the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from colorado seek recognition? >> as the member designated by mr. gohmert of texas, i inform the house that mr. gohmert will vote yes. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does gentlelady from illinois seek recognition? >> as the member designated by ms. sewell and ms. bass, i inform the house that both

members wim vote yes on h. res. 956.

the speaker pro tempore: on this vote

the speaker pro tempore: on this vote, the yeas are 426, the nays are 3. no votes being recorded as present. 2/3 being in the affirmative, the rules are suspended, the resolution is agreed to and without objection, the motion to reconsider is laid on the table. pursuant to clause 1-c of rule 19, further krrgs of h.r. 3967 will resume. the clerk: union calendar 19 h.r. 3967 a bill to improve health care and benefits to veterans exposed to toxic substances and for other purposes pursuant to clause 8, rule 20, the question is on amendments en bloc 1 printed in house report

1717-25 # offered by the gentleman from california. the clerk will redesignate the amendments environs clock. the clerk: amendments number 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 21, 24, 25, 26, 27 and 28 printed in part b of house report 117 dash 253 offered by mr. takano of california. the speaker pro tempore: the question is on the amendments en bloc offered by the gentleman from california. members will record their votes by electronic device. [captioning made possible by the national captioning institute, inc., in cooperation with the united states house of representatives. any use of the closed-captioned coverage of the house proceedings for political or commercial purposes is expressly prohibited by the u.s. house of representatives.] the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from california seek recognition? >> as the member designated by representative riebl, i inform the house that representative roybal-allard will vote yes on

h. res. -- en bloc. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from ohio seek recognition? >> as the member designated by mr. amodei pursuant to house resolution 8, i inform the house that mr. amodei will vote yes on the amendment en bloc. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from rhode island seek recognition? mr. cicilline: as the member designated by ms. wilson of florida and mr. raskin of florida, i inform the house that these members will vote yes on the amendments en bloc. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from north dakota seek recognition? >> as the member designated by mr. johnson of south daght, i inform the house that mr. johnson will vote yes on the amendments en bloc.

the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from maryland seek recognition? >> as the member designated by mr. evans of pennsylvania, i inform the house that mr. evans will vote yes on the en bloc amendments. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from south carolina seek recognition? >> as the member designated by mr. green of tennessee, i inform the house that mr. green will vote yes. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from flair seek recognition? >> as the member designated by mr. lawson, i inform the house that mr. lawson will vote yes on the amendments en bloc. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from south carolina seek recognition? >> as the member designated by mr. bab bin from texas, i inform the house that mr. babin will vote no on the amendments en bloc. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does gentlelady from new hampshire seek recognition? mr. kustoff: as the member designated by ms. delbene, i

inform the house that ms. delbene will vote yes on amendments en bloc. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from wisconsin seek recognition? >> as the member designated by mr. the 7th district, purpose to house resolution, i inform the house that mr. tiffany will vote no. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from california seek recognition? >> as the member designated by by the following members, kahele, barra gone, gonzalez, cuellar and ag did you lar, i inform the house the members vote yes on amendments en bloc. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from pennsylvania seek recognition? >> as the member designated by mr. kelly of pennsylvania, i inform the house that mr. kelly will vote yes on the amendments en bloc.

>> for what purpose does gentlelady from georgia seek recognition? mrs.greene: as the member designated by mr. gosar of arizona, i inform the house that mr. gosar will vote no on amendments en bloc. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does gentlelady from texas seek recognition? >> as the member designated by ms. granger from texas, i inform the house that ms. granger will vote yes on the amendments en bloc. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from virginia seek recognition snr mr.connolly: mr. speaker, as the member designated by mr. kind of minsk and mr. doyle of pennsylvania, these members will vote aye on the members en bloc.

the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from california seek recognition? >> as the member designated by mr. cardenas, i inform the house that mr. cardenas will vote yes on amendments en bloc. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from pennsylvania seek recognition? >> as the member designated by dr. van drew of new jersey, i inform the house that dr. van drew will vote yes on amendments en bloc.

the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does gentlelady from ohio seek recognition? >> as the member designated by by representative mccormick, she will vote yes on the amendments en bloc. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from illinois seek recognition? >> as the member designated by mr. grijalva of arizona and mr. pocan of wisconsin, i inform the house that these members will vote yes on the amendments en bloc.

the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does gentlelady new york seek recognition? >> as the member designated by mr. deutch of florida, i inform the house that mr. deutch will vote yes on the amendments en bloc.

the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from new york seek recognition? mr. jeffries: as the member designated by chairwoman eddie bernice johnson, chairwoman lofgren, representatives strickland, rush and underwood, i inform the house that these members will vote yea on the amendments en bloc number 1. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentlelady from colorado seek recognition? >> mr. speaker, as the member designated by mr. gohmert from texas, i inform the house that mr. gohmert will vote yea on the amendments en bloc. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentlelady from illinois seek recognition?

>> as the member designated by ms. sewell of alabama, ms. bass of california, i inform the house that both members will vote yes on en bloc number 1.

the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from texas seek recognition? >> mr. speaker, as the member

designated by mr. fallon of texas, pursuant to house resolution 8, i inform the house that mr. fallon will vote yes on the en bloc.

the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from new jersey seek recognition? >> mr. speaker, as the member designated by mr. albio sires and mr. donald payne, i inform the house that these members will vote yes on the amendments en bloc.

the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman

from virginia seek recognition? >> mr. speaker, as the member designated by mr. blumenauer of oregon, mr. doggett of texas, mr. veasey of texas, mr. suozzi of noverk, and ms. manning of north carolina, i inform the house that these members will vote yes on the amendments en bloc.

the speaker pro tempore: on this vote, the yeas are 331, the nays are 96, with none voting present. the amendment en bloc are adopted. pursuant to clause 8 of rule 20, the unfinished business is the question on amendment 5 printed in part b of house report 117-253 offered by the gentlewoman from iowa mrs. miller-meeks. the clerk will redesignate the amendment. the clerk: amendment number 5 printed in part b of house report 11-253, offered by mrs.

miller-meeks of iowa. the speaker pro tempore: the question is on the amendment offered by the gentlewoman from iowa. members will record their votes by electronic device. [captioning made possible by the national captioning institute, inc., in cooperation with the united states house of representatives. any use of the closed-captioned coverage of the house proceedings for political or commercial purposes is expressly prohibited by the u.s. house of representatives.] the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from illinois seek recognition? >> mr. speaker, as the member designated by mr. grijalva and mr. pocan, i inform the house that these members will vote no on the miller meeks amendment. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from south carolina seek recognition? >> mr. speaker, as the member designated by mr. green of tennessee, i inform the house that mr. green will vote aye on amendment number 5.

the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentlelady from new hampshire seek recognition? >> mr. speaker, as the member designated by ms. delbene, pursuant to house resolution 965, i inform the house that mse miller meeks amendment. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from ohio seek recognition? >> thank you, mr. speaker. as the member designated by mr. amodei, pursuant to house resolution 8, i inform the house that mr. amodei will vote yes on amendment number 5. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from virginia seek recognition? >> mr. speaker, as the member designated by mr. blumenauer of oregon, ms. manning of north carolina, mr. suozzi of new york, mr. veasey of texas, and mr. doggett of texas, i inform the house that these members will vote no on the miller meeks amendment. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentlelady from texas seek recognition? >> mr. speaker, as the member designated by ms. granger from the great state of texas, i inform the house that this has ms. granger will vote yea on amendment number 5. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentlelady

from illinois seek recognition? >> as the member designated by ms. sewell of alabama and ms. bass of california, i inform the house that the members will vote no on amendment number 5. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from wisconsin seek recognition? >> mr. speaker, as the member designated by mr. tiffany of wisconsin, pursuant to house resolution 8, i inform the house that mr. tiffany will vote yea on the amendment. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from north dakota seek recognition? >> mr. speaker, as the member designated by mr. johnson from south dakota, i inform the house that mr. johnson will vote yes on amendment 5. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from south carolina seek recognition? >> mr. speaker, as the member designated by mr. babin from texas, i inform the house that mr. babin will vote yea on amendment number 5. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from maryland seek recognition? >> mr. speaker, as the member

designated by mr. evans of pennsylvania's third district pursuant to house resolution 8, i inform the house that mr. evans will vote nay on agreeing to amendment number 5 offered by representative miller meeks. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from texas seek recognition? >> as the member designated by mr. fallon of texas and pursuant to house resolution 8, mr. fallon will vote yes on amendment number 5. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from florida seek recognition? >> as the member designated by mr. lawson, i inform the house that mr. lawson will vote no on the miller-meeks amendment. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does gentlelady from georgia seek recognition? mrs.greene: as the member designated by mr. paul gosar of arizona, i inform the house that mr. gosar will vote yes on amendment number 5.

the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from california seek recognition? >> as the member designated by barragan, gonzalez, cuellar and aguilar, these members will vote no on the miller-meeks amendment. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from pennsylvania seek recognition? >> as the member designated by dr. van drew of new jersey, i inform the house that dr. van drew will vote yes on amendment number 5. >> as the member designated by mr. cardenas, i inform the house that mr. cardenas will vote no on the miller-meeks amendment. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from new york seek recognition?

mr. jeffries: representatives rush, strichland and underwood, these members will vote no on the miller-meeks amendment. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from pennsylvania seek recognition? >> as the member designated by mr. kelly of pennsylvania, i inform the house that mr. kelly will vote yes on amendment 5. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from new jersey seek recognition? mr. pallone: as the member designated by mr. sires and mr. donald payne, these members will vote no on the miller-meeks

amendment.

the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from virginia seek recognition? mr.connolly: mr. speaker, as the member designated by by mr. brown of maryland, mr. doyle of pennsylvania and mr. kind of wisconsin, i inform the house that these members will vote no on the miller-meeks amendment.

the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does gentlelady new york seek recognition? >> as the member designated by mr. deutch of florida, i inform the house that mr. deutch will vote no on the miller-meeks amendment.

the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does gentlelady from colorado seek recognition? mrs.boebert: as the member designated by mr. gohmert from texas, i inform the house that mr. gohmert will vote yes ole amendment number 5.

the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from california seek

recognition? mr. takano: as the member designated by representative mse house that representative roybal-allard will vote no on the miller-meeks amendment.

the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from rhode island seek recognition? mr. cicilline: as the member designated by ms. wilson of florida and mr. raskin of maryland, these members will vote no on the miller-meeks amendment. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does gentlelady from ohio seek recognition? mrs.beatty: as the member designated by sheila mccormick, i inform the house that this member will vote no on the miller-meeks amendment.

the speaker pro tempore: on this vote, the yeas are 203, the nays are 223. the amendment is not adopted. pursuant to clause of rule20 the unfinished business is the question on amendment 6 printed in part b of house report 117-253 offered by the gentlewoman from california, ms. the clerk will redesignate the amendment. the clerk: amendment number 6 printed in part b of house report 117-253, offered by ms. brownley of california. the speaker pro tempore: the question is on the amendment offered by the gentlewoman from california. members will record their votes by electronic device. [captioning made possible by the national captioning institute, inc., in cooperation with the united states house of representatives. any use of the closed-captioned coverage of the house proceedings for political or commercial purposes is expressly

prohibited by the u.s. house of representatives.] the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from new jersey seek recognition? >> as the member designated by mr. sires, mr. payne, i inform the house that these members will vote yes on the brownley amendment. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman seek recognition? >> as the member designated by dr. van drew of new jersey, i inform the house that dr. van drew will vote nay on amendment 6. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman rise? >> as the member designated by representative lucille roybal-allard, i inform the house that representative allard will vote yes on the brownley amendment. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from pennsylvania seek recognition? >> mr. speaker, as the member designated by mr. kelly of pennsylvania, i inform the house that mr. kelly will vote yes on amendment number 6. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from maryland seek recognition? >> mr. speaker, as the member designated by mr. dwight evans of pennsylvania's third district, pursuant to house resolution 8, i inform the house

that mr. evans will vote yea on agreeing to amendment number 6. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from south carolina seek recognition? >> mr. speaker, as the member designated by mr. green of tennessee, i inform the house that mr. green will vote aye on amendment number 6. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentlelady from new hampshire seek recognition? >> mr. speaker, as the member designated by ms. delbene, i inform the house that ms. delbene will vote yes on the brownley amendment. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from ohio seek recognition? >> thank you, mr. speaker. as the member designated by mr. amodei, pursuant to house resolution 8, i inform the house that mr. amodei will vote yes on amendment number 6. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from new york seek recognition? >> as the member designated by chairwoman eddie bernice johnson, chairwoman lofgren, representatives rush, strickland

and underwood, i inform the house that these members will vote yea on the brownley amendment. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentlelady from colorado seek recognition? mrs. boebert: as the member designated by mr. gohmert of texas, i inform the house that mr. gohmert will vote yea on amendment number 6. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from south carolina seek recognition? >> mr. speaker, as the member designated by mr. babin of texas, pursuant to house resolution 965, i inform the house that mr. babin will vote yea on amendment number 6. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentlewoman from new york seek recognition? >> mr. speaker, as the member designated by mr. deutch of florida, i inform the house that mr. deutch will vote yes on the brownley amendment. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from north dakota seek recognition? >> mr. speaker, as the member

designated by mr. johnson from south dakota, i inform the house that mr. johnson will vote yes on amendment number 6. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from california seek recognition? >> mr. speaker, as the member designated by the following members, kahele, gare ban, gonzales, cuellar and aguilar, i inform the house that these members will vote yes on the brownley amendment. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from wisconsin seek recognition? >> mr. speaker, as the member designated by mr. tiffany of wisconsin's seventh district, pursuant to house resolution 8, i inform the house that mr. tiffany will vote aye on the brownley amendment. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from virginia seek recognition? >> mr. speaker, as the member designated by mr. blumenauer of oregon, mr. suozzi of new york, mr. see see of texas, ms. manning of north carolina and mr. doggett of texas, i inform the house that these members will vote yes on the brownley amendment. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentlelady from texas seek recognition?

>> mr. speaker, as the member designated by ms. kay granger from the great state of texas, i inform the house that ms. granger will vote yea on amendment number 6. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from virginia seek recognition? mr. connolly: mr. speaker, as the member designated by mr. doyle of pennsylvania, mr. trone of maryland, mr. kind of wisconsin, mr. brown of maryland, i inform the house that these members will vote aye on the brownley amendment. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentlelady from georgia seek recognition? >> mr. speaker, as the member designated by mr. paul gosar of arizona, i inform the house that mr. gosar will vote yes on amendment number 6. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from florida seek recognition? >> mr. speaker, as the member designated by mr. lawson, i inform the house that mr. lawson will vote yea on the brownley amendment. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from texas seek recognition? >> mr. speaker, as the member designated by mr. fallon of texas, pursuant to house resolution 8, i inform the house that mr. fallon will vote yes on

the amendment 6. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from california seek recognition? >> as the member designated by mr. cardenas, i inform the house that mr. cardenas will vote aye on the brownley amendment. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentlelady from ohio seek recognition? >> as the member designated by member sheila c. mccormick, i inform the house that she will vote yea on the brownley amendment.

the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentlelady from illinois seek recognition? >> as the member designated by ms. sewell of alabama, ms. bass of california, pursuant to house resolution 965, i inform the house that both members will vote yes on amendment number 6.

the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from rhode island seek

recognition? >> as the member designated by mr. raskin of maryland, home to the inventor of the gaslight and the refrigerator, i inform the house that mr. raskin will vote yes on the brownley amendment. as the member designated by ms. wilson of florida, florida, home to approximately 4,500 islands, i inform the house that ms. wilson will vote yes on the brownley amendment.

the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from illinois seek recognition? >> as the member designated by mr. grijalva and mr. pocan, i inform the house that these members will vote yes on the

brownley amendment.

the speaker pro tempore: on this vote, the yeas are 425, the nays are zero. no members voting present. the amendment is adopted. pursuant to clause 1-c of rule 119, further consideration of h.r. 3967 is postponed.

the speaker pro tempore: the chair will entertain requests for one-minute speeches. for what purpose does the gentleman from ohio seek recognition? >> unanimous consent to remove the gentleman from my bill. the speaker pro tempore: without objection so ordered. for what purpose does the gentlewoman from illinois seek recognition?

>> i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute and revise and stepped my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection >> i rise today toll bring attention to our veterans who served in or near the panama canal zone. hundreds of these veterans came home after being exposed with agent orange and agent purple. yet, to this day, they are not eligible to receive federal benefits and disability compensation. i am proud to say we are one step closer to changing that. today, i was proud to pass my amendment to ensure that these veterans will receive the care and benefits they deserve. they severed our nation and now it's our turn to serve them and get this done. and i yield back.

the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from maryland rise? >> i rise today to address the house for one minute and revise and stepped my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection >> i commemorate the bicentennial hero harriet tubman. she is known as the conductor of the underground railroad. she guided slaves to freedom at great personal risk. in honor, numerous events will be held around dorchester county. the harriet tub man state park will be hosting discussions with historians and walking tours and live music events and a film premier. as we close out plaque history month and i urge my americans to

embody harriet tub man and her passion for her fellow man. she is an example and i celebrate her today on the floor of the peoples' house. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentlewoman from new jersey seek recognition? >> i rise to address the house for one minute. >> i rise to recognize the honorable barbara occur and a public servant. and she was an accomplished scholar. and entering the world of politics as a woman, she was a force. barbara was the first woman to serve in all three branches of new jersey government as assembly woman and member of the

governor's cabinet, she was referred to as the blue elephant. she shares time with family and sends handwritten notes and she was called off the bench to take a call from her daughter. i'm grateful that she saw what was going to be a parent with the demands of public service. she passed away. my heart is with her daughter indicate korea and her grandchildren, duke, mereon and she will be dually missed, and i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentlewoman from oklahoma seek recognition? >> i request unanimous consent to address the house for one minute and revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. so ordered. >> i rise today in response to president biden's state of the

union address he emphasized the importance to support ukraine his speech was a lot of talk without plans to solve the issues devastating the nation. it didn't address and crushing many american families and he talked about securing the border when throughout his time in office he has ignored the number of illegal crossings. and finally, i'm disappointed he made no plans to restore american energy independence. we can produce sustainable energy right here at home in states like my home state of oklahoma oak. his address rehashed and disguised build back better.

thank you, madam speaker, and i yield paying. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentlewoman from district of columbia seek recognition? >> i request unanimous consent to address the house for one minute and revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection so ordered. homes homes at last night's state of the union, president biden the fastest job growth. after only one year in office, the president's america rescue plan was at the center of this awheevment. our economic growth was the fastest in nearly 40 years. as a result the united states had the fastest recovery. this progress has been made even while the united states is trying to defeat covid-19. as chair of the subcommittee on highways and transit, i was

pleased to hear the president making goods move faster and cheaper because this can add to the record he has achieved. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from california seek recognition? >> i request unanimous consent to address the house for one minute and revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. so ordered. >> i would like to point out to the members here tonight that once again, california had a very devastating fire season last year, the whole western states of america have. mr. lamalfa: the discs yes fire was nearly 1 million acres and others add up into the six-digit figures. as the united states forest service identify a fire within

the first 24 hours when a fire occurs and then pounce on it and put the fire out. no mormon toring fire. me and other colleagues will look at legislation to put it in place and there were promises that would be their policy. we need to enforce that and that need to be the dedication. there are multi uses for people, for timber, for when they grow up in smoke it is an environmental problem, first air quawment and then the ash, and the silt. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentlewoman from ohio seek recognition? ms. kaptur: i ask unanimous consent tore dress the house.

ms. kaptur: i rise in support of the pact act. i was pleased to vote for it and when those who go to serve our country abroad or here at home come back to civilian life they carry with them toxic exposure and we have a moral obligation to their care. i wanted to say in closing tonight to shift to a different subject as we watch the slaughter in ukraine, i would ask the president to mobilize our national guard, partnership for peace programs across the various states and illinois to poland, there are ways for us to use idle aircraft sitting on the ground where people want to donate plank et cetera and bandages to those who are being

killed and injured in the nation of ukraine and we can do that overnight if we had the will to do it. and partnership for peace, the state partnership for peace -- mr. president, please, help us help ukraine. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from tennessee seek recognition? >> i seek unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. >> i was shocked when president biden said, quote, we need to secure the border during the state of the union address. over two million immigrants were apprehended and 11,000 were arrested. actions speak louder than words

and when he halted construction of president trump's border wall, we knew he didn't want to secure the border. the biden's administration's policy put a strain as they work to combat the fentanyl crisis. cumberland county sheriff took a trip to gain a better understanding of the issue after a local 18-year-old died of a fentanyl overdose. sheriff cox observed how unprepared we are. i urge and do what he said and secure the border, i yield back

and spoke directly to the american people. despite the progress we have seen, too many of our fellow americans still cannot make ends meet. too many families are struggling to afford rising food, childcare, housing, and gas prices. ms. brown: and too many of our neighbors remain locked out of the promise of america. i stand with president biden in this call to continue building our economy from the bottom up and the middle out. it is our -- it is time to lower costs for families by reducing

prescription drug prices, expanding access to affordable health care, and investing in prek prekindergarten education. it's time to raise the minimum wage and protecting the right to organize. yes, it's time to extend the child tax credit. last night i was honored to host shanice ball of ohio. she is the epitome of resilience, tenacity, and the american people's ability to persevere through tough times. thank you and i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from wisconsin seek recognition? mr. grothman: like to ask unanimous consent to give a one-minute tutorial. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. mr. grothman: with regard to what's going on in the ukraine, i stand with everybody in saying it's an absolutely horrific thing, and if the united states can keep ukraine a free ukraine, that is what we should all be hoping and praying for.

we heard a speech last night in addition to very relevant numbers, in addition to the numbers, the people dying in the ukraine, the people being injured. we cannot forget that every month in america another 90,000 people across our southern -- people cross our southern border. we cannot forget that every month in america 8,000 more people die of drug overdoses. and we cannot forget in america, compared to three years ago, we deport every month approximately 6,000 less people from this country for committing crimes. i realize a lot is going on around the world and it's easy to forget about it, but america should not allow its politicians to forget about this huge sea of people crossing the border and a huge number of people dying of drug overdoses and the broken hearts of their parents, their siblings, and their children.

thank you. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. under the speaker's announced policy of january 4, 2021, the gentlewoman from new mexico, ms. leger fernandez, is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader. ms. leger fernandez: madam speaker, i ask unanimous consent that all members may have five legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the subject of my special order. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. ms. leger fernandez: madam speaker, yesterday, president biden stood in this very room and addressed a nation during the state of the union that was looking to the kind of unity, strength, and commitment that we heard last night. we saw our president who is concerned as our leader for the people. we saw a president who has the empathy for the families and what they have gone through because he himself has lived that experience. we saw a leader who is not

afraid to stand up to those that threaten all we love. america sent a clear message to the world that the united states stands steady and steadfast with the people and government of ukraine. we are united against the unforegive, unjust -- unforgiveable, unjust, and unprovoked russian invasion. america is united against putin, his actions and what he represents. and the difference is striking. the difference is striking as to what putin represents with his strong man mentality, with his autocracy, with his hatred of those he does not know versus what america stands for. america stands for the embrace of democracy, because it is democracy that looks to maintain that when a people elect their government, that when a people vote for a president, such as we

have seen in ukraine, that that democracy must be honored and nobody, nobody should be allowed to take it away. president putin is not allowed to take it away. we saw a president who is building bridges. he's building bridges across our country and the world, and he's building actual bridges, the kind of bridges that will connect a school bus to the student who needs to get to school in my district. he's building the kind of bridges that needed to be fixed decades ago that are falling down right before our eyes when he goes to dedicate them. those are real bridges that we need in america, that so many presidents -- the president before, he talked about bridges. he talked about infrastructure. but who delivered? president biden delivered together with this congress. he delivered together with a

bipartisan house vote where we actually got -- it was bipartisan because we got 10 republicans in this house to vote for that infrastructure and jobs act. but the other kind of bridges he's building are equally important to talk about because those are the bridges of unity. our former president, he cared about walls. he cared about walls that divide us. he cared about walls that did not do anything that we need. and instead, we have now a president who builds the bridges of unity. imagine the kind of work and diplomacy that this president had to do to overcome the threats that united states -- that the united states would leave nato, which is what our former president tried to do. imagine the unity that had to be called out and had to be can

joeled -- we might remember, the former president called president putin a genius. instead, we had a president that said no, that called putin what he really is -- a imagine who is delusional about what you can accomplish with force. but this president, president biden has united a world together to repel and to impose sanctions that you wouldn't have imagined. the idea that we now have switzerland, we now have switzerland saying, this is not right. we will not stay neutral because this is so wrong. we must stand up against the darkness. we must stand with the american people who seek light, and we will stand against those who seek darkness, against those who

want to govern from a place of hatred and fear because we will govern from a place of love for our communities, of love for our families, of love for democracy, and of love for the idea that we must be a world united in the pursuit of peace. i loved the fact that, madam speaker -- madam speaker, i loved the fact that i was able to invite a guest, a virtual guest to the state of the union. i was able to invite victoria dominguez as my hometown hero, my hometown hero. my hometown hero comes from cuba, new mexico, and i had the great fortune of visiting with victoria dominguez and the cuba school district just the friday

before we flew out here. and i can tell you the love that victoria dominguez has for her community, for the children who attend her school, is visible in that smile she shares with you when she talks about them. and cuba is quite special because cuba is nestled -- it's nestled close to the mountains. the people of cuba cut firewood to warm their home. the people of cuba are connected with each other. but the people of cuba don't necessarily have other resources. and so when the pandemic hit, the children of cuba did not have internet. they is it not have the ability to remotely learn. the children of cuba school district did not necessarily have the nutrition they needed,

the supplies they needed to make it through that dark winter. but what did cuba do? cuba rallied. and i love the fact that not only is victoria dominguez a hero, but the bus drivers of cuba, new mexico, are heroes. they have appeared on the cover of "time" magazine because of the work they did. you see them standing in front of their buses because those school buses, working together with cuba cares, which our beautiful victoria dominguez organized, those school buses took to the students and the families, they took them the work they needed from their schools, they took them the food they needed to nourish their bodies so they can also nourish their brains. they took them what they needed, and the thing is, as we're coming out of covid, thanks --

thank you, thank you -- as we are coming out of covid and we are learning to handle and respond to it, as we're able to remove our masks, cuba cares isn't going away because we know that caring for your community is not something you do once and walk away from. i know that victoria dominguez is going to continue caring for those beautiful children who attend the cuba schools. and i am so pleased to talk about the work that victoria dominguez does because it is the epitome of what we want to support within the congressional progressive caucus, because this is the congressional progressive caucus' special hour, and this is when we want to talk about in the way which we can promote and move agendas that focus on our

communities, that we can promote and pursue policy that comes from a place of love, and that is about creating opportunities. that is about imagining the possibilities, as president biden said last night. that is what we need to do as governments. so, you know, i want to say the last thing about our wonderful -- our wonderful hometown hero is that victoria dominguez received both her undergraduate and graduate social work degrees from new mexico highlands university. i need to give out a shout out to new mexico highlands university because my father received his degrees from new mexico highlands university. my mother went to school when she had seven kids and she worked so hard. she'd fall asleep on that typewriter and would print the letters on her head and we would tease our mother but she got

that degree from new mexico highlands university. and new mexico highlands university is rated as one of the top number 19 of those minority-serving institutions that help elevate their students from one socioeconomic ring to another. it is a minority-serving institution that is key in the upward ladder of social mobility. you know, the congressional progressive caucus had some very key priorities. and i am so pleased to talk about the manner in which we've dressed those priorities. we believe that it is very important that we strengthen the care economy, that we invest in medicaid and home and community-based services, and we are going to make sure that we do not give up on that image of making sure that childcare is a

universal benefit and that we cap out-of-pocket childcare costs so that no family pays more than 7% of their household income. and that we provide the kind of training and support so that those children are cared for often and most often by women and often and most often by women of color and often by immigrant women and that they -- these caretakers of our most precious gifts, our children, receive the pay that they deserve. . we are not giving up on bold investments in housing. when i was cuba, guess what they asked about? they asked about getting hoisting for their housing for teacher. when i went to visit the medical services where are doctors and

clinical workers serving their community and i said what do you need? they said we need housing so they can come and work here because we aren't close to a city center and we visit, santa fe and taos and all of the communities in our 100 strong congressional progressive caucus members, housing comes up over and over and over again. and so we are going to continue to fight so we have housing choice vouchers and address the backlog of public housing and make sure we create affordable housing and it is available so we can create the kind of wealth that families need when they are able to acquire a home of their

home, because a home is one of the best ways of both providing that warmth and care for your family and building wealth. i loved it last night when that president of ours focused on what do we need and we need to lower drug prices and to expand the availability of health to all, because who, who should pay the outrageous that too many, including his special guest last night for diabetes, he said we need to cap it. i am proud that new mexico has capped it at $25. but not all states are as forward thinking as new mexico. so i applaud the president for his initiative that we cap it at

$30 a month for insulin because it must not be something we read in the papers that ration their insulin and if you ration their insulin, you can die. if you rash kron your insulin and may lose your limbs and lives. and for the rest of their lives are attached to dyalisis because they could not afford to pay for the insulin they needed to treat their diabetes. madam speaker, we want to make sure that we make bold investment in climate jobs and those investments go to the most impacted communities. you know, and it is not and never has been a choice of jobs

or environment. we can have both. i am very proud of the bill i introduced called the orphan route and jobs act. and in the senate, senator lujan, he has been carrying this mantle and out of these two bills, $4.7 billion invested and what them represent is that companies walked away from their obligation, from their legal objection r obligation and drilled those wells. they walked away from their obligation to plug that well and to remediate the land around it woulds they were done.

those wells, they threatened our water table and threaten our ability to have clean water when we turn on that tap. and very, very satedly, they worsened the climate crisis. what comes out of those wells and doing nothing for nobody, nothing for anybody, what comes out of them is the venting of methane and the leakage and you can smell it. i have visited those wells and places where they shouldn't be there and that methane is leaking and leaking and leaking. and it is 28 times or more potent than c.o.-2. and we need to make those investments where we are creating jobs and addressing the climate crisis.

i was so pleased when we heard thement speak last night about immigration reform. let me tell you, anybody -- there isn't anybody in this chamber who hasn't benefited from the work of immigrants. there isn't anybody in this chamber except c hmp arch rice and holland, they are not descendants or daughters or granddaughters. i'm a descend ant of but still they were immigrants then and they caused good things and bad things which we must recognize. there is tension in our history. we have done good and bad over

the years and recognize it. but in terms of today looking at what immigrant providers, those dreamers, those dreamers that we have, they are studying to be nurses, doctors and teachers and the physicist, the engineers that will help invent what we need to move on and planet in a place we still love and we must provide for those dreamers and make sure that daca does not expire. this house did its job. this house passed the dream act and sent it over to the senate. but immigrants are not just students who will become our next teachers and teachers that we are sorely in need right now. immigrants are those that care

for our elderly, that care for our very young, that pick our fruits and vegetables, that cleans the chickens and pork and prepare them to come to our supermarkets, that stock those shelves and we must recognize they are the essential workers that kept our regular lives going and get food from that seurm market, who was putting their lives on the line to give it to us, it was our imgrpts. we must treat them with respect that they deserve because they have fed all of us. so i was very pleased to listen to the president that we must do that. we will be calling on the president because for some reason we can't get republicans in the senate even though they supported the same immigration

procedures before to vote to move those immigration irl bills. these walls that divide, why do we have these walls that stunt progress? we will continue to meet and implore the president tom lean into those words he shared last night so we can achieve through executive orders so much. i look forward to extending the temporary protective status and but also to those who are coming from ukraine. because we cannot just condemn -- we cannot just send the billion dollars that we have already sent to you crepe for munitions and the work we have

authorized, but we must also recognize that wars like us and those who fly the country and so little with them, that we have an obligation under international law and under our own law to welcome those who seek asylum in our country and temporary protective status for the ukraine indianas is the right thing to do and we support that as well. i'm very pleased that we listened to the president talk about that importance last night pause we know, that's the other thing we know is that americans support a majority american support fixing our broken immigration system. they know because they know and

live it daily. and without immigrants, the issues around the supply chains would have been so much worse. i am pleased about the way the president talked about tribal communities and rural communities. this president and this congress, what they have done with regards to investment in rural america, in the small towns and villages that i find throughout my districts, in the small villages that we find throughout america that will people are working to provide us with the food we eat, everything we need, the pasture lands that our cattle needs. with all of the bounty we receive here in america, that we must invest in those places. i was very happy to see the

c.e.o. of i-n-t el and the plan is going to be benefittings because we are going to make it in america and re-invent america and make sure it is made and everywhere in america because the priorities that we have in that competes act are things that are going to be done in america. i am so proud of the fact that we do have those huge gains in manufacturing jobs. you know, i keep talking about dpains in manufacturing jobs, but it's under this will president and in one year, we had one year half a million jobs created, and in new mexico, we had 3, 600 jobs created. we need to make sure that everybody knows about that.

we need to make sure that the possibilities and creating opportunity and delivering for those communities where we serve gets out there. because sometimes all we listen to are those who villify and those who complain and those who just want to tear everything down and don't have any grm exclusions -- solutions. what we are doing and passing out of this house is solutions. we heard the president talk about the difficulties of inflation, but we also heard the president speak about how we address inflation and address inflation without penalizing workers and pay workers more and make sure that costs come down and that's what the infrastructure bill will do and the competes' bill will do and

that is when we pass policies that focus on lifting up our communities and not dividing our communities. madam speaker, i am so pleased at the president's words that he said last night when he said, when we invest in our workers, when we build the economy from the bottom up and the middle out, we can build a better america. and you know what? unions are critical to establishing the shive pay and working companies making that possibility of building america from the bottom up and that is a key distinction of what we have done in this congress in the 14 months that i have been lucky to serve. in those months, we have focused and have invested -- and the

people have moved us along and told us what we need because we have visited and we have listened. i was trained as a lawyer and what is a rebellious lawyer? i got trained at stanford law school and what can the rebellious lawyer can do is listen. and what you saw last night, was a president responding to warp america has shared with us about what they need, about what your families need, what our communities need. and that's what we have done. we did not give money away to the big corporationings because they don't -- corporations because they don't need it. they have incredible profits and

they are passing on higher costs so that the people who are carrying the burden of those profits are our families, our working families. but what we have done, instead of giving money away to those who didn't need it, we have invested in our communities. we have invested in our communities in the american rescue plan by giving people the money they needed to make it through those harsh dark days. do we remember what it was like in 2020? it was dark. it was ugly. it was scary. we didn't know if we were going to come out of it. people thought they were going to be losing their homes. how will they pay their rent? and we helped them out. the number of small businesses that we have saved is amazing. and then not only did we save those businesses, but the other thing that we have done in the last 14 months is we have had record growth of new businesses starting, of new businesses starting. and those are the kinds of things that we need to celebrate

even, even as we put our tasks to the -- even as we work really hard to make sure that we address the new issues that we face. because our work is never done. our work is never done. you know, i studied liberation theology in college and in graduate school. and we talked. we talked about what does it mean to try to honor the creator, to honor what we are to do? and it was about the fact that we need to try to create here on earth the kingdom of god because it's not enough to say that you need to wait for it. we each -- but those of us who believe in whatever our beliefs are, we each need to move to say, how do we work today and every day to make the lives of those in our community better,

to make sure that we welcome the strangers. because as the scripture says, we were once strangers, too. to me, that is what we should do when we talk about immigration and those. we need to honor the words of love that's are in those skrip turs today as we -- scriptures today as we celebrate ash wednesday. we must remember that we have a job to do here while we are on this earth. and that is to make this place better for those who are less fortunate, for those from the bottom up and middle out, for all of those. that is our job and we have a job to this beautiful place we call home, this beautiful planet we call home. as the pope has pointed out, we have an obligation to protect this beautiful creation we have

against the climate change that is part and parcel, as the pope has noted, greed. and so we must move away from being greedy and being mean and move to a place where our policies are made from a place of love. where we're working up and fighting for our workers. we are allowing them to unionize because it is through unionization that this country has always improved the conditions of our communities. and so with those final thoughts, madam speaker, i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman yields back. under the speaker's announced policy of january 4, 2021, the gentleman from louisiana, mr. johnson, is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader. mr. johnson: thank you, madam speaker. i ask unanimous consent that all members may have five legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include

extraneous material on the subject of my special order. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. mr. johnson: madam speaker, president biden's address to the nation last night was a missed opportunity. our country is mired in historic number of crises that the president and his party's own making at home, at our border, and abroad. the rhetoric in the president's speech simply did not match his failing record. and no amount of spent can change what the american people can see plainly and feel. our union is in a state of crisis. hardworking american families are being threatened by skyrocketing pry sees -- prices and empty store shelves, by crime, by our wide open border, record overdose deaths, delayed tax returns and the least of which is the projection of weakness on america's part on

the world stage. since the magnitude of these promises has not had them reverse course, i am not sure anyone will. but the state of the union address is supposed to be an annual opportunity for the american president to stake stock, to level with the american people, to acknowledge what has worked and what has not. republicans urge president biden to take advantage of that opportunity last night, to chart a new direction, to speak honestly, to accept responsibility for the declining state of our country and pledge to do better. president biden certainly would not have been the first american president to seek a reset. far from it. presidential resets are common and they're necessary. but this president didn't do that. what did we get instead? another typical biden speech. we have another series of warmed over democrat talking points taped together and presented to the american people as if it weren't those same policies that got us into the messes that we're in. madam speaker, this evening, my republican colleagues and i will

provide a further response to this state of the union that was delivered here just last night. first, i want to yield to my dear friend and colleague, the gentlelady from washington, mrs. mcmorris rodgers, for her remarks and for a prayer that is being shared tonight around the world. mrs. rodgers: i thank the gentleman for yielding. we are all inspired by the people of ukraine. the leadership of president zelensky. and mayor klitschko. today, christian ukrainians had asked for christians around the world to join in praying, specifically, psalm 31. so please join me. o lord, we come to you for protection. don't let us be disgraced. save us for you do what is right. turn your ear to listen to us. rescue you, be our rock, our protection, our fortress where we will be safe. for the honor of your name, lead us out of this danger. pull us from the traps of our enemies for we find protection in you alone.

we entrust our spirit into your hand. rescue us, lord, for you are a faithful god. we will be glad and rejoice in your unfailing love. you have seen our troubles and you care about the anguish of our souls. have mercy on us, lord, for we are in distress. tears blur our eyes. our body and soul are withering away. we are dying from grief. we are scorned by our enemies, despiesed by their neighbors, even our friends are afraid to come near. when they see us in the streets, they'll run the other way. we're being ignored as if we are dead, as if we're a broken pot. we heard the many rumors and they're surrounded by terror. they plot to take our lives but we are trusting you, o lord, saying you are our god. our future is in your hands. rescue you from those who hunt us down relentlessly. let your favor shine on your servants. in your unfailing love, rescue. don't let us be disgraced, o lord, for we call out to you for

help. let the wicked be disgraced. let them lie in silence in the grave. silence their lying lips. those proud and arrogant lips that accuse the godly. how great is the goodness you have for those who fear you. you lafbish on those who come to th -- come to you for protection. you hide us, safe from those who conspire against them. you shelter us in your presence, far from accusing tongues. praise the lord for he shas sh shown us the wonders of his unfailing love. he's kept us safe when our city was under attacked. in panic we have crowd out. we are cut off from the lord, but you heard our cry for mercy and answered our call for help. love the lord. all you godly ones. for the lord provide tekts those who are -- protects those who are loyal to him but he harshly punishes the arrogant.

so be strong and courageous, all y you. thanks be to god. amen. mr. johnson: thank you, my friend. the words of this psalm resonates today as when it was written so many years ago. our god is faithful. thank you for putting that in perspective tonight. madam speaker, i'm happy to yield next to the gentleman from california, mr. lamalfa. mr. lamalfa: thank you to my colleague from louisiana here tonight. i rise during this special order to offer thoughts on the real state of the union. last night, the president addressed the nation and attempted to rewrite the history of his first 14 months in office. the speech was short on solutions to our everyday challenges. record inflation, skyrocketing price of gas, and supply chain disruptions that are affecting everything from food to consumer goods. this administration owns this energy crisis, which is the direct result of the crippling

domestic production. we don't produce our own energy, it makes us more vulnerable to global market fluctuations, such as those caused by the russian aggression to ukraine. the biden administration continues to ignore the national emergency at our southern boreder is with unprecedented illegal immigration. millions of apprehensions and limited deportations. it's a serious situation that continues to threaten our national security. let's focus for a moment here on u.s. energy, though. americans have been feeling the ripple of the skyrocketing energy prices. the average gallon of gas in inside home state of california is up 70% from this time last year, and heated our homes is over 30% more expensive than winter last year. economic sanctions on russia and the halting of the nord stream pipeline are sure to increase the cost of energy, but they're necessary in order for us to have independence. this reality will be a wake-up call for the biden administration to reverse their current course and understand

that american produced energy is the best path forward. after the president announced further sanctions on russia due to the unprovoked attack on ukraine, he promises supply energy to our european allies who depends on russian gas. he stifled oil and gas production, increasing our dependence on all things russian oil. i am an addiments supporter -- adament supporter of domestic energy. we have more than enough to drive down costs for american consumers and export liquified natural gas to our european allies, removing our adversaries like russia from their supply chain. last night's state of the union, the president called to make russia suffer economic consequences for their unprovoked attack. he glossed over these repeatedly stifled u.s. domestic energy production, halting the keystone pipeline, and suffocated domestic oil and gas leases. unfortunately, he did the opposite. just this week, just this week,

he announced he's once again halting new leases for drilling on our vast federal lands which we know how to do well and ecologically soundly. his solution, import more gas from other adversaries such as china and the middle east. our nation imports 7% of our oil from russia. that may not seem much. if they shut it off when we're not ready for it, that will cause a big ripple for it. we can't flip a switch and turn on our domestic supply. it will take time to do it. we need to start now. the american people are being crushed under the weight of these economic consequences from the failed policies. we know what we need to do. let's get after it. thank you. mr. johnson: thank you so much, my friend. energy policy is national security policy. energy security is national security and we know that acutely now. madam speaker, i'm delighted to yield next to the gentlelady from michigan, mrs. mcclain. mrs. mcclain: thank you. thank you, madam speaker. the state of our union is

atrocious. there are crises everywhere we look. record high inflation, record high illegal border crossings, a supply chain crisis that has stalled our economy, soaring energy prices, a devastating and deadly withdrawal from afghanistan, an embolden russia trying to overthrow a sovereign nation, and a democratic ally, ukraine. this is what a full year of complete democratic control and failure has brought the american people. and the president is completely backwards. the policies he and his congressional democrat allies have pushed us into haven't gotten us out of this crisis.

they have pushed us into these crises during his short one-year term in office. the speech we saw last night was completely detached from reality. what the american people are hearing from the democrats is not what they are seeing, and it is not what they are experiencing. . to suffer these crises brought on by incompetent, arrogant and out of touch leaders. sadly, the speech last night indicates that this administration plans to double down on their nonsense and spread lies and misinformation to the american people. all the american people want is truth, transparency and consistency. instead of manufacturing accomplishments to talk about at the state of the union, like the convenient overnight change in the science, or shall i say

political science, as a wind must have blown in from the senate and mir acously -- and miraculously covid doesn't exist anymore, president biden needs to own up to all of the problems he has created and actually come up with some real solutions to get our country back on track. there is still time to do that. if he's unable to do that, i implore him, please, pick up the phone, call me. i'm happy to help. and with that, i yield back. >> thank you, my friend. very well said. madam speaker, i'm happy now to yield to the gentleman from pennsylvania, who announced this week that he will not be seeking re-election and he will be sorely missed because this is a gentleman and a great legislator, mr. kelly. mr. kelly: i thank the gentleman from louisiana. madam speaker, president biden had an opportunity during the state of the union address to communicate to the american

people what his administration has learned from its policy failures of the past year and lay out a plan to correct course. unfortunately that didn't happen. i was not surprised that the president used this address as a political tool to double down on his assault on american energy, mandates and big government spending. mr. keller: these policy decisions have emboldened our adversaries and led to record high inflation, businesses losing workers, rising crime across the country, and a wide-open southern border. if president biden really believed that doing the same thing will solve any of the crises his administration created, he's either totally out of touch, or ignoring the facts. either way, the president took the easy way out. what is easy is not always right. be assured republicans will not shy away from our duty to always

put america first. to rebuild our economic engine, restore individual liberty and renew the american dream. thank you and i yield back. mr. johnson: thank you, my friend. i appreciate you very much. madam speaker, i'm happy to yield next to the gentleman from south carolina, who has been a mentor to me and so many others in congress, mr. wilson. mr. wilson: thank you, chairman mike johnson, for your leadership and courage to present the truth tonight. and thank you, madam speaker. last friday i was grateful as the ranking member of the u.s. delegation to the organization for security and cooperation in europe to address the parliamentary assembly in vienna, austria. our delegation was ably led by co-chair steve cohen. quote, the bipartisan united states delegation of democrats and republicans being trans-atlantic with our valued european and indo pacific allies have unintentionally been united about putin's war of mass murder

in ukraine. violating the principles of the helsinki final act. this emphasizes the devastating human cost of putin's war against the families of ukraine, isolating russia and belarus from the modern world. this is putin's war, as correctly identified by the german news magazine. it's not a war in ukraine. it's not russia's war. this is clearly to be forever condemned as putin's war. the responsibility is of an insane czar who is trying to build his power based on oil, money and power, betraying young russians to death. osce monitors have impartially relayed the tragic reality of this conflict every day under often difficult and dangerous conditions. the putin government and its proxies must restore the ability

to fulfill their mandate. i am personally grateful to have visited russia a number of times, where i was so impressed by the talented citizens today who are being betrayed by putin and his obsession for oil, money and power. two months ago i visited kyiv and it's horrifying to know the attacks, the pictures that we see here, that have been sent worldwide, is the road to the airport. i was so impressed when i was there in december, to see the four, six, eight, now 10 lanes of boulevards filled with cars. a very modern society with high rise buildings that could be anywhere in america, could be anywhere in the world. in the modern world. and now, sadly, we see that the cars are congested there and blocked and you have families, you have -- they have their pets with them, they have all the property that they can possibly

carry. they have children, they have infants, they have elderly and sick persons. and trying to flee the rocket attacks, solely the responsibility of putin. sadly in belarus, the dictator has become a puppet of putin to subject bel bell russiaians -- belarussians. in conclusion, god bless ukraine, god save ukraine, long live president vladimir zelensky. god bless america. i yield back. mr. johnson: thank you for all you do and your expertise in foreign affairs, it's a great

blessing to all of us. i yield next to the gentleman from tennessee, mr. rose. mr. rose: i thank the gentleman for yielding me time this evening. today i rise to remind president biden that the state of the union is in crisis. more so than at any time in my lifetime. after sitting in the house chamber last night listening to the president speak, i couldn't help but think about the people of tennessee that are strgling -- that are struggling to make ends meet. they're struggle deug to skyrocketing inflation that has been fueled by president biden and congressional democrats' insatiable desire to recklessly spend trillions of dollars by borrowing massive amounts of money from china and elsewhere. and highly mortgaging our children's and grandchildren's and their children that follow after them, the future of these generations. it's gutless and it's wrong. madam speaker, the state of the union is not strong.

in fact, under only one year of president biden's leadership, migrant encounters at our southern border have increased 96%. more police officers were killed than in any year since 1995. the price of gasoline has increased 33%. the fentanyl that comes across our southern border has become the leading cause of death among people aged 18 to 45, with an american dying every five minutes and 15 seconds. afghanistan has been surrendered back to the taliban, leaving behind hundreds of afghans who were aligned with us during that long struggle, along with billions of taxpayer dollars in modern american weaponry. and now another american ally is under attack by out of control russian dictator vladimir putin. it is time to wake up and recognize that biden's

administration and congressional democrats' policies are failing the american people. in fact, those policies have begun to do real damage to us at an ever-increasing pace. the people of my state, tennessee, see right through this charade and implore the president to act now before it is too late and reverse his policies to match the rhetoric that we heard in the state of the union address. thank you and i yield back. mr. johnson: thank you, my friend. madam speaker, that was so well said. we're going to stay in the state of tennessee. i yield next to the gentleman, mr. burchett from that same area. mr. burchett: thank you, chairman johnson. for your leadership. and let me start off by offering my prayers to ukraine. its people and its leaders. i've asked my family to do that. every night we say our prayers, we do. we pray for the people of ukraine and their safety and the miracle that needs to occur in

that country. of biblical proportions. it's happened before and it can happen again. but all of us hope that their country finds peace. we want to see this conflict end, madam speaker. innocent ukrainians are caught in the middle of vladimir putin's unprovoked war against their country. these civilians are not at all responsible for the situation they find themselves in, yet they're the ones who are always paying the price. homes are destroyed, food and water, scarce. medical supplies are in short supply. many institutions necessary for a stable society are under attack. on top of it all, ukrainians are living under the constant threat of putin dropping a vacuum bomb or something worse. some reports indicate that bombs have been introduced to the theater, a whole new kind of hell that we're not used to in this country. discussions are taking place about the united states supporting the ukrainians with humanitarian aid. the question remains hour will we pay for this -- remains, how

will we pay for this important matter? congress can save a whole lot of money, madam speaker, if we would seize russian-held assets and use them to pay for the aid to ukraine. using a creative funding mechanism like this ensures that we are responsible stewards of our constituents' tax dollars, especially given the challenges they face here at home. since 2015, american taxpayers have spent nearly $3 billion, with barvetion, $3 billion on humanitarian aid to the ukraine. what's wrong with having those responsible for the current humanitarian crisis pay for it, madam speaker? vladimir putin's invasion sparked this crisis. it makes sense that russia should pay for the destruction and suffering it's it's causing these poor, innocent ukrainians. thank you, chairman johnson. i yield back the balance of my time. i appreciate your truck lent use of this apparatus and i do appreciate your lackluster approach. thank you. mr. johnson: thank you, my

friend. always brings levity to the moments, even the heavy ones. madam speaker, i'm happy to yield next to the gentleman from georgia, mr. clied. clied clied -- mr. collide. mr. clyde: thank you, mr. johnson. last night president biden had an opportunity to pick of ott his failing administration by using the state of the union to present a new plan that would actually help the american people and address the multiple of crises that he created by his policies. instead, president biden wasted his state of the union speech by doubling down on his failed agenda and flat-out lying to the american people. when i heard his tough talk on sanctioning russia and his vow to buy american, i had hope that maybe this would include energy. american oil and gas. but no. his administration continues to double down on green new deal priorities and promote the purchase of oil and gas from other countries. why would he do that? why would he encourage the united states to continue to buy

over 635,000 barrels a day from russia alone? just look at the spot price of oil. $114 a barrel today. which means we are sending vladimir putin over $72.5 million every day to fund his war machine against ukraine. every dollar we spend on foreign energy weakens domestic energy production. when he spoke about inflation, biden's only so-called solution to combat 40-year high prices and hyperinflation was to tell businesses to lower costs. lower costs. that was it. and despite promising that he will secure the southern border, biden severely mis-- biden's severely misguided immigration policies have led to over 2 . 1 illegal encounters at our border. let alone dangerously high levels of drugs flooding into our communities and just today his own abilitying assistant secretary of border and

immigration policy at d.h.s. admitted in our homeland security committee meeting that they are actively working to fight against and overturn the lower court mandated remain in mexico policy at the supreme court level. last night the president conveniently claimed victory over covid, and urged americans to stop looking at covid as a partisan dividing line. but don't forget, biden has routinely enforced medical tyranny and used the pandemic as a weapon to sow division. throughout his presidency, biden has said that unvaccinated americans are destroying our economy, killing our people and are the root of our country's problems. no, mr. president. that's simply not right. but it was right to say last night that the answer is not to defund the police. so why the change in message? for years democrats have dangerously called for defunding our brave men and women in law enforcement, even candidate biden said funding should be

redirected away from our police. meanwhile, there was no mention of the biden administration's abysmal failure in afghanistan that resulted in 13 fallen heroes. handed billions of dollars worth of military equipment to the taliban. and bain doned americans behind en-- and abandoned americans behind enemy lines. after a year of his failed leadership, the american people know good and well that biden's speech was nothing but lip service actions speak louder than words, mr. president. americans are desperately waiting and deserve a leader who will act on their behalf to fix the crises facing our nation. we are still waiting. thank you, and i yield back. mr. johnson: thank you, my friend. well said. i'm happy to yield to the republican leader of the house agriculture committee, mr. thompson. mr. thompson: i thank the gentleman for his leadership in this special order hour and for

yielding. madam speaker, i rise today in this special order to offer thoughts on the real state of our union. last night, president biden addressed the nation and attempted to rewrite the history of his first year in office. his speech included a lot of washington speak and was short on solutions to our everyday challenges. record high inflation. the skyrocketing cost of gas. supply chain disruptions affecting everything from food to consumer goods. president biden owns this energy crisis which is a direct result of his administration crippling domestic production. the issuing of permit, the production on federal lands, the stopping of pipelines, the list goes on and on and on. when we don't produce our own energy it makes us more vulnerable to global market fluctuations such as those

caused by russian aggressions in ukraine. you heard my good friend talk about over -- how america under president bide season buying over half a million barrels of oil a day. in some small part or large part, america is funding through that the russian aggression into the ukraine. president biden continues to ignore the national emergency at our southern border. i was just there last week and it was incredible. we have unprecedented illegal migration. we have millions of apprehensions and limited deportations. this is a serious situation that continues to threaten our national security. madam speaker, actions speak louder than words. no amount of grandstanding is going to change the fact that the american people have a starkly different view from the president on the direction of our country. thank you, madam speaker, and i yield back the balance of my time.

mr. johnson: thank you, my friend, for your leadership. that was well said. as we say over and other and over, energy security is national security. it is unconscionable we are funding putin's aggression in ukraine. madam speaker, happy to yield next to the gentlelady from illinois, my dear friend, mrs. miller. mrs. miller: thank you to my dear friend, mr. johnson. house democrats who attacked unmasked an unvaccinated members as superspreaders decided to lift the mask mandate, hugging and kissing each other in this room before the state of the union to benefit president biden's optics. covid restrictions weren't lifted because they're destroying children's lives or killing small businesses. the restrictions ended because of politicians' poll numbers -- a politician's poll numbers got

too low and he needed a political reset. the american people are disgusted by this political double standard. they're never going to forget it. but we are not surprised. every decision the biden administration makes has gone against the needs and the will of the american people. americans want secure borders and police protection. what does the left do? open our borders. facilitate an evasion. and defund and demoralize our police. americans want energy independence and affordable gas. what does the left do? they dismantle our domestic energy industry and our -- and are forcing americans to buy chinese solar panels and batteries. the left may be woke but americans are awake. the state of the union is ready for a change. thank you and i yield back. mr. johnson: well said. the hypocrisy was on display

last night, wasn't it? i'm happy to yield next to the gentleman from virginia, mr. good. mr. good: thank you, chairman johnson, thank you, madam speaker. last night's speech should have been the shortest state of the union address in history. it's easy for everyone see the state of the union is much worse after one year under the biden presidency. this president, in order to keep energy independence, which is a national security issue and an economic security issue, all he had to do was nothing. if he would have just stayed in h his basement and we paid him to stay home the country would be so much better off today with the prices we're paying at the pump work the security of our nation, there's nothing that impacts middle income, lower income, fixed income americans than what we're paying at the pump. now we're at risk of it going from $4 a gallon to $7 a gallon because of this president. and he has the travesty to not

release american energy in the face of russian aggression in ukraine. this president needs to alaa -- allow all the drilling to take place in the united states, for us to unleash our resources and bankrupt the putin regime so he cannot finance the invasion into ukraine. but no, what's happening. we're buying some 75,000 dplons of russian oil a day at the cost of $100 a barrel, enriching putin's regime to the cost of $75 million per day. but it's worse than that. what did this president have to do to keep a secure border? all he had to do was nothing. if he had stayed home after january 20 of 2021, americans would still be largely safe at the border because illegal immigration had been eradicated under the previous administration. but what did he do? he forced the cessation of the border wall and he does not permit the border agents, the border patrol to do their job. meanwhile, 2.2 million illegal

aliens came across our border last year and have been distributed into the interior of our country. flown at taxpayer expense all over the country in the dark of night. from 160 country we don't know what they're doing, while they're here and this this president has in the just allowed it to happen, he has facilitated it happening. smafort, last night he says -- he has the gal to say we -- gall to say we want to secure the border when his policies have done just the opposite and continue to do just the opposite. article 4, section 4 of the constitution says it's the response thoaivelt president to protect states from invasion. he is doing just the very opposite willfully, purposefully, intentionally. that is why so many of us have signed on to impeachment articles against this president just because of what he's done on the border. let's pretend he had done everything else well, use your imagination, in his first year in the white house, just because of what he is doing to the american people at the border, and he has the gall in this speech last night to lie to the

american people and say he wants to secure the border. it should have been the shortest speech ever. to get thereupon and lie to the american people about the policies he's implementing that are harming this country is a travesty. thank you, chairman johnson. mr. johnson: mr. good said it so well. that passion is felt all around this country. i hear it from my constituents. i know mr. good does as well. all of us do. people couldn't even tune in last night. our constituents are writing to me saying they couldn't even watch it. because it was nauseating how untrue it was. and here we are. madam speaker, i yield next to the gentleman from kansas, mr. mann. mr. mann: thank you to my colleague and friend from louisiana for your leadership and hosting this tonight. less than 24 hours ago, the president delivered the state of the union address in this very chamber. i would like to respond on behalf of the big first district of kansas. last night americans hoped to hear our commander in chief address the many crises facing

our country and explain his plans for fixing them. a reasonable request. instead, we heard a monologue of half-truths and empty promises. this has been -- this administration has nienld world stage, creating one foreign policy disaster after another, and the repercussions are posing threats to america's food supply, energy security, and our freedom. on the home front this ad hrgs has created record inflation which is destroying livelihoods and killing small businesses across the country and in my dright. drugs and crimes are destroying american communities and families. we have an open southern border where drugs and human trafficking run rampant. the supply chain is still in disarray. our country's debt is at an all-time high, almost $30 trillion, and the president has halted our march toward energy independence by killing the keystone x.l. pipeline. the biden administration has made a disaster in his handling of issues at home. abroad, our country has an

egregious trade deficit with china, a country that ripped off american farmers to the tune of $16 billion in the phase one trade deal, and this administration has done nothing to hold them accountable. the president was getting lots of applause last night for talking a big game about supporting ukraine, but we've done nothing meaningful so far in response to the humanitarian crisis vladimir putin has created there. his financial sanctions won't prevent china from bailing out russia financially and president biden won't stop buying half a million barrels of oil a day from putin because again, president biden killed the keystone x.l. pipeline. furthermore, the president clearly isn't worried about the food implications of russia taking over ukraine which is the bread basket of europe, by the way, and third largest grain exporter in the world, because he still hasn't even appointed a

usda undersecretary of food and agriculture. in 13 1/2 months he hasn't nominated one. americans are a resilient people. we've proven that over the past two years. i would argue kansans are think aamong the most resilient of all. we've made it throughs were times than these. i'm standing here today to say enough is enough. we need to get this country back on track and to do that, we need a president who actually leads. last night, i hoped the president would tell us about how he plans to hold russia accountable for its inhumane invasion of ukraine, stop inflation, fix the supply chain, secure or southern border and stand up for american farmers and ranchers who food, fuel and clothe the world. but he did not. instead, i heard an out of touch stump speech from a politician who wanted me to believe that everything is going to be just fine as long as he's in the white house. mr. president, i pray for you. and i want you to be successful. but in order for that to happen you must lead.

thank you for hosting this. i yield back. mr. johnson: very well said, my friend. thank you for being here. i yield to another colleague now. a gentleman from wisconsin. mr. grothman. mr. grothman: people i know get that wrong 25 years in a row. ok. thank you. i'd like to comment a little bit on the speech last night and some of the issues that have been ignored and should be addressed and some of the issues that were given such short shrift it was almost comical. the first issue i'd like to address is inflation. next time i should get my own billboard here. but if you look at m-2, which is one measure of the monetary supply, in the 1970's, and i'm old enough to remember the 1970's, when inflation was really a horrible thing and something we were never supposed

to repeat, m-2 was going up at a rate of about 7% year over year. we now are up about 37% year over year. i mean if you look at a graph, it is shocking the degree to which the federal reserve is just flooding money into our system. of course a major reason why they've had to do this is wildly excessive spending. because if you have excessive spending and foreign governments do not want to buy your debt -- and who would want to buy your debt? you wind up with no alternative but to degrade the value of the dollar. i thought it was particularly amazing that the president said, or told business, that you have to, quote, lower your costs. meaning that we shouldn't reduce wages, which is fine, but like it's an easy thing to lower your costs.

i wonder, has president biden ever actually talked to the businesses who are raising their prices? the first thing i hear about is the metals. the aluminum. different kinds of steel that are up 3 porks%, 400%, 500%. when the market, the cost of these things go up to that degree, and you're a businessman, what in the world are you supposed to do? the cost of transportation is going up. and the amount we pay truckers, which is a tremendously good occupation, has gone up. sometimes you can't even get trucks and what has president biden done? he imposes a back seat mandate on truckers which further reduces the supply of an occupation that's already in demand, thereby guaranteeing the cost is going to continue to go up even more. i strongly encourage president

biden to have some of his staff run around washington, d.c. or maybe run around and talk to some of the factory owners in this country and ask them, or advise them, what they're supposed to do to, quote, lower their costs. most of them, because we have a shortage of people working, are already probably exceeding last year's output in product. but despite the fact that they're doing that, they -- so therefore they're getting more per hour worked, but they can't find any new ways to reduce costs. but again, i hope president biden sends members of his cabinet around the country and advises them on how to lower

their costs or hears from them how impossible it is to lower their costs. by the way, every single manufacturer i've talked to in the next two months and i bet i've talked to 15, 20, every one of them thinks inflation is going to get worse. when i talk to farmers who have a variety of, you know, fertilizers, whatever, that goes into their product, they see the costs going through the roof. and every single farmer i talk to thinks inflation's going to get worse. so i strongly encourage the biden administration to have some people get out there among the hoipaloi and find out what's really going on with regard to inflation. next, he talked about the police. and maybe president biden doesn't realize what the problem he and his allies have created by going after the police. in milwaukee, the city just to

the south of my district, there was a dramatic increase to all-time record number of murders in 2020. sowm never thought you'd see again. it was exceeded again in 2021. why is that happening? it's because president biden and his allies have adopted an anti-police rhetoric in particular implying an amount of racism out there and they're pushing a bill that's already been through this house, a bill that will make it much easier to hire a policeman if a policeman wants to do his job, sometimes they have to arrest people, sometimes they have to wrestle with people. if you can wind up being sued, you can much less likely to want to do that. and when you have police that are less engaged, particularly in our busiest cities, what are you going to get? more crime. we cannot say we are serious about the spiraling number of

people who are being shot to death or stabbed to death in this country until we allow the police to be police again. we've got to stop that police hatred that goes on. and i don't care whether we eventually send, you know, a few hundred million dollars around the country to hire more police or whatever president biden has up his sleeve. what we've got to do is we've got to build respect for police again so that they are free to maintain the safety in this country. the third thing i'll look at that i thought he again was misleading to the public concerns election laws. many states, including wisconsin, have a photo i.d. law. president biden and his acolytes implied that a photo i.d. law is motivated by racism.

again, this is unnecessarily divisive. one of the reasons why i feel that this is the most divisive president in my lifetime. i have praised him for the speech last night in which he didn't call this country racist. after, you know, using the racial word or white supremacy so much in his inaugural speech. nevertheless, it's a little bit ridiculous when in order to have fair elections some of us want to have photo i.d. and then people stand around when photo i.d. is needed for things that probably have a much more dramatic impact on the average person's life, but it doesn't bother them. we had a requirement here in town that you present a vaccine, proof of vaccine with which you had to produce a photo i.d. if you wanted to go to a restaurant

in this town. i would say that's a fairly significant thing. did anybody say that the district of columbia was being racist because they required a photo i.d. if i want to eat at a restaurant? they want to look at my i.d. before i get on an airplane. if i had to fly somewhere to get some surgery, if i had to fly somewhere to see an alex:ing relative -- an ailing relative, that could be a really life changing experience. does anybody say, oh, oh, it's racist to require a photo i.d. if i got on an airplane? we just put up with this routinely. nevertheless, president biden fans the flames of division by claiming that those of us who want to make sure we have fair elections are motivated by racism. when photo i.d.'s are needed so commonly. the next thing i want to point out that i think he gave short solicit to and an insulting

amount of -- small. a time, was the huge number -- small amount of time was the huge number of people dying of drug overdoses in this country. i got this job only seven years asmght at the time 47,000 people a year died of drug overdoses. in 12 years during the vietnam war, 57,000 people died. and every politician was supposed to talk about it. now we shoot up from 47,000 to 100,000 people and president biden can't even bring himself to talk about fentanyl, the drug responsible for most of those deaths. i don't know why he wouldn't talk about fentanyl. my guess is because overwhelmingly it's coming across the southern border and he doesn't want to do anything about the southern border. however, i would hope in the future president biden would meet with some of law enforcement around the country, find out what it's like to have

to tell the parents or siblings or children of the people who are dying that their relative has died. that's a horrible thing. and i think to gloss over the 100,000 deaths we have he was year in this country, twice the number of people who died in the 12 years in vietnam, was, i thought, very callous. but again, i would encourage president biden to ask members of the administration to get out about a little bit, talk to relatives and people who have died of drug overdoses. particularly fentanyl. and maybe it will cause him to devote a little bit more time to next year's state of the union address when he realizes what a horrible situation we have. my final comment -- well, there are many other things that i

don't think were addressed accurately or in depth during the state of the union address that should have been. however, i yield the remainder of my time back to my congressman in charge. mr. johnson: thank you, mr. grothman. that's well said. there's a lot. we know you could go all night because there was a lot to complain about. madam speaker, tonight you've heard the response of so many of my republican colleagues to the lackluster state of the union address that was held here last evening. perhaps the most glaring problem with this speech is that the president tried to ignore the fact that it is his lack of leadership that has created this dangerous situation we're all in right now. all the crises you've heard, the american people, though, know the facts. i grew up in the 1970's and 1980's. i was a child of the reagan era and we remember in the cold war, he reminded us, we maintain the peace through our strength. what he communicated to us so clearly is that weakness invite as i gretion. we -- aggression. we projected weakness on the

world stage and it's inviting russian aggression. we pray and hope we don't get a similar aggression from our other adversaries like china, north korea, iran and the rest. the only thing holding back terrorists and tie ran thes and -- tyrants and rogue operators around the world is the perception of a strong america. that's what we stand for. we wish we could have heard that from the president in a more honest tone last night but we didn't get it so. , we're here, we're going to continue to work on this side of the aisle to fix these problems and we look forward to the election cycle this fall where we believe the fortunes around here are going to change pretty substantially. madam speaker, i thank my colleagues for being here tonight and i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: members are reminded to refrain from engaging in personalities toward the president. for what purpose does the gentlewoman from texas rise? ms. jackson lee: i ask unanimous consent to speak out of order for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. ms. jackson lee: last evening the president of the united states was strong and he was

clear to stay away from divisive rhetoric, but my friends on the other side of the aisle realize that anything that has not been accomplished is because they have been obstructionists. the "wall street journal" says that the president and his american rescue plan has led to less of the damage and it is the biggest and best recovery at least in the past 50 years. it has had the least economic impact in terms of long-term unemployment, weak labor market, inexperienced workers, evictions and foreclosures. president biden's american rescue plan has led to less of that than any recovery in the last 50 years. we know that in ukraine it's a disaster. people are dying. it's putin's war. but the president has brought nato together. and, yes, if we could pass build back better, which they have obstructed, we would be able to have child care for all of

america. so, i wanted to just for this one moment get on the floor to say, in all that they have said wise don't they take the call of the president, let's unify and stand for the american people. stop complaining and let's get to work. president biden called us to work as a strong america. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: under the speaker's announced policy of january 4, 2021, the chair recognizes the gentlewoman from puerto rico, miss gonzalez-colon. for 30 minutes. miss gonzalez-colon: thank you, madam speaker. i ask for unanimous consent that all members have five legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and to include additional material on the subject of this special order. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. miss gonzalez-colon: madam speaker, i rise today joined by a good group of colleagues and legislators here in the house to commemorate the 105th

anniversary of granting the u.s. citizenship to the people of puerto rico and to reaffirm our commitment to full equality for the island's 3.2 million americans, which can only be achieved through statehood. many people will ask, how long we've been part of the united states? after the spanish american war, puerto rico -- before that puerto rico was part of spain. after the spanish american war, we became a territory of the united states. in 1898. then in 1906, president roosevelt called on congress to confer american citizenships to puerto ricans. legislation was introduced to those effects, it between 1912 and 1913, which was supported by president taft and then the wilson administration. president wilson had even

campaigned in 1912 on a promise to ensure u.s. citizenship for puerto ricans. on this day, march 2, president wilson signed the act which extended u.s. citizenship to the residents of the island. while the act will not be the last time congress acted on a question of citizenship, actually, then in 1940, the act conferred birth right citizenship to persons born in puerto rico. the signing of the 1917 law cemented our relationship as an integral part of the united states. for 150 years, puerto ricans have been proud american citizens and we have contributed greatly to this country. in every field of endeavor. we even have supreme court judges, a lot of entrepreneurs,

and many others in many areas. we proudly upheld and defend the ideals that define our nation, including more than 235,000 purity ans who have -- puerto ricans who have honorably served in the u.s. armed forces, fighting side by side with our fellow citizens from the states. yet, despite our contributions, despite a longstanding commitment to the values that come with being an american citizen, the reality is that we are still not equal. that's the reality of puerto ricans every day. then you have 3.2 million americans living on the island and more than five million living on mainland. that tells you that, because of the current territorial status, americans in puerto rico lack full voting representation in this congress. for example, i represent people

on this floor but i cannot vote here for any measure that effects my island. i do the job of at least four members of congress. we do not have senators that can be the voice of puerto rico because they're not elected on the island. and yet we need to apply all federal laws to the island. but without having a say or a vote on each of them our people cannot vote for our president or our commander in chief and we have no say in the federal decision making process which impacts every aspect of our lives. even though we are u.s. citizens and the federal government can and often does treat the island unequally under federal laws and programs and while it is true that congress will pass legislation today to address some of those disparities, it is similarly true that any future congress could undo such

efforts. when you revise our constitution, specifically, territorial clause of the u.s. constitution, article 4, section 3, it says specifically that the congress shall have the power to dispose and make all needful rules and regulations respecting the territory or other property belonging to the united states. and yet we are the most power. nation on earth, still having a colony in the caribbean for more than 105 years. and that's a reason we are a territory, we will be always at congress' mercy. as a territory we will never truly enjoy the same rights and responsibilities as our fellow citizens in the states. only statehood can guarantee our full equality as u.s. citizens. that's why the people of puerto rico have voted to reject the

current territorial status not once, not twice, three times in a row. and to be admitted as a state of the union, most recently in november of 020, when a career majority, an absolute majority of the people, 73% of the people voted in that election, of those 7% of the people who voted, 53% voted for statehood. that's an absolute majority. so you don't have any delegates. you don't have any mail. this is a direct vote. in person vote. of the people of the island asking for statehood. even statehood got more votes than any politician on the island. statehood got more votes than any political party on the island. that means that's biggest consensus ever on the island three times in a row. as we commemorate 105th anniversary of our american citizenship, it is crucial that

congress act to end puerto rico's undemocratic territorial status and to respond to our vote for equality through statehood. i'm proud to have partnered with congressman soto, our brother from florida, to introduce bipartisan legislation to achieve this. using h.r. 1522, the puerto rico statehood act, that will make a formal offer of statehood. never before congress even asked the people of puerto rico whether we want to continue as a territorial status or we want to achieve statehood or independence. this will be the first time ever this question will be made to the people on the island coming from congress. in a binding process. same thing happened in hawaii. same things happened in alaska. they were asked a simple question. do you want to become a state of the union? yes or no? that same question was a referendum we held locally in

puerto rico by the local laws with that majority. to say that, this bill will make a formal offer of statehood outlining a clear process to enable t the island's submission into the union. should it be ratified by puerto rican votes for the a federally sponsored yes or no referendum. having said that i think it is time, it is long overdue that we resolve the puerto rican democracy business. with that, i would like to yield five minutes to our main sponsor on the democrat side, daren soto of florida. mr. soto: i thank the resident commissioner. madam speaker, here is my partner in equality in the resident commissioner, ginner if gonzalez-colon and she's not the only one. florida is in the house tonight in support of you.

representative demings, representative wasserman schultz, representative salazar. we are all here to support our brothers and sisters. back in my family's native island. this is a little bit about history today. 105 years of citizenship. you know, i checked on ancestry.com and the roots of my family back in puerto rico go way back further than they could ever tell. on the soto side and the casanova side with a few coming in the mid 1800's from the canary islands, but the rest back further than you can uncover through the internet. so when teddy roosevelt comes up on that san juan hill and you have the spanish american war, my relative, my ancestors were already there for an unknown and distant amount of time. and i also see representative wild. thank you for being here as well from pennsylvania. pennsylvania is in the house.

so when i think about the turn of the 20th century, my ancestors, some of whom i got to meet like my great grandmother, altagracia casanova who still farmed when i was a kid, they became citizens by statute. and then my great grandparents, they had draft cards. they went and served in world war i. the first shots of world war i were fired off the coast of san juan as the germans attempted to enter the caribbean. from there, we saw my grandparents stationed in place in the caribbean and south america during world war ii. we know of the great fame people serving in those wars as well as

korea. this has been earned in service, in blood, in contributions in science and art and manufacturing and in so many other ways that have made this such a great united states of america. but it's the recent history that i'm most concerned about. we saw after the 936 exemption ended, my family moved to central florida from puerto rico. they were worried about the economic climate. they moved to central florida for economic opportunity and my family up north where i was raised, soon followed and found ours in central florida. we don't want people to have to be forced to relocate because they're worried about economic prosperity. that's already in our family history as well. then you look at, after that recession coming in, then promesa, austerity measures that would never happen to a state. the types of cus to government -- cuts to government, the type of attack

on sovereignty was terrible. we have many pensioners who served as civil servants in puerto rico who now live in central florida, places like representative demings and my district and i have no doubt in south florida and wasserman schultz and salazar's districts as well. so it affects us directly and indirectly. then we see on top of that, hurricane maria. what a devastation. the highest death toll of any natural disaster in modern american history. and we see how important it is to have representation. and how important it is to have fair treatment. and then it's the latest battles over the last couple of year you and i have fought together along with our allies here on everything from food assistance to medicaid to finally getting puerto rico treated equally in the american rescue perhaps plan, to finally getting the people of puerto rico treated equally in infrastructure. those battles will continue if we do not resolve the

territorial status. that's why i was honored to co-introduce our bill together with our friends to admit puerto rico's estate after a binding plebiscite of course. i feel good about where we're headed. to a bipartisan vote on the floor and putting forward a bill that the senators can vote for. and this is about making sure as we see tyranny, attacks of democracy versus autocracy in ukraine and frankly in so many places around the caribbean, central and south america. this is where we can take a stand in the caribbean for democracy and give our brothers and sisters back on the island the opportunity to forge your own destinies and your florida-rican brothers and sisters are with you. i yield back.

miss gonzalez-colon: thank you to our main sponsor. i don't have the vote here in the house, i depend on all members of the house to support puerto rico in many ways and in that sense i will always be grateful, daren, for your commitment and your help and i would like to recognize now a dear friend from florida as well, that is here, i just want to before i recognize her, recognize a former member of the house, current governor of puerto rico, pedro pierluisi, is here. this is a bipartisan issue. you won't find any other bill that will have bipartisan support. this is not republican issue. this is not a democratic issue. this is the cost of equal rights. this is civil rights. this is democracy. with that, i cannot find a better person to speak about that than my good friend from miami, congresswoman salazar. ms. salazar: thank you,

commissioner. and thank you, madam chairman. for over 120 years, puerto rico as we have said here has enriched the united states with its culture and its people. the beautiful island of puerto rico that i know so well is the jewel of the caribbean. americans, millions of americans have flocked to its beaches and rain forests to soak in the incredible natural beauty of the island of puerto rico. and with that background, 105 years ago, as we have heard before, puerto ricans became citizens of this great country, the united states. puerto ricans are true americans and true patriots because over 35,000 of them currently serve in the united states armed forces. 235,000 puerto ricans are veterans who have served alongside their fellow countrymen from the mainland. from the beaches of norman dito

the delta, the puerto ricans have made the ultimate sacrifice in the name of freedom and in the name of the united states of america. and i should say that puerto rico holds a very special place in my heart because after my parents fled castro's cuba, my family found refuge in san juan, the capital of the island of puerto rico. and because of that decision, i spent a fantastic childhood in the island because we went to live in paradise in the 1960's. it was in puerto rico where i first learned about american values. it was in puerto rico where i learned the meaning behind the american flag and the central value of freedom and liberty. puerto ricans received the cuban exile community with open arms and that's why today i would like to take this opportunity from the floor of the united states congress, as a congresswoman for the city of miami, the heart of the exile

community, the cuban exile community in the united states, i want to thank the puerto ricans for their noble act of welcoming millions and millions of cubans to the island and giving them the possibility of living in freedom, in peace, and living in paradise. puerto ricans have welcomed people from around the world to visit paradise in the caribbean, on american soil. the best of both worlds. today, puerto ricans are american ambassadors showing the beauty and diversity of our great country to the rest of the world. for that reason, i thank you, my very good friend, mi amiga, resident commissioner, jenniffer gonzalez-colon, for her leadership in this chamber, this floor. she is a relentless champion for the island's future, for what the island deserves, and for what we need to see for the future of puerto rico. thank you to you and i yield back.

miss gonzalez-colon: thank you. you touched my heart with those words. i would like to recognize for 2 1/2 minutes congresswoman from pennsylvania, susan wild. ms. wild: thank you so much. thank you, madam speaker. i am proud to rise today on behalf of the more than 80,000 puerto rican constituents who call my district, pennsylvania's greater lehigh valley, home my community would not be what it is without the contributions of the puerto rican community. the united states would not be what it is without the contributions of this -- contributions of this community. every aspect of our national legacy, our cultural and artistic heritage, our ground breaking discoveries in science and technology the die nam. i of our economy and the strength of our armed forces has been shaped indelibly by these fellow citizens. yet despite their service, residents of the island cannot

vote for their commander in chief. they lack voting representation in congress. and despite paying into programs like medicare and medicaid, they do not have equitable coverage under these programs. i am here to deliver a clear message. as united states citizens, the people of puerto rico have the right to full representation in their government. this is a principle at the very core of our nation's founding. it should not be controversial and in fact it is widely accepted among americans of both political parties. in fact, my colleague who has gathered us all here today and introduced the puerto rico st statehood act is a republican. thank you for having me. today, the 105th anniversary of the date when the people of puerto rico became united states citizens must mark the moment when we finally began the work of passing the legislation to give the people of puerto rico a long overdue voice and a vote in their future.

thank you, madam speaker, i yield thank you, madam speaker. i yield back. miss gonzalez-colon: thank you for being here. i would like to yield three minutes to the congresswoman, debbie wasserman schultz. ms. wasserman schultz: i thank the gentlelady for yielding. madam speaker, i'm proud to stand today with my friends and colleagues as we mark the 105th anniversary since the united states -- since citizenship was granted to the people of puerto rico in many ways today is a joyous day and recognition of the decades of ac vism undertaken by our puerto rican sisters and brothers. yet amidst the celebration, it's an acknowledgment that for too long we have treated puerto rico and her residents as second class citizens. with laws and policies that put them at a real disadvantage. the residents of puerto rico, more than three million strong, pay federal taxes, have u.s. passports and u.s. currency and they have long served bravely in our military. just ask any commander who

fought valiantly in the korean war. yet the people of puerto rico continue to be denied equal rights, including voting representation in the united states congress. and this inequality has real consequences. as we saw so vividly in the aftermath of hurricane maria, puerto rico faced injustices that no u.s. state would ever endure. these inequities exist not only when it comes to recovery assistance. it can be seen in tax and medicare inequities. put simpley, these disparities are un-american. a stronger political voice can help remedy that. today i stand in solidarity with my colleagues in calling for what has been long overdue. statehood for puerto rico. in 2020 puerto ricans voted overwhelmingly in support of statehood. the puerto rican people should be given a chance to cast a vote where those results will be respected. now is the time for us to listen loudly and clearly to the calls from the puritian people -- puerto rican people. it is a matter of civil rights, both on the island and in the

greater diaspora. legislators on both sides of the aisle understand how crucial it is that we fully support this effort and i'm proud to work with my friend and was proud for many years to work with her predecessor, now governor. today is proof of that. puerto ricans have made their desire for statehood clear and congress must follow suit. i will continue fighting for statehood to ensure that every citizen's voice is heard and to give respect to the puritian people -- puerto rican people that is long overdue. as we commemorate this 105th anniversary of citizenship for purity ans, -- puerto ricans, let us remember that puerto rican statehood is a long overdue step toward equality and democracy for all. because you cannot have true equality without full representation. we will be a better and stronger nation when we include puerto rico as our 51st state. thank you. and yield back. miss gonzalez-colon: thank you, congresswoman. i would like to recognize at this time and yield 2 1/2 minutes to congresswoman democrattings from florida. -- de minaurings from florida --

demings from florida. mrs. demings: thank you to the gentlewoman for yielding. madam speaker, we are a government of the people, by the people and for the people. but our brothers and sisters, our fellow americans on the island of puerto rico are not recognized as a government by the people. puerto rican americans receive citizenship -- received citizenship 105 years ago today. but if we are going to truly be the land of the free, we must make good on america's promise to be a government of the people for all people. we need to be who we say we are. we need to be the country where every voice, every person matters. for over a century, the residents of puerto rico have been treated as second class citizens. within our country. it is un-american and it is unjust.

second class citizens not only in their vote, but also in health care, senior assistance and the child tax credit. this is wrong. today on the 105th anniversary of citizenship for puerto rico, it is time for us to stand up yet again and declare that equal rights are an american value, that fairness and justice are american values, and that the americans on the island of puerto rico must have justice, must have fair treatment, and must have statehood. we fought this year to ensure that the residents of puerto rico would start to receive equal treatment on federal programs like social security, medicare and the child tax credit. this fight is not over and we are not giving up. yet even with the weight of this fight for a century -- wait of this fight for a century, i feel optimistic. in fact, i feel better than i ever have before. puerto ricans have spoken with a clear voice, with a fair and

open vote, and demanded that it is time for full representation. i am grateful for the leadership of congresswoman gonzalez-colon and i look forward to continuing to work in congress until we get this done. thank you, madam speaker. and i yield back. miss gonzalez-colon: thank you, congresswoman demings. i'll ask, madam speaker, how much time do i have remaining? the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman has five minutes remaining. miss gonzalez-colon: thank you. you heard many of the members of congress supporting this quest of puerto rico's rights, civil rights, democracy rights to vote. and sometimes people forget the contributions people of puerto rico have made to this great nation. contributions that we feel proud of. like nine puerto ricans medal of honor recipients.

private first class garcia, master sergeant negron, private rivera, private herrera, staff sergeant fercon, captain rubio, specialist santiago, captain roberto. and i can speak for many others that historically puerto rico has ranked among the top u.s. jurisdictions in terms of per capita military service. it is estimated that more than 18,000 puerto ricans serve our nation during the world war i -- served our nation during world war i. 65,000 puerto ricans during world war ii. 61,000 during the korean war. 48,000 during the vietnam war. 10,000 during the gulf war. and 25,000 during operations enduring freedom and iraqi freedom.

and yet just last week we got 300 more in poland with the current situation in ukraine. that's the patriotism puerto ricans feel about this nation. and why all those soldiers never receive the same benefits from being in the military when they are going back home? why they should be treated differently, with even programs that do not apply to them and they cannot vote for the commander in chief. even this congress gave them the congressional medal of honor to the 65th regiment that fought in korea. but yet they cannot vote for their commander in chief. and over 1,200 u.s. citizens of puerto rico have died while serving, paying the ultimate sacrifice in defense of america's freedom. while lacking full

representations and equality back home. defending freedom, defending democracy around the world, but not having them back home. we're proud in tradition of military service and i think today thousands of puerto ricans serve on active duty and reserves. all branches of the u.s. armed forces. approximately 4,800 currently serve in the puerto rico army and national guard and since 9/11, they have carried out over 16,000 deployments, more than 34 states of the union. over 9 to,000 american -- 90,000 american veterans call puerto rico home. unfortunately despite our military contributions and their honorable service on behalf of the nation's ideals, the current territorial status hurts puerto rico's veterans and service members.

it denies them the representation in the senate and in the house, and it denies them the right to vote for the president, and it perpetrates inequities of federal laws and programs which are detrimental to veterans in terms of economic opportunity, health, security and quality of life. statehood for puerto rico and congressional action to end the territorial status will benefit our veterans and the thousands of puerto ricans who currently serve in the u.s. armed forces. it will provide them real democracy through a vote and equal representation in congress, through the ability to elect their commander in chief and to a permanent union with their fellow citizens in the states. this is a time to responds for puerto rico. this is the right of the island to become part of this great nation. more than 105 years since being a territory. this is a time for congress to act. you have h.r. 1522, our partisan

bill with more than 79 co-sponsors, republicans and democrats, asking for statehood and for equality. with that, statehood would address many of the inequities in the law. with that, madam speaker, we celebrate u.s. citizenship for puerto rico, but we want statehood now. with that, i yield the remaining balance of the time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman yields back the balance of her time.

under the speaker's announced policy of january 4, 2021, the chair recognizes the gentleman from ohio, mr. davidson, for 30 minutes. mr. davidson: thank you, madam speaker. i've requested this time to address part of the state of the union that was not addressed last night. you know in fact, we saw that the president was so bold as to say that the border is secure

and time-out the fact that -- tout the fact that they've caught two million people at the border as if that's success. that's what was said. what wasn't said is what's been going on at the border for a long time has been made worse by the policies that joe biden and his administration have put in place. frankly by the united states laws that he and his administration have ignored, that the secretary enables every day that he leads the department of homeland security down the wrong path for our country. so we're here to talk about stop the cartels. we're introducing a bill called the stop the cartels act. and we spend so much time on the sympathetic cause of immigration and we conflate border security with immigration. we can have an incredibly secure border regardless of our

immigration policy and border security is in fact national security. the cartels pose a serious threat to the united states of america. the products that they push in our communities have killed over 100,000 people this past year. the leading cause of death for 18 to 45-year-olds is fatal overdoses. the drugs are bad but now they're poisoned with fentanyl. and we're not taking the threat seriously. so the first portion of the stop the cartels act will focus on gathering intelligence. as we look at the country of mexico, our southern neighbor controls the whole land portion of our southern border, that border is controlled by the cartels. i had brandon judd, the president of the customs and border patrol union, at a hearing that we had to have

offsite because speaker pelosi won't have the hearing on the topic in any of our hearing rooms. she won't let the committees of jurisdiction deal with it. so republicans are forced to go offsite to talk about this important topic. when i asked when i asked them who controls the borders, you or the cartels. and he said, that's the exact point. the cartels control the border. i said why don't you control the border? it's because of policies. >> do you need more policies? we had policies working to control the border. the border patrol controls it. we are not even on defense or in the field or the stadium because the pom cyst of this -- policies

of this administration changed to give complete control of the border to our cartels and we need to talk about the problems that they are causing and that we should be able to help them and on the cartels, on par with the other threats with china, with russia, with iran, with north korea, with al qaeda, isis and the cartels should have the same level of intelligence priority as those other hostile or potentially hostile countries and the cartels are hostile. they do a lot of pass here, bill yops and bill quops of dollars.

>> i'm not saying we do not have that at the right priority and when we have the right intelligence and got ukraine incredit whribly right and the problem was the administration didn't do the right thing with the intelligence. let's get the right intelligence on the cartels. the next thing is, we have cities, states and counties that are completely ignoring the united states law. it is a federal policy to decide who is a citizen and who is not a citizen and when we go to enforce our laws as to who is here legally versus who is here illegally. that is clearly federal jurisdiction. we have cities, states and

counties that are ignoring these laws, camping to area cities and they are saying, not only a place to base your activity illegal cartels, we will protect you. please, bring your drugs and your guns and labor and human trafficking and every form of corruption into our communities. that's what these first two maps show. let me show you what the impact on our communities is. this young lady to my right is liz yes murphy.

she died at 21 years old. drugs are bad. but now they are poisoned with fept nil. it's not a good idea to take xanax. it is a bad decision, but not supposed to kill you. but when it is laced with fentanyl, that is what is happening to our young people and killed over 60,000 americans last year. not all of it is in hern or the hard stuff, some of it is in the stuff that people never suspect. they take one pill. and they're dead. that's what happened to my friend mark and christie murphy when their little girl took one

xanax. their sister, close friends, best friends, didn't have her sister anymore. this is wrecking our communities and we have communities inviting this in. we have a president of the united states who is not doing nothing but worsep nothing but making it worse. think exploit people and cause harm and to highlight the way this is happening, i have asked some of my colleagues to join me in this special order and i would like to yield time to mr. andy biggs from arizona. mr. biggs: i'm glad you are raising awareness. i don't know how much time i'm going to take up. let's talk about fentanyl. local reporting out of tuesday

op, last year 13 million fentanyl pills were seized in arizona, d.e.a. has said 40% of all fept nil pills seized have a lethal dose of fentanyl in them. you take into what agencies and local law enforcement has told us and interdict 8% to 10% and you have over 100 mill yop fept nil pills. the cartels control all of the border between every port of environs try. let me give you an example of a story out of southern arizona recently. a lady was found wandering around, local law enforcement deputies. what did she have on her possession, a bag full of pills

and wanted to know was this legal? she said these are morning after pills she said i would be raped multiple times. that's a fact. that's what is happening. it is not humane on the border. so i find myself baffled by this. let's talk about cartels a little bit more. in a story from just early january and i have been down to the border and talked to this team sips then, a cartel, a mexican cartel put out a hit on cochise sheriff's deputies rntion a small border team. they are very effective and they

had a hit put on them by a cartel. so what happens? what happens? why is the biden administration ignoring this crisis. in september of last year, i said how many unaccompanied children have been brought into the country? 110,000 roughly and responded to a series of questions i had just this week. they said we lost contact with 20,000 of those chirp. they lost 20,000 of unaccompanied children. this is the border under president biden. now, in cochise county, 782 miles remote, between the border patrol, about 16,000 illegal immigrants are detected every

month in a huge, huge county. two years ago, the county recorded 500 illegals. under the trump policies, you slowed down illegal immigration. under the biden policies you went to 4-500 people a month to now 16,000 a month. and what are they paying to the cartels? minimum of $1,000 or typically more like $4,000 per person. most of these folks don't have $4,000 and they become servants of cartels and you will be seep a map and located in every community in the country. there is a reporter named jorge

ventura and does a lot of work on the border issues and talk about the border and also beyond the border. a year ago, there were illegal marijuana farms in southern farms. it is a huge county. neighboring county, interp county, they had about 2 to 300. today over 200 marijuana farms, illicit marijuana farms in l.a. county and 1100 in san bernardino county. why is that important? it is important to understand that those are coming in from cartels. the mayor said last clear, it is the cartels. they have seized more than

16,000 tops of marijuana worth about 1.2 billion dollars and the mayor said, quote, we are very close to driving down the freeway and seeing bodies hanging from the overpasses. why does he say that? because the cartels are ruthless. they have little value for human life. when you hear about children, toddlers being thrown over a border fence, that's the coyotes. who do they work for? the cartels. and the children wandering in 115 degree heat in arizona's desert without water, that's the war tells. they don't care about human life. this is a business enterprise and the product is to move people and drugs into the

country. so what happened just a week ago, not even a week ago? prosecutors numb mexico in the town of san jose garcia in the werp state said they can't determine how many people were killed because they cleaned up the skep and removed any bodies and members of the committees caps have been left wandering what happened to a dozen men who were lined up against a wall by drug cartel gunmen in this village. in a video that was posted on social media. smoke covers the scene and cam rail cuts away and the men, perhaps 17, were killed. that's what cartels do.

cartels do not care about human life. and when i have multiple briefings when i go down to the border every month of every year, and i wonder where the borders on and this administration is. el paso almost made it to the border, didn't quite get there and unlike the ukraine chief and i look and i say what happened, why is this happening? and my briefers tell me, the border is controlled by cartels. every port of environs try, no one enters. no one enters this country without a cartel knowing about it. when i was in the tucson sector

right before christmas, i went down and -- you see two miles of fencing and there is eight feet of gap that another two miles of fencing and it just stops and goes 60 miles without fencing. and i went to the dpap and standing there and looking into mexico and you can see that gap is where all the pathways lead and all the debris that's out there. all the debris and crewed that's out there. and my folks that were me, please videotape. i didn't tell c.b.p. and sometimes i tell them i'm going to be there and the agent says who are you talking to? i said i'm doing a video and he

says i thought you are talking to the cartel scouts. he said we chased four cartel scouts back up through that gap and sit on hooch on this little pluff and that's where the cartel scouts are. the way it works is this, they will send a group of 1 hundred people down near the reservation and takes the four, five people that are trying to patrol that area and go to dpeat and have to process those individuals, it is so remote that it takes hours to remove those people and get them bussed to a facility and processed. in the meantime they see dozens of known getaways through parts

of that board. they're dressed in camouflage. they're wearing carpet shoes. they have backpacks filled with fentanyl and methamphetamines on their backs. i'm just telling you, i appreciate my friend from ohio, his efforts and this very important piece of legislation. and i call upon this administration, don't tell the american people. i'm reminded of the darkest hour, this movie with winston churchill, and the king says to winston, don't lie to the people tell them the truth. i'm asking this administration, tell the people the truth. they can take it. they understand. because last year over two million -- about 2,500,000 people entered this country illegally. another 1.2 million to 1.3 million entered legaly. now those two 2.5 million, probably about 1.5 million are wandering around this country. they're somewhere in this country today. this administration let them go.

well, ladies and gentlemen, i would tell you, we have got to get the control of our border. i find it remarkable that the deputy, homeland security director was saying that we really need to protect the borders. you won't have a sovereign nation without a protected border. but he wasn't talking about our border, which isn't protected. he was talking about the ukrainian border. and i asked them to have the same concern and care for the u.s.-mexico border as they profess to have for the ukraine border. with that, madam speaker, i will yield back to my friend from ohio. mr. davidson: thank you. if we look on the far right, how does a young lady lose her sister? how's the young lady 21 years old in ohio wind up dead from fentanyl poisoning? poison in the drugs.

they know drugs are bad but they're not supposed to kill them. they're in ohio. ohio's not -- i mean, we do have a border. it's on lake erie with canada. that's not the border that's causing our young people to die. it's not one that's causing the leading cause of death for 18 to 45-year-olds, to be fatal overdoses. saw all the way down here -- it's all the way down here at the southern border. it's not officially the mexican government. it's the cartels. and we refuse to collect the intelligence at the right level. at our southern border we have a joint task force. we don't have a joint interagency task force. we've got that out in the pacific ocean. we've got that in the caribbean ocean and the atlantic ocean. but we don't have a joint interagency task force. the place probably that it makes the absolute most sense to have an interagency task force is at the southern border.

we have customs and border patrol. we have people that are focused on smuggling, smuggling of people, smuggling of drugs, of guns. we have people that are focused on counterfeit property. we're focused on levy and taxes at the border but we don't have an interagency task force that uses the power of our military to conduct surveillance, that uses the power of our director of national intelligence and all the resources that we have to know everything about the cartels. not some benign name like sinaloa, but specifically who leads that. we know who leads russia. we know it's vladimir putin. they're nation state. but we have these transnational criminal organizations that go unnamed and, again, they're involved in the activities.

not because they care so much about the activity itself, they want the money. we don't have an organized way to collect all of the intelligence on the money. what@s are they -- what yachts are they buying, what properties do they own, how do they move this heavily cash business into other goods and services? they move everything that can store value possible all over the world to try to clean up this money. we don't have the kind of pressure that was just brought to bear on vladimir putin going against the cartels. vladimir putin we finally recognized is evil after he invaded ukraine. but when he was doing the menacing, threatening activity when we had at least gone so far as to collect the intelligence, we didn't take the actions that could have stopped him. here we can't even go so far as to collect the right level of intelligence. intelligence is the first thing. the next slide i've got deals

with the sanctuary cities. we're going to defund the sanctuary cities. they can't keep getting funded. they have to conform to u.s. law. and we just had a supreme court ruling that said, if you want to get paid for providing medicare and medicaid services, you got to make your employees conform. we can do that to american citizens and we can't do that to deal with the cartels. that's a different topic, i'll grant you. but it's the same thin. the strings attached -- thing. it's the strings attached to the me and we have to say, if you want the money that's collected here in this city, you have to reflect the laws of the united states of america and you can't offer sanctuary to these cartels that are killing our young people. there's more to the bill but let me highlight in another way the way that -- the consequences of not stopping the cartels. i'd like it yield to mr. ted

budd from north carolina. mr. budd: i thank my good friend from ohio, congressman warren davidson. madam speaker, up there where you sit last night -- sit, last night joe biden gave the state of the union address. he spoke about a lot of issues but he didn't even touch on the biggest issue facing our country today and that's the southern border. and make no mistake, the state of our border, it's not good. the border patrol has encountered over 150,000 illegal aliens -- not last year, but just last month, in january. just 33 days ago. they tallied up those numbers. that's a 96%, almost a 100% increase from last year. and over 62,000 out of that 152,000, 150,000, 62,000 of those individuals were released

into the united states. it's unbelievable. it's unacceptable. it's dangerous. so when i get to travel around north carolina and visit with law enforcement, as i love to do, and take the honor, have the honor of doing, the sheriffs tell me, there's about 3,200 counties in this amazing country and he said, every single sheriff right now is a border sheriff. because of the policies that are happening right here just down the street in the white house. there's drugs, fentanyl, we think about the devastation and suffering years ago in the vietnam war, a decade where we lost about 70,000 service members. we think about what we lose every single year, not in a decade, but every single year from drug overdoses and that's

about 70,000. largely because of what happens at the border. just a few months ago, when i was down there visiting with our customs and border patrol agents, they were off duty that day, we were in a pickup truck, as far as from here to, madam speaker, where you sit. they slammed on the brakes. they said, i'm sorry, i've got to go on dutyy, i've got to arrest these cartel members. he said, the sad thing is they'll be back out on the street or in this case back out in the desert in just a few days. we looked all up and down the border and there was tens of millions of dollars in steel just laying there. and then there was tens of millions of dollars worth of idle diesel equipment that's been idle since january 20 of last year. and he said, you know, we need to finish this wall. is what the customs and border patrol agent told me. he says, but what we really need, what we really need is an administration that has our back and, sir, right now we don't have that.

instead, madam speaker, what we have is an astounding 11,200 pounds of fentanyl, deadly fentanyl, that was seized last year and even more has made it into the homeland and it's killing thousands of our fellow americans. dangerous cartels are flooding this country with counterfeit prescription pills. containing fentanyl and meth. and all of this can be prevented and should be prevented, must be prevented. the bottom line is it's time to finish the wall. it's time to support our border agents. and end this administration's dereliction of duty. madam speaker, i want to yield back to my friend and host tonight, warren davidson from idaho. mr. davidson: thank you, mr. budd. madam speaker, this is a gravely serious matter. i highlighted a young lady, lizzie murphy, her sister, kathryn, her mom and dad, mark

and christie murphy, who lost their daughter, their best friend, their sister. communities like this are losing young people all over our country. and i kind of wish i could say that it was only happening where the sanctuary cities are pictured. i kind of wish i could say it was only right next to the border that we have the problem. but our whole country is experiencing the problem because we won't secure the border. this administration won't secure the border. they won't listen to the men and women whose duty it is to secure the border. i went down there a week after joe biden was inaugurated. and they said, we told him. we'll see what happens. but they said they're going to do these things and we told them this is what's going to happen. now when we go to the border, when they come and talk to us up here, the exact same things they knew were going to happen are happening. we stop sanctuary cities, we put

strings attached to the grants of but the other thing is we have this flores settlement. congress has not provided clarity on the flores settlement. so we provide funding so that we can hold people as long as they need to be held, until their cases are adjudicated on the mexican side of the border. we put pressure on the government of mexico to cooperate with us in this. and we put pressure on the government of mexico to resume their cooperation on intelligence gathering. just yesterday ahead of the state of the union, my county, one might have county sheriffs, butler county sheriff jones was here in washington, d.c. not because he's a border sheriff. in the strict geographical sense. but because he's a border sheriff there in ohio. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. mr. davidson: let me close, madam speaker, by just highlighting what happened to this family could happen to anybody and i appreciate the time to speak tonight and i

yield. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. pursuant to section 11-b of house resolution 188, the house stands adjourned until 9:00 a.m. tomorrow.

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