Providing for Consideration of H.R. Va Employee Fairness Act of Providing for Consideration of S. Preventing Organizational Conflicts of Interest in Federal Acquisition Act; Providing for Consideration of S. Law Enforcement De-Escalation Training Act of Providing for Consideration of Senate Amendment to H.R. Providing Research and Estimates of Changes in Precipitation Act; Relating to Consideration of Senate Amendments to H.R. Performance Enhancement Reform Act; and for Other Purposes

Floor Speech

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Mr. RESCHENTHALER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the distinguished gentleman and my good friend from California for yielding me the customary 30 minutes, and I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, the rule before us provides for consideration of four pieces of legislation that are, once again, nothing but missed opportunities to address the multiple crises facing our country under the Biden Presidency.

Rather than working with Republicans to actually address the unmitigated crisis at our southern border, to address the cold war we have with China, the proxy war we have with Russia, or the historic levels of inflation, Democrats are rushing to the floor these half- baked legislative items that will create more problems than they aim to solve.

Look no further than S. 3905, the Preventing Organizational Conflicts of Interest in Federal Acquisition Act. Instead of making meaningful reforms to Federal acquisition policy, this legislation is duplicative, and it is contradictory to existing policies. It also tells the Federal Acquisition Regulatory Council to do something that it is already required to do.

Additionally, this rule provides for consideration of H.R. 1948, the VA Employee Fairness Act. This legislation would put veteran patients at risk by shifting questions of professional conduct to collective bargaining.

The Secretary of the VA has been and should continue to be directly accountable for the quality of care provided to our veterans at the VA.

While we are focusing on these unnecessary bills, China has recently signed a $50 billion trade deal with our ally Saudi Arabia; Putin, once again, threatened to launch a nuclear war on the West; and the wealth of the average American has dropped to the lowest level ever recorded.

The chief of the U.S. Border Patrol reported that over the weekend there were over 16,000 migrant encounters at the border--and wait for it--that was in a 48-hour period, 16,000 in less than 2 days, but President Biden hasn't stepped foot on the southern border since he took office.

Last week, when he was not visiting the border while in Arizona, President Joe Biden was asked about that, and his response was ``There are more important things going on.''

Yet, during the administration there have been nearly 5 million illegal immigrant crossings at our southern border, and that includes 1 million got-aways. These are individuals that we have no record of that we just know escaped into the interior of the country.

Yet, Biden has failed at protecting our southern border just as he failed in America's prisoner swap with President Putin. The administration effectively surrendered to Putin by swapping a woke celebrity basketball player for the ``Merchant of Death,'' an international arms smuggler with the blood of Americans on his hands.

This disastrous negotiation is just another failed foreign policy decision that was based on Russia's terms, not ours. This rash decision left two other Americans detained in Russia: Pittsburgh history teacher Marc Fogel, and U.S. Marine Paul Whelan. They have no clear chance of returning home now. We have lost all leverage unless--I am going to be surprised to discover that--we have two ``merchants of death'' in a Federal prison in the U.S. Something tells me that is not the case.

What we should be doing is we should be immediately acting to protect our national security. We should be ensuring the safe return of all Americans that are wrongfully detained abroad. We should be working to secure the southern border. We should not be passing ill-conceived and unnecessary legislation. To be frank, our time is too precious, and our challenges are too great.

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Mr. RESCHENTHALER. Mr. Speaker, instead of addressing any of the crises that are actually facing this Nation, House Democrats are allowing the Senate to ram through a huge omnibus spending bill that was written without the input of House Republicans and was written behind closed doors.

In September, House Republicans were very clear in opposition to postponing a government funding fight to the Democrat-controlled lame- duck session. Once again, House Democrats failed to meet the fundamental duty of funding the government despite spending most of the year passing trillions of dollars in wasteful spending that has fueled inflation and driven up our debt.

That is why if we defeat the previous question, I will personally offer an amendment to the rule to immediately strike sections 8 and 9 from the rule, which would strike the omnibus vehicle from this rule.

Mr. Speaker, I really can't stand the cliche that history repeats itself, but that is true. To prove that, let me just read some excerpts from a Joe Biden speech from 2006. Joe Biden said: ``The world is going to Hades in a handbasket. We are desperately concerned about the circumstance relating to the avian flu. We do not have enough vaccines. We do not have enough police officers. And we are going to debate, the next 3 weeks, I am told, gay marriage, a flag amendment, and God only knows what else. I can't believe the American people can't see through this. We already have a law, the Defense of Marriage Act. We all voted.''

That was Joe Biden in 2006. It sounds awfully familiar to what my colleagues across the aisle are doing now with these fluff bills, bills that are already on the books and nothing but a distraction from the real crises that are facing this Nation.

To talk more about that, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Roy), my good friend.

Once again, this rule provides for four pieces of legislation that, once again, are just missed opportunities to actually address the problems we are facing.

Let's talk about one of the biggest problems, and that is the southern border. To contextualize this, let me give you some stats. This year, 98 suspected terrorists have been apprehended attempting to cross the southern border. Think about that.

It took 19 hijackers on 9/11 to pull off the largest terrorist attack in this country. In this year alone, we have let 98 suspected terrorists walk across the southern border.

In October, there were over 230,000 illegal immigrant encounters at the southern border. That is just in October. To put that into context, that is a 334 percent increase from the average number of October encounters under President Trump.

In November, there were more than 70,000 known got-aways at the southern border. That is a historic record.

What is really worse is the fentanyl crisis, the fentanyl that is coming across the southern border. There were more than 14,000 pounds of illicit fentanyl seized in fiscal year 2022. That is a record.

As a reminder, a lethal dose of fentanyl is only 2 milligrams. Fentanyl was responsible for two-thirds of all drug overdoses last year.

There has been a 94 percent increase in fentanyl deaths since 2019. To put that into more context, that is one fentanyl overdose every 7 minutes in the United States.

Just 5 to 10 percent of the drugs coming across the southern border are seized by our Border Patrol agents.

What does the administration say on this? It is classic gaslighting. I will quote Joe Biden once again. He said, ``There are more important things going on.'' Kamala Harris, the so-called border czar, said the border is secure. DHS Secretary Mayorkas said, look, the border is secure.

They are either gaslighting, or they have no connection and no grounding in reality.

As far as the omnibus, let's just go back to September. In September, House Democrats were clear in their opposition to postponing a government funding fight to the Democrat-controlled lame-duck session. We didn't want it then; we don't want it now.

Unfortunately, on September 30, a continuing resolution was passed funding the government through December 16. So, here we are today.

This 1-week continuing resolution is an attempt to buy additional time for a massive lame-duck spending bill in which House Republicans had no seat at the negotiating table.

We will soon be in the majority. Republicans will soon be in the majority. We will be in the driver's seat to fight for our priorities. That is why every Republican should be a ``no'' on the Democrats' lame- duck omnibus spending bill.

To talk more about the omnibus, I yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Roy).

Lives are being lost while President Biden and Congressional Democrats continue to ignore the crisis at our southern border. Tragically, just last week, on December 7, United States Border Patrol Agent Raul Humberto Gonzalez, Jr., was killed while chasing a group of migrants across the border.

To go back to that quote from President Biden about the southern border and about why he hasn't visited, despite the fact that he was just in Arizona, ``There are more important things going on.'' That is what President Biden has to say; stinging words given the deaths and casualties that we are seeing at the southern border and the fentanyl deaths and overdoses in the interior of this country.

It is absolutely maddening to see such a flagrant disregard not only for our hardworking Border Patrol agents but our Nation's immigration system as a whole. For that reason, we must bring the border crisis to an end.

But President Joe Biden and Congressional Democrats have manufactured this historic crisis on our southern border by halting the construction of the border wall, ending Trump's remain in Mexico policy, and refusing to visit the border.

U.S. Border Patrol facilities are becoming overrun with thousands of illegal immigrants in custody. This crisis is only getting worse. On December 21, title 42 ends, a powerful tool that allowed border officials to expel more than 2 million migrants during the pandemic. There now have been 20 straight months of over 150,000 illegal border crossings.

Yet, with today's rule, House Democrats continue to ignore this historic disaster at our border. This crisis could not be more devastating to the sovereignty and the security of our Nation.

Mr. Speaker, for those reasons, I urge my colleagues to vote ``no'' on the rule, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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

The yeas and nays were ordered.

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

The yeas and nays were ordered.

This is a 5-minute vote.

The vote was taken by electronic device, and there were--yeas 216, nays 206, not voting 8, as follows: [Roll No. 521] YEAS--216 Adams Aguilar Allred Auchincloss Axne Barragan Beatty Bera Beyer Bishop (GA) Blumenauer Blunt Rochester Bonamici Bourdeaux Bowman Boyle, Brendan F. Brown (MD) Brown (OH) Brownley Bush Bustos Butterfield Carbajal Cardenas Carson Cartwright Case Casten Castor (FL) Castro (TX) Cherfilus-McCormick Chu Cicilline Clark (MA) Clarke (NY) Cleaver Clyburn Cohen Connolly Cooper Correa Costa Courtney Craig Crow Cuellar Davids (KS) Davis, Danny K. Dean DeFazio DeGette DeLauro DelBene Demings DeSaulnier Dingell Doggett Doyle, Michael F. Escobar Eshoo Espaillat Evans Fletcher Foster Frankel, Lois Gallego Garamendi Garcia (IL) Garcia (TX) Golden Gomez Gonzalez, Vicente Gottheimer Green, Al (TX) Grijalva Harder (CA) Hayes Higgins (NY) Himes Horsford Houlahan Hoyer Huffman Jackson Lee Jacobs (CA) Jayapal Jeffries Johnson (GA) Johnson (TX) Jones Kahele Kaptur Keating Kelly (IL) Khanna Kildee Kilmer Kim (NJ) Kind Kirkpatrick Krishnamoorthi Kuster Lamb Langevin Larsen (WA) Larson (CT) Lawrence Lawson (FL) Lee (CA) Lee (NV) Leger Fernandez Levin (CA) Levin (MI) Lieu Lofgren Lowenthal Luria Lynch Malinowski Maloney, Carolyn B. Maloney, Sean Manning Matsui McBath McCollum McGovern McNerney Meeks Meng Mfume Moore (WI) Morelle Moulton Mrvan Murphy (FL) Nadler Napolitano Neal Neguse Newman Norcross O'Halleran Ocasio-Cortez Omar Pallone Panetta Pappas Pascrell Payne Peltola Perlmutter Peters Phillips Pingree Pocan Porter Pressley Price (NC) Quigley Raskin Rice (NY) Ross Roybal-Allard Ruiz Ruppersberger Rush Ryan (NY) Ryan (OH) Sanchez Sarbanes Scanlon Schakowsky Schiff Schneider Schrader Schrier Scott (VA) Scott, David Sewell Sherman Sherrill Sires Slotkin Smith (WA) Soto Spanberger Speier Stansbury Stanton Stevens Strickland Suozzi Swalwell Takano Thompson (CA) Thompson (MS) Titus Tlaib Tonko Torres (CA) Torres (NY) Trahan Trone Underwood Vargas Veasey Velazquez Wasserman Schultz Waters Watson Coleman Welch Wexton Wild Williams (GA) Wilson (FL) Yarmuth NAYS--206 Aderholt Allen Amodei Armstrong Arrington Babin Bacon Baird Balderson Banks Barr Bentz Bergman Bice (OK) Biggs Bilirakis Bishop (NC) Boebert Bost Brady Buchanan Buck Bucshon Burchett Burgess Calvert Cammack Carey Carl Carter (GA) Carter (TX) Cawthorn Chabot Cline Cloud Clyde Cole Comer Conway Crawford Crenshaw Curtis Davidson Davis, Rodney DesJarlais Diaz-Balart Donalds Duncan Dunn Ellzey Emmer Estes Fallon Feenstra Ferguson Finstad Fischbach Fitzgerald Fitzpatrick Fleischmann Flood Flores Foxx Franklin, C. Scott Fulcher Gaetz Gallagher Garbarino Garcia (CA) Gibbs Gimenez Gohmert Gonzales, Tony Gonzalez (OH) Good (VA) Gooden (TX) Gosar Granger Graves (LA) Graves (MO) Greene (GA) Griffith Grothman Guest Guthrie Harris Harshbarger Hartzler Hern Herrell Herrera Beutler Hice (GA) Higgins (LA) Hill Hollingsworth Hudson Huizenga Issa Jackson Jacobs (NY) Johnson (LA) Johnson (OH) Johnson (SD) Jordan Joyce (OH) Joyce (PA) Katko Keller Kelly (MS) Kelly (PA) Kim (CA) Kinzinger Kustoff LaHood LaMalfa Lamborn Latta LaTurner Lesko Letlow Long Loudermilk Lucas Luetkemeyer Mace Malliotakis Mann Massie Mast McCarthy McCaul McClain McClintock McHenry McKinley Meijer Meuser Miller (IL) Miller (WV) Miller-Meeks Moolenaar Mooney Moore (UT) Mullin Murphy (NC) Nehls Newhouse Norman Obernolte Palazzo Palmer Pence Perry Pfluger Posey Reschenthaler Rice (SC) Rodgers (WA) Rogers (AL) Rogers (KY) Rose Rosendale Rouzer Roy Rutherford Salazar Scalise Schweikert Scott, Austin Sempolinski Sessions Simpson Smith (MO) Smith (NE) Smith (NJ) Smucker Spartz Stauber Steel Stefanik Steil Steube Stewart Taylor Tenney Thompson (PA) Tiffany Timmons Turner Upton Valadao Van Drew Van Duyne Wagner Walberg Waltz Weber (TX) Webster (FL) Wenstrup Westerman Williams (TX) Wilson (SC) Wittman Womack Yakym Zeldin NOT VOTING--8 Brooks Budd Carter (LA) Cheney Green (TN) Hinson Moore (AL) Owens

So the resolution was agreed to.

The result of the vote was announced as above recorded.

A motion to reconsider was laid on the table. Members Recorded Pursuant to House Resolution 8, 117th Congress Axne (Pappas) Beatty (Neguse) Boebert (Gaetz) Brown (MD) (Evans) Cawthorn (Gaetz) Cherfilus-McCormick (Brown (OH)) Cicilline (Jayapal) Clyburn (Butterfield) DeFazio (Pallone) Dingell (Pappas) Doyle, Michael F. (Evans) Dunn (Salazar) Escobar (Garcia (TX)) Espaillat (Correa) Gosar (Weber (TX)) Jacobs (NY) (Sempolinski) Johnson (TX) (Pallone) Kelly (IL) (Horsford) Kim (NJ) (Pallone) Kirkpatrick (Pallone) Krishnamoorthi (Pappas) Larson (CT) (Pappas) Lawson (FL) (Evans) Levin (CA) (Huffman) Meeks (Horsford) Newman (Correa) Norcross (Pallone) Ocasio-Cortez (Tlaib) O'Halleran (Pappas) Palazzo (Fleischmann) Pascrell (Pallone) Payne (Pallone) Porter (Beyer) Pressley (Neguse) Rice (SC) (Weber (TX)) Rush (Beyer) Sewell (DelBene) Simpson (Fulcher) Sires (Pallone) Speier (Garcia (TX)) Stevens (Craig) Strickland (Correa) Tiffany (Fitzgerald) Titus (Pallone) Welch (Pallone)

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