Providing for Consideration of H.R. Halt All Lethal Trafficking of Fentanyl Act; Providing for Consideration of S.J. Res. Providing for Congressional Disapproval of the Rule Submitted By the Environmental Protection Agency Relating to ``Control of Air Pollution From New Motor Vehicles: Heavy-Duty Engine and Vehicle Standards''; and Providing for Consideration of H.J. Res. Providing for Congressional Disapproval of the Rule Submitted By the Department of Education Relating to ``Waivers and Modifications of Federal Student Loans''

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. ROY. Madam Speaker, I thank my friend from Texas for yielding. A lot of conservatives believe in conservation. For example, the Governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis, has expanded the Everglades more than any Governor in the history of the State because that is actual conservation--instead of the nonsense being spewed by my colleagues on the other side of the aisle.

When they say, oh, we do something. Let's just be clear to the American people what doing something actually is. It is giving billions of dollars of subsidies to your fat cat corporate cronies, enriching them at the expense of hardworking American families. That is the truth.

Madam Speaker, 90 percent of subsidies are going to billion-dollar corporations and 80 percent of electronic vehicle subsidies are going to people making well over $100,000. That is the actual truth of what is going on.

Here today we are talking about several bills. We are dealing with the fentanyl crisis, which my colleagues on the other side of the aisle refuse to address by allowing our border to be wide open, exploited by cartels, driving fentanyl into our communities on the back of the Chinese, making money doing so, and killing 72,000 Americans last year alone, including 5 children in Hays County where I live south of Austin. It is happening every single day.

My colleagues don't care about securing the border. They want to hide behind the fact that they say that fentanyl comes through ports of entry. What they don't acknowledge is that there is no patrolling of the border by Border Patrol because they are all processing human beings being smuggled here for profit by dangerous cartels.

This bill is designed to take a step forward. It takes an important step forward in ensuring that we are dealing with the fentanyl precursors and that we are doing what we need to do to recognize how deadly it is. The fact is, our colleagues don't want to actually secure the border, which is where fentanyl pours across every single day.

On student loans--need we go any further than looking at the quotes from Speaker Pelosi when she said: ``People think that the President of the United States has the power for debt forgiveness. He does not. He can postpone. He can delay. But he does not have that power. That has to be an act of Congress.''

That was that grand MAGA extremist, Nancy Pelosi.

She also added: ``Suppose . . . your child just decided they, at this time, [do] not want to go to college, but you're paying taxes to forgive somebody else's obligations.'' She continued, ``You may not be happy about that.''

Are American families supposed to be happy that they now must cover the cost of someone else's education? Again, that great MAGA extremist Nancy Pelosi.

The fact is, the American people understand that making other Americans, plumbers or people who paid off their loans, pay off other people's student loans is inherently un-American and inherently unfair.

One last message to my Republican colleagues, passing a CRA to die in the Senate and die at the President's desk is not enough. We should defund the student loan fiasco in the debt ceiling bill. Don't blink.

Ms. LEGER FERNANDEZ. Madam Speaker, while my colleague speaks loudly about stopping fentanyl at the border, I will remind him that this bill doesn't do anything about fentanyl at the border. Indeed, the Republicans in the Rules Committee last night rejected amendments which would have placed more money on law enforcement and on the ability to stop fentanyl at the border.

Madam Speaker, I remind them that the Cato report points out that fentanyl is brought in at our ports of entry more than 90 percent of the time.

Madam Speaker, I point out that if we defeat the previous question, I will offer an amendment to the rule to provide for consideration of a resolution, which states that it is the House's responsibility to protect and preserve Social Security and Medicare for future generations and reject any cuts to these essential programs.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source