Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act, 2024

Floor Speech

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Mr. OGLES. Madam Chair, I rise in support of my amendment to prohibit taxpayer money from being used on President Biden's nakedly political executive order allegedly promoting access to voting.

This dangerous executive order instructed a wide range of agencies, including the Department of Health and Human Services and the Small Business Administration to engage in voter turnout operations. Think about that for a moment, the government is engaging in voter turnout.

Worse, it instructs agencies to partner with approved third-party organizations to assist them in their voter registration and other election-focused efforts.

Who will approve these organizations? What criteria will be used? The executive order doesn't say.

Congress has never granted the administration any authority to approve such groups or specify criteria therein.

This executive order is blatantly illegal.

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Mr. OGLES. Madam Chair, I agree with my colleague that I, too, would like all to participate in the voting process, all demographics across all spectrums.

It should also be noted that there are already provisions in the law to allow for soldiers deployed to vote.

Madam Chair, I urge adoption of my amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.
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Mr. OGLES. Madam Chair, I rise today in support of my amendment to prohibit funding for the so-called Homeland Intelligence Experts Group.

The conduct of certain members of the intelligence community, who behaved as political hacks, quite frankly, rather than sources of unbiased information, has undermined Americans' faith in government. That concerns me.

Some of these officials peddled obvious falsehoods in an effort to undermine the American people's confidence in the election of 2016, and some meddled in the 2020 election, as well.

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Mr. OGLES. Madam Chair, at a time when we see dysfunction in government and, quite frankly, in Congress, it is important that we restore faith in institutions.

At a time when there are ongoing investigations into, say, the Hunter Biden laptop, it is important that we let due process work its way and not interject so-called experts.

With that being said, I encourage, at a time when we desperately need to restore faith in institutions, let's do that thing. Let's trust the process as we move forward.

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

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