Failed Policies and Reckless Spending
Floor Speech
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Mrs. MILLER-MEEKS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to highlight the Biden- Harris administration's failed policies and reckless spending that have led to runaway inflation and have bled American workers dry.
Since the beginning of the Biden-Harris administration, the essentials Americans rely on daily have become unaffordable and inaccessible for most Americans. Before President Biden took office, inflation sat at 1.4 percent. It went up to 9 percent.
Since then, inflation and prices have increased by a mind-boggling 20.11 percent. At the gas pump, regular gasoline has increased a whopping 55.3 percent, and groceries are up 21.2 percent. Interest rates are at record-high levels, the highest they have been in two decades, impacting every family.
With the average American spending $12,800 more a year to buy basic needs, Bidenomics has hurt millions of everyday Americans and Iowans living paycheck to paycheck. Biden-Harris inflation is a Biden-Harris tax on all Americans, especially seniors on a fixed income and those working families.
House Republicans remain committed to reining in Biden-Harris reckless spending and taming inflation. Border Crisis
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Mrs. MILLER-MEEKS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to call attention to the national security crisis that is the Biden-Harris border crisis.
Since the start of the Biden-Harris administration, there have been over 9.7 million illegal immigrant encounters nationwide and 1.8 million known got-aways who have evaded the U.S. Border Patrol. A record 350 individuals whose names appear on the terrorist watch list have also been encountered at the southern border.
Let us not forget it was the Biden-Harris administration that ended the effective remain in Mexico program and allowed for 40 percent of catch-and-release migrants to disappear, and we have lost over 85,000 children.
Across the country, we have seen the impact of a porous border. Fentanyl and crime coming across the border has ravaged communities in Iowa and across America, making drug overdoses the number one cause of death in 18- to 45-year-olds. This is devastating the lives of millions of Americans.
Democrat-led cities, such as New York and Chicago, have become unrecognizable due to the influx of migrants and violent crime.
Mr. Speaker, I call on my colleagues to push the Senate to support H.R. 2, the Secure the Border Act, to protect our American homeland and stop the madness and crisis at our southern border. Every Legal Vote Matters
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Mrs. MILLER-MEEKS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 8281, the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, or SAVE Act.
The SAVE Act protects and preserves the right of American citizens to vote by requiring States to obtain proof of citizenship, in person, when registering an individual to vote in a Federal election. It also provides States with access to existing Federal databases to clean up their voter registration rolls and remove noncitizens.
Under the outdated National Voter Registration Act, or NVRA, States are not required to ask for proof and are prohibited from asking for proof of citizenship when registering an individual to vote in Federal elections.
While Democrats and their media allies claim their elections are secure, there are a multitude of cases with incontestable evidence of noncitizens registering and voting in Federal elections. If you think one vote doesn't matter or one person voting fraudulent doesn't matter, I won my race in 2020 by six votes, and we had a mayoral race in my district that was decided after two ties by drawing a name out of a hat. Every vote matters. Every legal vote matters.
Americans should decide American elections, not illegal immigrants. The SAVE Act is a commonsense measure to safeguard this cherished American right and privilege, and I urge my colleagues to vote for it.
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