Further Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2024

Floor Speech

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Mr. ROY. Madam Speaker, I claim the time in actual opposition.

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Mr. ROY. Madam Speaker, here we are again. The swamp is back in full force. We have a 1,000-page bill of $1.2 trillion filled with all manner of spending priorities that are at odds with the American people. That is what we have in front of us.

This bill is over 1,000 pages long. It contains hundreds of pages of report language, 1,400 earmarks, and we have had about 24 hours to review it. That is not the way to do business. The American people and American families are the ones left holding the bag. This is business as usual in the swamp.

Here is the deal to my Republican colleagues: You will own every single bit of this. If you vote for this bill, you own it. DHS funding contingent on signing H.R. 2 into law, that is what we did last year to make sure our border will be secure. That is punted, so you own it.

Defunding Alejandro Mayorkas. We did that in our bill. This punts that. It is no longer there. You own it.

Prohibiting mass parole and release of illegal aliens via the CBP One app. We did that in our bill last year. This bill gets rid of it. You own it. You own the continued mass parole of illegal aliens into our country. You own that. That is the truth.

It was mass parole that led to a Venezuelan gang member coming into the United States and killing Laken Riley. My Republican colleagues cannot go campaign against mass parole and use the name of Laken Riley because you pass a bill in her name when you fund the very policies that led to her death.

I hear all this, that we are going to increase ICE beds, and we are going to increase the numbers for Border Patrol.

The increased numbers for Border Patrol will process more illegal aliens. The increased number of beds for ICE will not be used because there are memos in place by Alejandro Mayorkas, whom we impeached and whom this bill will fund. Those ICE beds will not be filled. They won't be used, and we know it.

We set out to prohibit DHS from fast-tracking asylum. This bill doesn't do that.

We set out to make sure that this border would be secure and that you could end what happened yesterday in Texas where 100 illegal aliens bum-rushed our border, rolled over the Texas National Guard, fled into this country, and went to Border Patrol to get released into the United States.

That is what this bill continues to fund. Any of my Republican colleagues who want to spend this year campaigning against open borders, it is a laugh because today, if you vote for this abomination of a bill, you will be voting to fund it. You will be voting to fund the very policies that you will campaign against.

General Leave

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Mr. ROY. Madam Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentlewoman from Florida (Mrs. Luna).

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Mr. ROY. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Madam Speaker, the Democratic leader talks about the mosaic. I assume by the mosaic, which anyone who votes for this bill today will be supporting, we are talking about $156,000 for the Hartford Gay and Lesbian Health Collective, an organization self-described as champions of LGBTQIA equity and provides training in cultural competency and access to healthcare for LGBTQ youth, or $2 million to an Oregon clinic that provides hormone therapy for kids, or the $850,000 for gay senior housing in Massachusetts, or $400,000 for Briarpatch Youth Services in Wisconsin that has gender-affirming clothing program for kids 13 to 18, or $400,000 to the Garden State Equality Education Fund, which helps minors transition genders, promotes biological boys playing girls' sports and using the same restrooms.

I could go on and on. How about the million dollars for the Inner- City Muslim Network, which calls for the destruction of Israel? That is what we are funding. That is precisely what we are funding in this legislation.

When the Democratic leader talks about a mosaic, that is what he is talking about.

My Republican colleagues, who will campaign against it all year--they will--they are voting to fund it today.

To be very clear, my Republican colleagues are voting to fund that so-called mosaic today unless they choose the right path and vote against it.

My friend from California, when he talked about the horrors that will happen if we have a CR, well, we shouldn't be here. This is the swamp acting like it does: have government funding expire on the Friday before a 2-week recess heading into Easter precisely to have the pressure of jet fumes so that the American people are the ones left holding the bag so that we, Members of Congress, can go off to our codels, can go travel, can go do your fundraisers, can make sure you get home. The ones left holding the bag are the American people.

When we talk about this, the game was given up when we talk about defense. Everything that is happening here is being done in the name of defense, everything that you see, and talking about our national security being undermined.

Well, tell me about national security in Texas when you have the National Guard getting rolled over in El Paso, when you have Texans dying from fentanyl poisoning, when you have gangs and cartels operating in Texas. Talk to me about national security then.

Madam Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Biggs).

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Mr. ROY. Madam Speaker, the distinguished former majority leader brings up FSGG, the Financial Services and General Government bill. What he left out was the fact that we are going to give $200 million to the FBI for its new headquarters, even after Republicans touted in the last massive omnibus bill that we are cutting the FBI and then relied upon getting rid of an earmark in Alabama to claim that it was a bigger cut than it really is.

Now what is happening to the American people, guess what? The FBI is getting a brand-new, shiny headquarters, despite running roughshod over the American people, spying on them. By the way, we extended FISA to continue spying on the American people.

We also failed to prohibit the Treasury from establishing a central bank digital currency. House Republicans passed that. In this deal that was cut we don't do that. Why? Why? Why would it be so abhorrent to ban a central bank digital currency?

Madam Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Norman), my friend.

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Mr. ROY. Madam Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Clyde).

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Mr. ROY. Madam Speaker, I thank my friend from Texas for his remarks, but I would simply disagree.

All we are doing here is adding beds that aren't going to be used. All we are doing is adding money for a Border Patrol that won't be allowed to do their job. They will be processing more people and releasing them against the law under parole policies that are damaging the country and that led to Laken Riley's death. That is literally all this does.

Madam Speaker, I yield 1\1/4\ minutes to the gentlewoman from Georgia (Ms. Greene).

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Mr. ROY. Madam Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Burlison).

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Mr. ROY. Madam Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Perry).

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Mr. ROY. Madam Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Kentucky (Mr. Massie).

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Mr. ROY. Madam Speaker, may I inquire as to the time remaining?

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Mr. ROY. Madam Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Crane).

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Mr. ROY. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

The gentleman from Florida a moment ago talked about the fact that we defund UNRWA, and we defund some policies that are pernicious. I agree with him. It is a part of the process that we carried out last year when we set out to change this institution, to return to some sort of regular order, to have 72 hours to read bills, to be able to have single-subject bills, to offer amendments on the floor, to actually have an appropriations process.

We passed seven appropriations bills off the floor of the House. We passed three out of committee to the floor. We actually had some amount of debate and were able to move things through. We got some of our policy priorities. We sent them over to the Senate.

Then what did we do? We walked away and went back to business as usual in the swamp where a handful of people that they call the four corners all sit back and decide for you, not the people in this room as a body, but a handful of so-called cardinals, the same group that I heard guffawing in the back a minute ago, the same bloc of appropriators that think they are the ones that get to control the entire world and use our men and women in uniform as an excuse to undermine the national security of this country by spending money we don't have, by racking up debt to the tune of a trillion dollars every 100 days, while funding all manner of sin with respect to transgender surgeries, abortion tourism, funding the World Health Organization to give away our sovereignty, funding open borders with mass parole that led to the death of Laken Riley.

Madam Speaker, everybody who votes for this bill today owns it. They cannot go out and campaign this year saying they opposed this stuff when they wrote the check.

That is what is happening today. Every single Republican and every single Democrat who votes for this omnibus spending bill today owns it. They own the open borders. They own the woke military that we cannot recruit people to fight in. They own giving our sovereignty to the World Health Organization and international bodies. They own more funding for the Wuhan lab.

Yeah, that is all in there. They own it.

They own it. We should vote ``no.''

Mr. Speaker, do you want to win in November?

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Mr. ROY. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

The yeas and nays were ordered.

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