Feeling the Impacts in Texas
Floor Speech
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Mr. ROY. Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. Hill), my neighbor. Week of Prayer for China
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Mr. ROY. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Arkansas for his comments and for his tireless commitment to pointing out the atrocities in China; our needs and interests in making sure that we stand with the people of Taiwan and stand strong in the globe and stand up as a strong country.
I would note, as we sit here today, that we had a number of issues that are of paramount importance to the American people. One of which, of course, being from the State of Texas, is the state of our border.
Today, official numbers came out from Border Patrol that there were 234,088 encounters in April. Of those, some 96,908 were turned away under so-called title 42 of our health code. But what that means is that at least 137,180 were released into the United States, and perhaps more.
Madam Speaker, 1,300 pounds of fentanyl, intercepted. Of course, today, Alejandro Mayorkas, the Secretary of Homeland Security, is down at the Rio Grande Valley doing photo ops. Going down to the Valley so he can try to hide what he said to me and what he said to Republicans in the House Committee on the Judiciary who were questioning him just two weeks ago.
We said: Do you have operational control of the border?
And he said, Yes, I do.
Well, I wonder if my friend from Pennsylvania could help explain to the American people how 234,000 apprehensions, of which almost 130,000 are being turned into the United States, how that is somehow operational control.
The gentleman was an officer in the United States military. Does that sound like operational control?
Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Perry).
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Mr. ROY. Well, as the gentleman knows, as we sit here in the people's House, I just got an update from the border showing the Border Patrol is building a new soft-sided tent compound in Eagle Pass, Texas.
Another picture of it shows a big tent with chain-link fences up-- remember the kids in cages?--chain-link fences up. And it says it is roughly 215,000 square feet, which is almost five acres.
So to the gentleman's point, why would they be doing that? Why would Secretary Mayorkas be ordering Border Patrol to build a five-acre tent facility in Eagle Pass, Texas?
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Mr. ROY. I know exactly why. Could it be because they believe their mission is to process more aliens coming to the United States? That it would encourage more to come; have them come across the river--never mind being exploited by the cartels--then get put into this facility to be processed and released.
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Mr. ROY. Madam Speaker, the gentleman knows that we are feeling that impact in Texas.
He just mentioned fentanyl. We just got the new data from the CDC: 117,000 dead Americans.
Yet, nothing but crickets coming from our colleagues on the other side of the aisle. They don't care. They don't care about 117,000 dead Americans, directly as a consequence of Chinese-produced fentanyl pouring in through cartels, through Mexico, into the United States. Nothing. Crickets.
Have you seen a bill on the floor of this body to deal with that?
Have you seen any efforts by our friends on the other side of the aisle to secure the border of the United States legitimately or force the hand of Secretary Mayorkas to actually enforce the policies of the United States?
Madam Speaker, very specifically, we have a discharge petition at the desk with the signature of every Republican but not one Democrat willing to go to the Democrats leading the administration and say, We need to secure the border of the United States and enforce the policies, including title 42 and whatever it takes to secure the border.
Is the gentleman aware of that?
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Mr. ROY. Madam Speaker, I would ask the gentleman a question. We are talking about the extent to which the American people are hurting. He talked about the baby formula. We are talking about the border--wide open borders, fentanyl pouring in, American people dying. What about the fact that gasoline prices are skyrocketing, energy prices are going up?
We know we are producing 55 million fewer barrels of oil in February of 2022 than we did in February of 2020. The United States is expected to revert to being a net oil importer in 2022 after we had become a net oil exporter.
In the March 2020 debate, President Biden said no more drilling on Federal lands. No more drilling, including offshore; no ability for the oil industry to continue to drill, period.
Yet, my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, they don't want to talk about that because they know full well it is precisely the policies of the administration to purposely limit the ability to produce oil and gas in this country that is empowering Putin to go after Ukraine and that is damaging the price of gas at the pump and harming the American people.
Our Democrat colleagues sit silent because they worship at the altar of the green agenda. Because that is their agenda, not the benefit of the American people, not the ability to drive your car, go to work, take care of your family, afford gas, afford the goods and services that are going up because the diesel prices are going up, the inflation is skyrocketing. Because they refuse to open up American oil and gas, which we sit on a bevy of.
It is enormously important for our national security and the national security of our friends around the world. I know the gentleman, being from Pennsylvania, is well aware of the absurd energy policies that are harming the American people because they worship at the altar of the Green New Deal and the green agenda.
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Mr. ROY. Absolutely. It is this green agenda that has us bowing down to China in order to get the minerals and resources in order to make solar panels and wind farms. If you look at Texas that produces as much wind as any State in the country, Texas only had 17 percent wind production from its wind farms last week, which was a big chunk of the problem that we had in terms of energy production.
Our grid is over-reliant on wind and solar. When you have a windless cloudy day, what do you need? You need fossil fuels. What else do you need? Nuclear power. Do you know how much nuclear power or fossil fuel generation we have in the pipeline, so to speak, right now across this country or even in Texas? Minuscule. Because of the worshipping at this ridiculous agenda.
Do you know how many coal-fired plants they have in China? Something like 1,100.
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Mr. ROY. And opening one a week.
Do you know how many coal-fired plants we are opening in this country? Zippo.
Do you know what kind of rules we have coming out right now to hammer the coal industry in Texas and elsewhere? Massive rules.
Do you know what that means for the American people? No energy, lower energy, higher costs. That is 100 percent true and provable.
Yet, my colleagues on the other side of the aisle walk around in some daze saying, oh, we are going to get this magic unicorn energy from wind and solar on a windless, cloudy day. It is absolutely absurd.
The American people are suffering. The American people are suffering because of the Democratic policies that are causing harm to them, driving up prices, making it impossible for them to have a reliable grid, reliable energy. We are sitting on a mountain of it in this country. We are exporting liquified natural gas from this country. CO
The Democrat agenda is: stop that. Go beg China. And then pay more for your goods and services. Then what does Joe Biden say? What does Jen Psaki say in all of her infinite wisdom heading off to MSNBC after she accuses our Border Patrol agents of whipping people? She says: ``Oh, buy a Tesla.'' Go spend $60,000 and go buy an electric car.
Do you know what? If you are in Austin, Texas, and you want to drive to Midland, I guess you have to stop somewhere in the middle and hope you can charge.
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Mr. ROY. Yes.
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Mr. ROY. You know what I have here in front of me? I have a photograph that a friend--I think he is one of the six people watching on C-SPAN right now--just texted me and said, Here is a picture of gasoline at the pump. Diesel I should say, not gasoline. Diesel, 194 gallons. Do you know what the bill was? $1,090.
You want to know what is coming, American people, this summer? Have you looked at the inventory numbers for diesel? Ladies and gentlemen, it is coming. All of those goods and services sitting in trucks, trucks that are having to pay $1,090 to fill their tank, that is getting passed on to you. You are going to pay for that. You, the American people, are going to pay for that while Democrats in this body, in the Senate, and in this administration wave it off, laugh it off, and say: ``Go buy a Tesla.''
Well, that isn't going to make your prices any cheaper. That isn't going to enable you to be able to afford the goods and services you need.
I know we have only got a few minutes left, so I want to ask one more thing of my friend from Pennsylvania. We are talking here about energy, and we know how much energy is at the central debate about what is going on between Russia and Ukraine. And we know the administration didn't do a darn thing leading up to what is happening in Ukraine to cut off Nord Stream 2 to open up American oil and gas to try to cut off what we knew was coming and what Putin was doing.
Yet, last week we had a vote on the floor of this body on a $40 billion unpaid for blank check in the name of standing with Ukraine. Only 57 Members of this body out of 435 possible Members--however many are here right now--57 dared to say, Hey, wait a minute, maybe we should actually debate $40 billion that is not paid for that is going to go into the State Department, go into the Department of Defense, going around the world, paying for refugee resettlement, paying for food around the world, paying for continued support of military operations in Ukraine.
I know the gentleman supports Ukraine and Zelenskyy, and I know the gentleman opposes Putin, but did you have a problem with a $40 billion blank check?
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Mr. ROY. I agree with the gentleman. I support Ukrainians, but I represent Americans, and Americans want to stand alongside Zelenskyy and push back on Putin, but they want us to do our job responsibly.
When I hear the majority leader of the other party say, ``a time of war.'' When I sat with the majority leader in a Rules Committee meeting upstairs, and he said: ``We are at war,'' I was wondering when we voted to go to war. If we are going to have a proxy war, and we are going to give $40 billion to Ukraine because we want to look all fancy with our blue and yellow ribbons and feel good about ourselves, maybe we should actually have a debate in this Chamber, a debate in this body because the American people expect us to do that.
When the border of this country is wide open, and cartels have control of it, and fentanyl is pouring in, and we have $30.5 trillion in debt, and gas prices are spiking, and it cost $1,100 to fill a tank of diesel, and we go, Oh, blank check, $40 billion. By the way, I am looking at my colleagues on this side of the aisle on that same point.
The American people deserve and expect better than that. I yield to the gentleman from Pennsylvania.
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Mr. ROY. Heaven forbid we vote on bills put before this body.
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Mr. ROY. I know the gentleman is correct. I know we are just about out of time.
I would just say in closing, the American people expect us to do our job. The American people expect us to vote, the American people expect us to stand up for them, and that is what we are happy to be here doing. I appreciate the gentleman joining me tonight.
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Mr. ROY. Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
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