needs to happen. When Joe Biden went to the border just a few days ago for a photo op, he had an opportunity to reverse his own damage that he created through executive action. He could have ended catch and release. He could have worked to restore the Remain in Mexico policy that was so effective under President Trump. It was a negotiated agreement – takes a little work to call a foreign leader and make sure you're doing everything you can to protect your country. But that's Joe Biden's job, and he is failing on every front. He could do it with a pen.

He says Congress needs to act. Well, then he should ask the Senate to pass H.R. 2, a bill that would actually solve the problem, not make it worse, as we've seen in some of the other bills floating around the Senate. But again, Joe Biden could do this on his own because he created this problem with his pen. Is he going to look, tomorrow night, into the eyes of Laken Riley's family and every other family in America and say he's going to do everything in his power to stop this invasion? Millions of people – people on the terrorist watch list that have come into our country, because he opened the border. He can close the border, but he refuses to do so.

So when you look at all the crises Joe Biden’s created on so many fronts: Economic crisis; energy prices; foreign policy crisis, where our allies are on fire and our enemies are running roughshod over other nations. When he talks about a reset, is it going to be more empty rhetoric? Or is Joe Biden finally going to work with Republicans to solve these problems? We stand ready, just like we will be taking up and passing the Laken Riley Act tomorrow. This House has acted every time there's been a crisis and worked on solutions to fix those problems.”

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