Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Act, 2024
Floor Speech
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. ROY. Mr. Chairman, I thank my friend from Florida for all of his work on this legislation and the underlying bill.
I offer an amendment that would prohibit any of the funding made available in the State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Act from being used to carry out President Biden's executive orders on climate change.
Now, I do want to pause for a minute before I describe my amendment to thank the gentlewoman for our work together in trying to address ongoing authorizations for use of military force that have long since come and gone and that Congress needs to ax.
Congress needs to dispense with the 2002 and 1991 AUMFs that no longer, I think, are relevant, and I appreciate working with the gentlewoman to that end.
I hope we will see some movement on that at some point and would ask leadership, at least on this side of the aisle, to follow through and bring a vote forward. The Senate has dispensed with `02 and `91, and we need to address them here.
I would note, in response to the gentlewoman with respect to what she said to my colleague from New York about averting a shutdown and what we are doing here, what we are doing here is trying to move bills through regular order. Now, I have conceded that I wish this were July or August or earlier in September, but we are, in fact, doing our job.
Only four times in 50 years--and I am 51 years old, so four times in my lifetime--have we managed to move 12 appropriations bills through on time. That is absurd.
We are not going to do it this time. We are not going to get 12 bills through on time, but what we are trying to do is restore muscle memory in this place to actually do our job of getting appropriations bills out of committee, onto the floor, debated, passed, sent to conference committee, and do our work of actually legislating.
It is an important thing, and we should do it. Again, I would have done it earlier, but here we are. We ought to finish the job.
If we do our job, and we do our job tonight, hopefully, the House will have moved legislation that will fund upward of 73 percent of government. That is a good thing.
We can move forward with figuring out how to get the rest of our work done. We can have a debate.
If there is any kind of a shutdown, I want my constituents and the rest of the American people to understand that it is because the President of the United States and the Senate majority leader, a Democrat, are choosing to shut down government rather than shut down an open border that is damaging the United States, undermining our security, endangering our citizens, endangering migrants, empowering cartels, and empowering China, rather than doing their job.
Mr. Chairman, 304,000 encounters in August, 11,000 in Eagle Pass 2 nights ago, thousands of Americans dying from fentanyl poisoning.
They say, okay, well, why bring up amendments? Because we are trying to move forward this bill, which deals with State and foreign operations, and we have an administration that while also ignoring securing the border is using the State Department and all the functions of government to advance a radical climate agenda that is undermining our national security and empowering our enemies, empowering China by pursuing more technology that is created by China rather than advancing things like American natural gas.
I believe it is important, and I am offering this amendment to say let's not have funding to carry out the executive orders of the President that are marching forward on things like empowering John Kerry to jet set around the world, to go around saying, oh, let's go combat climate change while I fly in my fancy jet.
Meanwhile, India and China are pumping out coal faster than we can even talk about it. There are 1,100 coal-fired plants in China. They are building two a week.
We think somehow that we are going to convert our entire internal combustion engine fleet of cars in this country to EVs and solve the problem when, in fact, it will, at most, dent CO
Let's get real. Let's have policies that actually advance the cause of America.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. ROY. Mr. Chair, my Democratic colleagues claim they are saving the world by pursuing renewable energy. They always neglect to mention the important part. The Congo produces 70 percent of the world's cobalt, a key component of the EV batteries they promote. These mines are powered by what NPR, that bastion of conservatism, described as modern-day slavery.
Let's stop this foolishness. Let's focus on putting America first, and let's make sure we end President Biden's executive orders.
Mr. Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Source