Providing for Consideration of S. Promoting Physical Activity for Americans Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. COLE. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. McGovern), my very good friend, the distinguished chairman of the Rules Committee, for yielding me the customary 30 minutes, and I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Madam Speaker, today's rule covers a standalone bill that suspends the national debt limit through the end of 2022.

Today's item does not come out of a vacuum. Just last week, the Democratic majority in the House passed a continuing resolution to fund the government through early December. Unfortunately, that bill also included this same suspension of the debt ceiling through 2022. The inclusion of this item meant that not a single Republican in the House supported last week's bill, and not a single Republican in the Senate supported it either.

But today, not content with having run headlong into a brick wall once, the majority is now seeking to do the same thing again. As baseball player and philosopher Yogi Berra once said, today is truly deja vu all over again.

Madam Speaker, I don't know how much more clear Republicans can be on this topic. So long as the Democratic majority continues to insist on spending money hand over fist, Republicans will refuse to help them lift the debt ceiling.

This year alone, the majority has rammed through one partisan spending bill through reconciliation already. That bill spent $1.9 trillion, allegedly for COVID relief, but really about a laundry list of progressive policy priorities. And I remind my friends they were offered a compromise of many hundreds of billions of dollars, but that wasn't sufficient.

Today, the majority is neck-deep in negotiations on an even bigger partisan reconciliation bill, this one supposedly $3.5 trillion but, frankly, likely to run much higher than that. If passed, this one would mean Democrats have pushed through $5\1/2\ trillion of spending in 1 year, which is almost one-and-a-half times the amount of normal Federal spending. And that all comes on top of our regular discretionary and nondiscretionary spending.

Madam Speaker, Republicans have been very clear on this for months. So long as Democrats keep pushing these bloated spending measures, and so long as they continue to ram through partisan policies like those found in the Green New Deal, Republicans will not work with them to raise the debt limit.

Since the beginning of this year, Democrats have been pushing their policy agenda despite having the bare minimum of a majority in both the House and the Senate. The results have been shocking: more Big Government socialism, more spending, and higher taxes. They have been doing all this on their own, with only Democrats voting for these measures.

To be clear, this is the choice the majority has made. They have chosen to govern in a majority-rules fashion. They are pushing through bill after bill larded up with huge spending and more and more Big Government socialism all on their own. The majority also has the power to lift the debt ceiling all on their own, using a process they are quite familiar with, reconciliation.

Since they have chosen to ram the rest of their agenda through on their own, they also have the responsibility to lift the debt ceiling on their own. If they want to keep spending the people's money like this, then they alone must act and take responsibility.

Madam Speaker, my good friend alluded to the fact that he has repeatedly voted for debt ceiling increases in his capacity as a Member. I know that to be true, and I respect my friend. I have done that myself. I have voted under both Republicans and Democrats. But I do want to address this point about the debt limit.

The point was best summed up by Speaker Pelosi in her Dear Colleague letter Sunday night. ``The debt limit is a shared responsibility, and I urge Congress to come together . . . on a bipartisan basis, as it has in the past.'' Oh, really? I think we should look at the record and clear that up.

The last five times that Congress voted on raising the debt limit when Republicans controlled the White House, the Senate, and the House, President Biden, who was then in the Senate, didn't vote to raise it a single time. Majority Leader Schumer voted to raise it once out of five times. The Democratic leadership voted to raise it once out of five times.

So to somehow pretend that both sides have not on occasion used the debt ceiling to express their concerns or that everybody has rallied to the cause simply does not square with the facts.

Madam Speaker, I will make a bold prediction. I suspect the debt ceiling will at some point get raised, and I suspect it will be before we reach a deadline. And I share my friend's point that, indeed, that needs to happen.

However, when you launch a program as expensive and as expansive as the Democrats have, and you choose to do it on a partisan line way, then don't shirk the responsibility at the end of the day. Don't try to shift it to others. I think that is what is happening here.

One last point, Madam Speaker. We talk a lot about the Trump debt. I remind my friends they were in control the last 2 years of the Trump Presidency. I remind my friends that most of the debt was actually accumulated in that time. And I do remind my friends it was a bipartisan effort. The biggest part of that debt was COVID relief, which we agreed on, on both sides of the aisle and both supported, and we raised the debt ceiling for it.

So, when we work together, we can solve these problems. My friends have chosen not to work with us, and I think now they are going to have to bear the responsibility. I am sure they are up to the task.

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

Madam Speaker, just to quickly respond to my friend, I remind him, his leadership didn't vote to raise the debt ceiling. I remind him four out of the last five times we had complete control. I remind him that the majority leader in the United States, Mr. Schumer, didn't vote for it four out of five times. And I remind him that then-Senator Biden didn't vote for it once.

So please, please, let's look at the facts here before we start saying how much Democrats have always bellied up to the bar to help us out. That is just simply not the case.

Madam Speaker, if we defeat the previous question, I will offer an amendment to the rule to bring up H.R. 1897 for immediate consideration. This bill is simple: Before the Biden administration can release any illegal immigrant from custody, the person must have a negative COVID-19 test.

Madam Speaker, the Biden administration's crisis at the southern border is not only a humanitarian and a security crisis, but it is also a public health crisis.

Just last week, Secretary Mayorkas admitted that 12,000 migrants in Del Rio, Texas, who were released by the Biden administration, were not tested for COVID-19 and were not subject to any vaccination or testing mandates. This stands in stark contrast with the CDC's continuing embrace of mask mandates, even for the vaccinated.

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Mr. COLE. Madam Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the gentlewoman from Iowa (Mrs. Miller-Meeks), my good friend and author of this bill, to further explain the amendment.

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

I am sure my friend from Massachusetts is not aware of this, but Mrs. Miller-Meeks has actually run multiple events for vaccines. She has vaccinated people herself. She has spent 24 years in public health in service to the country.

So I agree with you about the vaccine. Nobody in this body has done more to promote it and administer it than Mrs. Miller-Meeks.

Madam Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the distinguished gentlewoman from Tennessee (Mrs. Harshbarger), my very good friend, to speak more about the need to ensure illegal immigrants are tested for COVID-19 before being released.

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

Madam Speaker, to my good friend from Massachusetts, if we want to deal with urgent matters, why don't we pass a clean CR and make sure the government doesn't shut down in 48 hours. That is urgent. And hopefully we will be able to get about that business shortly.

Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Burgess), my very good friend and fellow Rules Committee member, classmate, member of the Energy and Commerce Committee, who has been a passionate advocate on this issue and who will speak more about the previous question.

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Mr. COLE. Madam Speaker, I yield an additional 1 minute to the gentleman from Texas.

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Mr. COLE. Madam Speaker, I just want to quickly inquire of my friend. I am prepared to close, if my friend is.

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Mr. COLE. Madam Speaker, could I have a quick time check?

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Mr. COLE. Madam Speaker, I can assure Members I won't use it all.

Madam Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I just want to quickly point out to my friend who has cited a number of statistics on State vaccinations, and I agree with him. Everyone should be vaccinated. I spend a lot of time in my district urging people to do that. I know my good friend from Massachusetts does the same thing.

But with respect to the previous question, nobody is vaccinated that is coming across illegally. They are not tested, and they are not vaccinated. This is really a commonsense item. I am surprised, quite frankly, my friends have not accepted this in some earlier iteration. My friend, Dr. Burgess, mentioned he brought it up multiple times. This is actually something we should agree on.

Let's not just let anybody into our country that has not been tested. And if they are found unvaccinated, give them the vaccine. I think we can argue about immigration all day long. I don't know why in the world we argue about that particular issue at all. What my friend from Iowa is proposing is very much common sense.

Madam Speaker, the bill before us today is a deeply misguided bill. It makes in order one item, a standalone bill lifting the debt ceiling through the end of 2022.

Republicans have been very clear on their stance. So long as Democrats continue to spend, spend, spend on partisan reconciliation bills, Republicans will not act to help them lift the debt ceiling. The majority has been governing in a partisan manner since they took control earlier this year. That is their prerogative.

If they continue to insist on ramming their big government socialist agenda through Congress on narrow partisan votes, then it becomes their responsibility to lift the debt limit on their own.

Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to vote ``no'' on the previous question and ``no'' on the rule, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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

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

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