Condemning Actions of the Speaker of the House

Floor Speech

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Mr. CRENSHAW. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to unequivocally condemn, in the strongest possible terms, the actions of the Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi.

Just last week, referring to her obstruction of bipartisan targeted relief bills that we could have voted on on this floor, she said: ``Don't characterize what we did before as a mistake. . . . That was not a mistake; it was a decision.'' When asked what had changed, why she is finally coming to the table on COVID relief, her response was simple: A new President.

We have known for months that Speaker Pelosi was holding the American people hostage for political gain. I have said it; my colleagues have said it.

While Americans suffered under unscientific, foolish lockdowns, Pelosi withheld relief for political purposes--not policy purposes, but political purposes.

But we now have a full admission. She said the quiet part out loud.

This was never about what was best for the American people, never about honest policy disagreement. It was about preventing President Trump from getting any credit. It was about politics.

Speaker Pelosi made a simple calculation. She bet that, if she could keep Congress from reaching a deal on COVID relief, that would hurt President Trump and Republicans and give her more power.

Even when Members of her own party asked her to bring commonsense, standalone bipartisan relief measures to the House floor that would easily become law, she refused. She would say over and over again that nothing is better than something.

She was being honest. She honestly believed that nothing was better than something.

But better for who? Not for the American people, that is for sure.

She believed that nothing was better than something for her and her party. It is hard to imagine a more awful and heartless strategy.

What is worse, Speaker Pelosi does all of this while people in her home State suffer from unscientific, unconstitutional lockdowns that Democrat leaders in California are forcing upon their citizens.

These lockdowns are not based in science, never have been. Study after study shows they yield little, if any, benefits, but they impose extreme costs on the small businesses suffering under them.

Do you know what else? The Democrat leaders making these executive orders, they know this, too, because they are violating their own guidelines. The Speaker of the House couldn't even let a pesky little lockdown get in the way of a haircut appointment, even though those same lockdowns destroy the lives of her constituents.

We have all seen the heartbreaking video of Angela Marsden, the owner of the Pineapple Hill Saloon and Grill in Los Angeles. Everyone should have to watch that testimony, as Democrats shut down her outdoor-- outdoor--dining while a Hollywood studio sets up shop right next door.

She represents millions of Americans suffering who have taken note of the hypocrisy of these lockdowns, of the double standards as big businesses can operate freely while small businesses are shamed into submission and told, wrongly, that they are the ones who must sacrifice to slow the spread, that the demise of the business they spent their whole lives building is the price to pay because ``if it just saves one life.''

But this is unscientific nonsense and we all know it. Study after study shows outdoor dining is safe, that outbreaks are not occurring because of our small businesses: our gyms, our restaurants, our salons. And yet these small businesses are in the crosshairs of the cowardly politicians across the country.

This madness has to stop. This arbitrary application of executive orders is deeply, deeply unconstitutional.

Justice Gorsuch recently stated: ``There is no world in which the Constitution tolerates color-coded executive edicts that reopen liquor stores and bike shops, but shutter churches, synagogues, and mosques.''

Americans have had enough. It is time to stand up against the hypocrisy of these so-called leaders deliberately harming the citizens they claim to represent and to condemn the deeply partisan actions of the Speaker of this House.

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