House Republicans Did Our Job

Floor Speech

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Mr. KILEY. Madam Speaker, we just heard a lot of speeches at a very high volume on the topic of the debt ceiling, and many of them had an accompanying visual that said, ``House Republicans are forcing a default on our debt.''

Now, that is a very strange statement, given that the House has already passed a bill to stop us from defaulting on our debt. Weeks ago, the House passed a bill to raise the debt ceiling. I will say that again. The House has passed a bill to raise the debt ceiling that protects Social Security, protects Medicare, protects our veterans, and puts us on the more fiscally sustainable path that Americans are demanding.

Now, that bill is sitting in the Senate right now. The Senate could pass it at any time, but, of course, the Senate isn't even here this week, so they haven't done so.

As we speak, Speaker McCarthy and President Biden are negotiating. This is precisely what the overwhelming majority of Americans-- Democrats, Republicans, Independents--say that they want: A bipartisan solution that raises the debt ceiling while making responsible reforms to spending.

The speeches we just heard are advocating precisely the opposite. They want to pull the rug out from under this ongoing negotiation, bring it to a stop, impose a one-sided, partisan solution that allows us to keep spending money without limit.

Indeed, I was particularly struck by a comment from the Congresswoman from New York, who in defense of this idea that we should keep spending money without limit said this: If anyone wants to entertain the thought that we spend too much, think about the last time that someone said the government does too much.

Those are her words. She said, think about the last time anyone said the government does too much.

Well, actually, my constituents say that a lot. The government does too much when it overtaxes and overregulates Americans.

The government certainly did too much when it shut down schools, shut down businesses, shut down churches, and imposed unlawful mandates.

The government does too much when it pays people more to not work than to work.

The government did too much when it went on a multitrillion-dollar spending spree that even Barack Obama's top economic adviser warned against and gave us this historic inflation crisis.

The government does too much when it unleashes 87,000 new IRS agents on unsuspecting American taxpayers.

The government does too much when it shuts down the Keystone pipeline and inhibits our ability to produce energy domestically and make us energy independent.

At the end of the day, though, we also need to ask, as we have seen the budget just grow and grow and grow without limit, what has the result of all that additional spending been?

Do you look around and see beautiful roads and infrastructure?

Do you see world-leading schools?

Do you see a prosperous economy?

No, of course not.

Therefore, I do think that as we make reforms to spending, we also need to focus on waste, fraud, and abuse. We need to focus not just on how much money is being spent but on how that money is being spent. Not just on the number of dollars that we are spending, but on the results that we are getting.

I am hoping that that is the new paradigm that will emerge from the negotiations going on right now between President Biden and Speaker McCarthy, a paradigm of customer service, citizen service, a performance-based government. That is what Americans deserve, and I encourage the President to negotiate in good faith with Speaker McCarthy to move us in that direction. President Biden Should Withdraw Julie Su's Nomination

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Mr. KILEY. Madam Speaker, I rise today to discuss the latest disturbing revelations relating to President Biden's nominee for U.S. Labor Secretary, Julie Su. The nomination remains stalled, and for good reason.

Ms. Su's record of gross mismanagement, historic, unmatched mismanagement as California's labor secretary under Governor Gavin Newsom is now well understood. For example, under Ms. Su's tenure, $32.6 billion in taxpayer funds were fraudulently paid to death row inmates, international criminal syndicates, and other fraudsters.

This fraud was possible because Su waived fraud prevention protections, actually removed guardrails despite repeated warnings, and she failed to follow the commonsense practices of other States, and then failed to take corrective actions as billions were lost to fraud.

At the same time that this fraud was occurring, by the way, Su improperly denied or delayed for weeks, months, sometimes indefinitely, legitimate unemployment claims for millions of Americans.

Madam Speaker, I have now spoken on this floor several times to make sure that Americans are aware of that track record and understand the risk that elevating Ms. Su poses.

It is a reasonable inference that a nominee who failed in her role as State labor secretary would likewise fail in the role as U.S. Labor Secretary, and certainly has failed to earn such a promotion.

Well, now that is no longer merely an inference. It is the reality because as her nomination has stalled, Ms. Su has all the while been serving as the Acting Secretary at the Department of Labor, and unsurprisingly, she has brought her record of mismanagement from California to the Department of Labor as Acting Secretary, with terrible consequences.

A recent report from The New York Times has uncovered evidence of a major spike in unaccompanied migrant minors, children, being funneled to work in dangerous jobs in violation of Federal labor law. The article is titled, ``As Migrant Children Were Put to Work, U.S. Ignored Warnings.''

The Times reports the White House and Federal agencies were repeatedly alerted to signs of children at risk. The warnings were ignored or missed.

To take one example from The Times article: ``. . . a boy working construction said he felt ashamed about not knowing how to read. He, too, was released in 2021--at age 12--and was immediately put to work by a man who had sponsored at least five children.''

In another case: ``At a day-labor pickup site, a 13-year-old released last year to a man he had never met, said he wished he could enroll in middle school and start learning English.''

The problem is much broader than a handful of cases. Signs of migrant child labor have been uncovered inside industrial workplaces, including several auto part factories. Additionally, over 100 children were found working the overnight shift scouring meatpacking plants across the country, according to The Times.

Now, I should note, monitoring workplaces to prevent child labor is the job of the Department of Labor. Julie Su was Deputy Labor Secretary and is now Acting Labor Secretary. She held those roles as children were exploited to work in grueling conditions in violation of Federal labor law.

This pattern of conduct almost exactly mirrors Su's tenure in California: repeated warnings of a serious problem, little to no preventative action, followed by a refusal to accept responsibility or change course when her failures are brought to light.

Unfortunately, this isn't the only major concern that has emerged during Julie Su's short time as U.S. Acting Secretary of Labor. At the same time that children have been exploited in workplaces, Ms. Su has failed to properly manage the H-2A program for bringing in temporary agricultural workers on a legal basis.

Just this morning, House Education and the Workforce Committee Chairwoman Virginia Foxx and I sent an oversight letter to Acting Secretary Su regarding serious delays in the processing of H-2A applications. In the letter we write: ``It has come to the attention of the Committee on Education and the Workforce that employers applying for labor certifications at the Department of Labor for H-2A agricultural workers are facing substantial delays. These delays can be tremendously harmful for American agriculture. The arrival of workers can be delayed by weeks, causing inefficiencies and supply chain disruptions. . . . The planting and harvesting windows offer only a short amount of time to meet the season's needs. Our understanding is that this worsening problem is caused by unnecessary and avoidable delays at the Department of Labor.''

Incredibly, a Department of Labor official, Mike Rios, who serves as regional agricultural enforcement director at the Wage and Hour Division, is quoted as saying this: ``You can see that the H-2A program literally is the purchase of humans to perform difficult work under terrible conditions, sometimes including subhuman living conditions.''

This is a bipartisan program that has been created and has existed for a long time. But that is what he had to say about it. He is also quoted as saying: ``You can throw a rock and hit a violation in the agricultural industry.'' That is a strange thing for him to say considering that it is his department and Julie Su's department, the Department of Labor, that is responsible for preventing those sorts of violations, for enforcing our labor laws.

Under Julie Su's leadership, the Department of Labor is failing to protect workers, including children, is unfairly attacking America's farmers, and is failing to support our agriculture sector's workforce needs under a program authorized by Federal law.

She has been Acting Secretary for only a matter of months and was Deputy Secretary for 2 years. In that time, she has directly transferred her record of mismanagement from California to the rest of the Nation.

I should say, in California right now, we have the Nation's largest budget deficit. We have the Nation's second highest unemployment rate. We have the Nation's lowest rate of income growth. We have the highest rate of poverty. This is the direct result of the mismanagement and the antiworker, antibusiness, antiopportunity policies from the likes of Julie Su and Gavin Newsom.

With everything we now know, to elevate Ms. Su would be to take our country down the failed path of California with eyes wide open. I urge President Biden to choose a different course. It is past time to withdraw this nomination. Fentanyl Trafficking Must Be Stopped

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Mr. KILEY. Madam Speaker, I rise today to support the Halt All Lethal Trafficking of Fentanyl Act, which passed the House of Representatives earlier today. This bill fixes a critical loophole and empowers law enforcement to continue to have the tools they need to prevent fentanyl distribution in communities across America.

We are seeing staggering amounts of fentanyl pour across the southern border, flooding our communities with illicit and lethal pills, killing tens of thousands of Americans every year. This is now the leading cause of death for young people in our country; more than car accidents, more than suicides, more than anything. It is affecting every community in our country, including my own.

During the State of the Union a few months ago, I was honored to have as my guests two of our Nation's leading advocates for fentanyl awareness, the parents of a young man named Zach Didier, who tragically lost his life to fentanyl. He was a senior at Whitney High School, a standout student with no history of drug use, and from one pill, he tragically lost his life. His parents had to go through the gut- wrenching experience of seeing him get letters in the mail accepting him to some of our Nation's leading universities after he had passed away. There is simply no doubt that addressing the fentanyl crisis will save the lives of many of my constituents and of people in every community in our country.

This act, the Halt All Lethal Trafficking of Fentanyl Act, is a major step in that direction. In fact, the act itself is common sense.

Fentanyl is currently classified as a schedule I drug, which gives the Drug Enforcement Administration the power to enforce and arrest criminals involved in producing and distributing fentanyl. To avoid prosecution, criminals have begun to manufacture drugs nearly chemically identical to fentanyl.

Now, these drugs are just as deadly. They mimic fentanyl in every way, but they don't fall under the technical definition of fentanyl.

In response, the Department of Justice and DEA temporarily classified these fentanyl-related substances as schedule I drugs. This commonsense act makes this temporary classification permanent rather than letting it expire.

Giving law enforcement the tools they need to prosecute those responsible and involved in the fentanyl crisis, from producers to dealers, is a critical component of the multipronged approach needed to save lives and stop fentanyl from destroying our communities. We know this approach works.

After the DEA classified fentanyl-related substances as schedule I drugs, law enforcement encounters of these fentanyl copycat drugs fell by over 90 percent.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues in the Senate to support a proven measure that will save lives and to vote ``aye'' on the Halt All Lethal Trafficking of Fentanyl Act, which just passed the House today with bipartisan support and has the support of President Biden, as well. Replacing Senator Feinstein

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Mr. KILEY. Madam Speaker, I rise today to address the situation surrounding the senior Senator from California, Dianne Feinstein.

The latest news is that our Governor, Gavin Newsom, is now talking about appointing Oprah to the U.S. Senate as a replacement.

Now, Gavin Newsom has been talking about replacing Senator Feinstein for over 2 years. He started publicly speculating in 2021 about who he would replace, and at that point, Senator Feinstein was barely a third of the way through her term.

California's other senator, Alex Padilla, himself first got his office through appointment by Governor Newsom, so if there was, in fact, an appointment for Senator Feinstein, then both of our U.S. Senators would have been handpicked not by millions of voters but by a single person to initially get their jobs.

At this moment, pressure is coming from all directions when it comes to this situation and with a race for 2024 already underway. A number of sitting Members of the House have actually overtly called on Senator Feinstein to resign.

Ro Khanna said: ``It is time for Senator Feinstein to resign. We need to put the country ahead of personal loyalty. While she has had a lifetime of public service, it is obvious she can no longer fulfill her duties. Not speaking out undermines our credibility as elected representatives of the people.'' That is what he said.

We also had Congresswoman Tlaib, as well as Congresswoman Kamlager- Dove, make similar comments, urging the Senator to vacate her office.

The individual who is being supported by Congressman Khanna, Barbara Lee, told KQED that she would accept an appointment to the job if Governor Gavin Newsom offered it to her.

Meanwhile, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who, of course, herself is from California, is supporting another candidate, Congressman Schiff, and there have been a number of recent headlines related to this.

This comes from Politico, which says that Feinstein's primary caregiver is Pelosi's daughter. The subheading says: ``A quiet caretaking arrangement has raised questions about whether Nancy Pelosi has the ailing Senator's personal interests at heart.''

Another headline from Washington Examiner: ``Pelosi's secret campaign to aid Feinstein and get Schiff into the Senate.''

From FOX News: ``Pelosi's office denies her daughter is aiding Feinstein to help Adam Schiff win a Senate seat.''

This is just a mess. None of it right now is about what is in the interest of Senator Feinstein, the interest of our State, or the interest of our country. It is all about politics.

I believe the solution is to do away with the possibility of a gubernatorial appointment altogether. That way, Senator Feinstein can make a decision on her own terms. She will know that whether she finishes her term or whether she steps down before the end of her term, it is California voters who will decide who her successor will be. That is what will allow her to make a decision without all the distractions of politics at the moment.

To that end, I have introduced a constitutional amendment doing away with appointed Senators. Now, this would make it so the Senate is the same as the House. You don't have any appointed Members of the House who step onto this floor. Yet, you have had a lot of appointed Senators. I want to make it the same way, that if you want to represent your State as a United States Senator, you need to be elected to do so.

Indeed, this is really an anachronism, this process of appointing Senators in the case of a vacancy, and it has been subject to rampant abuse.

We had Governor Rob Blagojevich go to prison after he essentially auctioned off Barack Obama's vacated Senate seat. We have had Governors who have appointed their family members, who have appointed their spouses. Several Governors have even appointed themselves.

I am calling on Members of the House and Senate to join me in passing that to do away with this anachronistic, antidemocratic process of appointing Senators.

In the meantime, this almost certainly will not take effect prior to the current situation with Senator Feinstein being resolved, so I am calling on the California State Legislature, which has oversight over election laws and itself is responsible for creating the procedure for gubernatorial appointment, to address the situation.

There is actually a little bit of a backstory here. When Senator Padilla was appointed to the Senate following the election of Kamala Harris as Vice President, I raised an issue at the time with the legality of that appointment. Actually, the California State Legislative Analyst's Office, the legislative counsel's office in California, agreed with me that it would not be constitutional for the Governor to appoint a Senator who would then serve out the remainder of Kamala Harris' term, which was set to expire in 2022.

The reason for that is that the Constitution, the 17th Amendment, only allows temporary appointments. So, if you appoint someone who serves the rest of the term, that is not temporary. That is permanent.

What the legislature did in response to the legal issue I raised, and that the legislative counsel's office agreed with me on, is they passed a bill to say that they will have a special election to determine who the new Senator is going to be and who is going to finish the term, but we are not going to have that special election until the next election. That actually happened in November 2022 at the exact same time we held the election for who would serve the new 6-year term.

It was an absurdity. We literally had the same election on the ballot twice. One was for the new 6-year term, and the other was just for the last couple of months, the lame duck portion of the existing term.

That was the way our legislature figured out to give basically as much advantage to the Governor's chosen appointed Senator as possible while still abiding by the letter, if not the spirit, of the 17th Amendment.

What I have been in conversations with some members of the legislature about is that they should change this law or, at the very least, make an exception to it for the current situation with Senator Feinstein, to say that if there is a vacancy, then there will not be an appointment, that there will be an immediate special election, and that is how the successor will be chosen for the remainder of Senator Feinstein's term, which is set to expire in 2024.

I think that this is what will allow for fairness in the process of choosing our next Senator. It will give millions of Californians a say, rather than just one individual, and it will give Senator Feinstein the ability to make a decision that is best for her, best for the State, and best for the country.

I urge that action on the part of the California Legislature and Governor.

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

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