Providing for Consideration of H.R. Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, and Providing for Consideration of H.R. No Funds for Iranian Terrorism Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. McGOVERN. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Kentucky for yielding me the customary 30 minutes, and I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Madam Speaker, you heard the gentleman from Kentucky purport to describe what is in the bills that we are considering today. I think his description of these bills is somewhat inaccurate. The so-called No Funds for Iranian Terrorism Act--and I say so-called because this bill does not actually do what the title suggests. It is really just about Republicans going after President Biden because they are mad he secured the release of American hostages.

It is as simple as that. Some Members of Congress would rather let these American hostages stay imprisoned in Iran than give credit to President Biden for bringing them home.

This is a bad bill. It undermines America's credibility in future negotiations. The money the United States unfroze--Iranian money, not American money--can only be used for humanitarian needs. That is the truth.

The money doesn't even go to the Iranian Government; it goes to a restricted account in Qatar where it can only be used for approved purchases. Those are the facts, and I won't waste any more time on this foolish political messaging bill.

The other bill contained in this rule is H.R. 5893, another extreme MAGA Republican spending bill. It is no shock that this radical Commerce, Justice, and Science appropriation bill couldn't even get a markup and a vote out of the full Appropriations Committee because it is nuts.

It defunds the police, which is ironic, but let's not even go there. It guts programs that help small businesses, slashes services that help missing and exploited children. I mean, really? It also makes it easier for criminals to get their hands on guns.

Madam Speaker, the truth is that the Republican Party is completely and totally broken. They are unable to govern themselves, let alone a country. The two extreme MAGA messaging bills that we are considering today are just the latest examples, just the tip of the iceberg.

Now, our job on the Rules Committee is to help run this place like professionals, to advance legislation in a thoughtful, orderly, deliberate manner, and to do it in a way that reflects well on the Congress and the country. Since Republicans took over, we have seen nothing but dysfunction and disaster in this Chamber. There has been chaos, confusion, and crisis at the hands of MAGA extremists who have turned this place into a circus. Republican incompetence over the last 11 months takes my breath away.

As this chart shows, Madam Speaker, we have a timeline up here that speaks for itself. There was a week wasted on 14 failed votes for Speaker while Kevin McCarthy agreed to shady backroom deals with MAGA extremists so he could win the gavel.

There was a month wasted on MAGA extremists threatening to default on America's debt unless Democrats agreed to draconian spending cuts.

We had an entire summer wasted after Democrats came to the table and negotiated a budget deal, but then Republicans didn't bring a single spending bill to the floor.

Finally, days before a government shutdown, Republicans brought to the floor appropriations bills they couldn't even pass. They had to call on Democrats to get a continuing resolution over the finish line, and then they kicked out their own Speaker for the terrible crime of keeping the government open. All because the MAGA extremists had a temper tantrum.

There were 20 days wasted while Republicans argued amongst themselves until they finally settled on someone who evidently everybody in their Conference disliked the least.

Here they are today, Mr. Speaker, right back where they started, with nothing to show the American people except dysfunction and disarray. We heard promise after promise from Republican leaders that this Congress would be different: more open and more accommodating, we kept on hearing.

Those promises have been broken. There have been over 40 closed rules on the floor, blocking 68 percent of bipartisan amendments. By the way, they even blocked over half of all Republican amendments. Twenty percent of Mr. Massie's own amendments have been blocked, never even considered on the floor.

I have a radical idea that in the world's greatest deliberative body we should, I don't know, deliberate? Yet time after time, despite their promises, Republicans are blocking amendment after amendment. Again, two-thirds of bipartisan amendments and over half of their own amendments have been blocked. Don't worry, though, they found a way to make in order every single MAGA culture war amendment to ban abortion and go after women's reproductive rights. They tucked those into nearly every appropriations bill. You would think that after all of that, at least they would have something to show for it, right? You would be wrong.

At this point in the 116th Congress, when Democrats were in charge, during divided government, we had already enacted 68 laws; not just passed the House, but enacted into law, signed by the President. So far this Congress, Republicans have enacted 19 laws. That is it. Let that sink in. Democrats enacted over three times the number of laws at this point in our majority. Here is an idea: Maybe they would have had more bills signed into law if they didn't waste all their time fighting with one another.

Instead, they wasted an entire month, 26 days so far, fighting with themselves, holding midnight seances trying to revive the dead bills that divided their Conference and fighting a MAGA civil war about who should be in charge. Fourteen percent of all legislative days this Congress have been focused not on the American people, but on which one of them gets to be in charge. That is a national embarrassment.

Do you know how many days it took Democrats to pick a Speaker when we were in charge, Mr. Speaker? One. One. Americans expected us to govern, not fight with each other. That reminds me, it's not like we don't have a recent example of what it looks like when Congress gets stuff done in a productive and bipartisan way.

Now, let's compare their record this Congress with our record last Congress. Republicans have made fewer bipartisan amendments in order. They have even made fewer majority amendments in order, and only 19 bills signed into law. Again, we have a recent example of what this place looks like when it works.

Democrats enacted 58 laws last Congress, signed by the President at this point. I said a moment ago that it was 68 under divided government. It was 58 in the last Congress. We get things done, no matter who is in the White House. We take our job seriously. The facts speak for themselves, and the contrasts could not be more clear.

This right here, this is what Democratic leadership looks like in Congress. It looks like results for American families.

Democrats passed the American Rescue Plan, ending the COVID crisis and reopening our economy.

Democrats passed the CHIPS and Science Act, bringing jobs back from China and supply chains back from overseas.

Democrats passed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, a historic investment that will rebuild our infrastructure for generations and generations to come.

What did almost every single Republican do on every single one of those bills? They voted ``no.''

Guess what, though? They are in charge now, and instead of rising to the occasion, they have totally, totally, totally failed at governing. They are running this place like babies. Actually, I think that is an insult to babies, Mr. Speaker. Their incompetence is staggering. Their infighting is so immature that it is stunning.

All the American people want, Mr. Speaker, is for Republicans to work with Democrats to get things done. It is that simple. It is that simple. Republicans barely control one-half of one branch of government. Democrats control the Senate and the White House. To get anything done, anything at all, we all have to work together. We have to compromise. We have to do things in a bipartisan way. That is, quite frankly, what the American people want. They want us to put people over politics to get stuff done, and that is what Democrats are focused on.

I can tell you, people are fed up with this Republican dysfunction and disarray. They are fed up with Republicans fighting with each other instead of for the people. They are fed up with Republican leadership caving to the MAGA extremists time after time after time. I am telling you right now, this majority will not be in the majority for long if things keep going like they have been.

Mr. Speaker, I think the viewing public who is watching this may take note that the gentleman didn't respond to anything that I said in my opening remarks.

I will point out for the record so people understand that over half of the amendments that were offered to this bill were rejected. Actually, they were blocked. They were blocked by the Republican majority on the Rules Committee. Mr. Speaker, 170 amendments, many of them Republican amendments, I should point out, were blocked. It was not because they added to spending. They were just blocked.

The point I was trying to make, and I will make it again, is that my friends on the other side of the aisle, my complaint with them is they have accomplished absolutely nothing. They have wasted their time in the majority.

The gentleman talks about all these deep cuts.

He talks about all these cuts. None of these are ever going to become law. We spent all of last week debating two appropriations bills, the Transportation bill and the Financial Services bill. We worked overtime, late into the night, debating all these amendments, and guess what? They pulled them.

They are in the majority. They can't even pass the crummy bills that are being sent from the Appropriations Committee to the Rules Committee.

It is mind-boggling. The bill we are talking about today, I am not even sure this is going to pass. I wouldn't be surprised if they pull this and the Labor-HHS bill, as well.

This is not how you run Congress. We are supposed to bring things to completion. The bill before us today was so bad that the full Appropriations Committee didn't even mark it up. Why? Because they probably couldn't get votes to get it out.

My friends have accomplished absolutely nothing in their majority. That is a tragedy. They barely struggle to do the basics, like keeping the lights on, but they need Democratic help to do that.

They have blocked the majority of their own Members' amendments. You can't make this stuff up. The gentleman, who is on the Rules Committee, had a big chunk of his amendments blocked, as well.

In any event, Mr. Speaker, we are going to urge our side to defeat the previous question. If we do, I will offer an amendment to the rule to provide for consideration of a measure that unequivocally states that the people's House will keep its promise to American workers and seniors and that we will protect and preserve Social Security and Medicare and fight against any Republican cuts to these essential programs that so many of our constituents rely on.

Mr. Speaker, let me again point out that my friends on the other side of the aisle blocked most of the amendments that were brought before the Rules Committee. In fact, they have a habit of even blocking a majority of their own Members' amendments.

Even with this rigged process that we have been operating under that the Republicans have put in place, even under this rigged process--and they have yet to rebut this--they have accomplished nothing. They have accomplished nothing. They have normalized dysfunction.

A win for this majority is having Democrats keep the lights on for them so that we don't shut the government down.

I brought this chart out before, but this is a contrast of what we accomplished when we were in charge. I can go right down the list: the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the Honoring our PACT Act and helping our veterans to get additional healthcare, the Violence Against Women Act reauthorization, the Inflation Reduction Act, the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, the Chips and Science Act, the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, the Paycheck Protection Program and Healthcare Enhancement Act.

These are things that passed the House and the Senate and were signed by the President. These are real things.

Here we are today doing what we did last week, bringing up all these rightwing MAGA amendments with appropriations bills that are so bad that even Republican members on the Appropriations Committee do not want to vote for them in full committee, so we bypass that.

They come to the floor, and we are going to debate the amendments they made in order all day and all night, only to have them pull the stuff at the end of the day.

That is what they did last week. Two bills, after all the time on the floor debating, were just pulled.

I get it. We signed up for this, but I will be honest with you that I think it is a disservice to the staff who work up here and who take this job seriously to go through all of these kinds of gyrations for no reason at all. It is just ridiculous.

This majority, as we come to the close of this week--hopefully, we will break for Thanksgiving--has accomplished nothing. This has been a waste of time.

Do you want to talk about a waste of taxpayer money? It is the Republican majority in this House.

Leger Fernandez), a distinguished member of the Rules Committee.

Ms. LEGER FERNANDEZ. Mr. Speaker, indeed, today we have yet another extreme Republican appropriations bill that focuses more on tax breaks for wealthy tax cheats than keeping our communities safe.

When asked what bothers them most about taxes, nearly two-thirds of Americans said they feel that the wealthy and corporations are not paying their fair share. Instead of making sure the IRS has the tools it needs to go after wealthy tax cheats, this bill slashes its budget by $22 billion.

For every dollar cut from IRS law enforcement, we tend to lose $2 in tax revenue. Republicans are clearly bad at budgeting when they are giving away revenue.

But wait, there is more. Republicans like to say they are the party of law and order, but this bill also cuts the FBI's law enforcement work by $400 million. Cutting the FBI's budget would hurt our rural communities. FBI agents can bring in technology and tools that help solve crimes that a small police force, like in my district, just don't have.

How can we expect to interdict fentanyl in our rural areas or to go after criminal cartels when we are cutting the FBI and cutting the Department of Justice, which would prosecute those despicable traffickers of death and despair?

Republicans are clearly bad at making sure criminals are investigated, charged, tried, and sent to prison.

But wait, that is not all. While Democrats are putting people over politics and growing the middle class, the extreme Republican appropriations bills are blockading the road to the middle class. This appropriations bill cuts the pathway to prosperity when it cuts economic development programming to 51 percent below last year's levels.

In New Mexico, these cuts would jeopardize local and Tribal economic development projects helping us grow jobs and businesses after the closure of coal mines and coal plants. These cuts would take economic funding down to a level not seen since 2014. Extreme Republicans are clearly looking backward.

My focus in Congress must be toward a future of hope, prosperity, and opportunity.

At the Rules Committee yesterday, Republicans told me they didn't have a choice but to make these cuts. That is not true. Remember, they are choosing to give up billions of dollars of tax revenue owed by wealthy tax cheats. Republicans built the deficit. In 2017, 2003, and 2001, Republicans chose tax cuts for the wealthy and big corporations. Their choices tell us their priorities.

Mr. Speaker, I have no other choice but to urge my colleagues to vote ``no'' on this rule, and if we ever see it on the floor, vote ``no'' on this bill.

I don't even know where to begin. What we are witnessing here is called smoke and mirrors. The gentleman says we are not going to sneak things into a bill at the last minute. A whole bunch of stuff was snuck into this bill at the last minute. In fact, I repeat, this bill did not go before the full Appropriations Committee. It was not reported out by the full Appropriations Committee. Why? Because it is so extreme and so awful that they didn't have the votes.

The same thing last week, two appropriations bills, we wasted all of this time on the floor talking about those bills and then they pulled them because they didn't have the votes. Here we are again voting on another extreme bill that will probably, in all likelihood, be pulled.

When the gentleman is making the case that somehow amendments are blocked because they are not rule compliant, okay, all right, that is an argument to be made, but that is not the case with the overwhelming majority of the amendments that were blocked. I say to my Republican friends who are watching, a majority of your amendments were blocked, and you guys are in charge.

I get it. They blocked 72 percent of the amendments I offered, which by the way are rule compliant, but they blocked the majority of Republican amendments. The gentleman says: We were just blocking amendments that were not rule compliant. Last night in the Rules Committee, we offered amendments to strike out language that is in the bill. It is totally rule compliant.

We offered an amendment to strike the anti-abortion riders. We had a vote, and the gentleman voted with the majority of Republicans to block us even being able to offer an amendment to strike the anti-abortion riders. I guess they are afraid they would lose or afraid of the debate or afraid to put vulnerable Members in a tough position, whatever.

We had an amendment striking anti-LGBTQ riders. Again, all the Republicans, the gentleman included, voted to block it. It was totally rule compliant.

We had an amendment striking the anti-gun safety riders that were added into this bill. They were totally rule compliant. Every Republican, including the gentleman, voted to not make our amendment in order.

This is what you call smoke and mirrors. We had an amendment striking their anti-climate riders. Again, it is in the bill. We are not putting something new in the bill. This is their bill, totally rule compliant. Every Republican, including the gentleman, voted to block that.

Let's not have this kind of fantasy debate where we are saying, oh, all we did was we kept out amendments that were not rule compliant.

The bottom line is: You are afraid of the debates. My friends are afraid that they may lose on some of these issues. They also know that the majority of the American people do not like their position on women's reproductive rights where they want a national abortion ban. They also know that a majority of people in this country are sick and tired of bigotry against the LGBTQ+ community. They know that a majority of Americans are sick and tired of the rising level of gun violence in this country. They also know that a majority of Americans believe climate change is for real, and they want us to do stuff to try to reverse the current trends.

They blocked all of these amendments. I have the report from the Rules Committee last night with all the votes and the amendments. They are all rule compliant.

Let's get real here. We are here today to, again, talk about an appropriations bill that is not only extreme, that probably at the end of the day, they are not going to be able to pass it with Republican votes. It will certainly never become law. It is a joke of a bill. They wouldn't even bring it before the full Republican-controlled Appropriations Committee and then--or they are going to pull it. That is it.

You want to talk about wasting money, all of the money we wasted last week debating bills that are going nowhere. What about the money that we wasted while for 26 days we had no Speaker of the House but had to keep everybody here while they tried to fight amongst themselves on which member of the Republican Conference they disliked the least so they could move that person forward as Speaker. Give me a break.

I think I am beginning to understand the logic of the gentleman from Kentucky. He thinks that we have an open process as long as amendments that he agrees with are made in order, but any amendments that he doesn't agree with it is okay to block them.

I don't have any problem with some of the crummy amendments that the gentleman and the Republicans have made in order that, in my opinion, are really bad for this country. We will have those debates, and we will vote on them. I have no problem with that.

I don't know why my friends are afraid to have a debate on women's reproductive rights, whether or not we should protect a woman's right to choose, whether we should protect a woman's right to abortion in this country. They blocked it. They added language in that curtails women's rights, but they won't allow an amendment so we can have those 10 minutes of debate.

I don't know why the gentleman is afraid to have a debate on whether or not we should end bigotry against the LGBTQ+ community. If they believe that it is okay to continue prejudice and discrimination against that community, they can vote ``no'' on our amendment. Let's have the debate.

On climate change or even on--we have a different position on assault weapons. The gentleman can offer his amendment. We have a different amendment. Why is it that the amendment that we offered is blocked?

It is just a strange view of the world when you come up here and say we have a very fair and open process here. We block all your amendments, but we are making all the amendments that we agree with basically in order. I don't really think that is a fair process.

Mr. Speaker, House Republicans are a minority party that is masquerading as a majority party. I say that because I think my friends on the other side don't want to actually be in charge anymore. It is easier to be in the minority when you are a Republican. They think all you have to do is vote ``no'' on everything.

It is harder to be in the majority. It is especially hard because the Republican Party no longer represents a coherent political ideology that seeks to solve problems or govern. They just want to scream and yell about how this place is broken--when they are the ones that broke it.

They want to use crisis and scandal to mask their own selfishness and sedition, and to cover up their own incompetence and ineffectiveness. The American people see through it. They know this Republican majority is a disaster--a national embarrassment. They have normalized dysfunction.

We have Republican Members of Congress literally assaulting each other in the hallways. They are threatening to punch people in committee hearings. They are getting into fights on the House floor and having their supporters threaten each other's families with violence. That is the truth.

They have wasted away their majority fighting among themselves and acting like babies. They focus on retaliation and revenge. They are pursuing ridiculous impeachment inquiry sideshows. They are conditioning aid to our allies on tax cuts for billionaires here at home. They scream about the deficit when they keep passing bills that blow up the deficit.

Mr. Speaker, I say to the people watching this at home, you might not agree with Democrats on everything, but we are team normal. The Republicans are team totally off-the-deep-end nuts. I cleaned that up for the floor, Mr. Speaker, for civility.

Democrats ran this place like professionals. Republicans are running it into the ground. Democrats fight for the people. Republicans only care about fighting with each other. Democrats behave like adults. I hope rational, reasonable, moderate Republicans, if any are left, will join us and reject the MAGA extremists who behave like spoiled rotten children.

Mr. Speaker, I urge a ``hell no'' on this rule and a ``no'' vote on the underlying bills.

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

The yeas and nays were ordered.

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