Continuing Appropriations and Other Matters Act, 2025

Floor Speech

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Mr. HIGGINS of Louisiana. Mr. Speaker, I don't know where to begin. I have 5 minutes. I could use 500.

The American people are watching. They recognize that our Nation suffers under the burden of a threatened government shutdown and the very real threat of millions of illegals who have flooded into our country who could potentially vote in this very important election cycle in November.

If you don't think it can happen, you haven't been paying attention. There have been thousands and thousands of illegal voters removed from precincts across the country in any sovereign State that had the courage to pursue the endeavor of looking into those voter rolls.

Many congressional races and the balance of this people's House are determined by hundreds of votes, sometimes less. We just had a colleague lose an election by 317 votes, a man who serves in this body with us right now. If you don't think millions of illegals can potentially influence a Federal election, you are really not being intellectually sound.

To talk about money, the good lady said disgraceful. I will tell you what is disgraceful, Mr. Speaker, is to stand here and say that the Federal Government is too small and doesn't spend enough money. That is outrageous. We have a $36 trillion debt. If this body were to run a $1 billion surplus, it would take 36,000 years to address a $36 trillion debt.

Do you think a 6-month CR at a flat-line spending level is not a compromise, Mr. Speaker, from my perspective as a constitutional conservative? It most certainly is.

I am extending a respectful compromise. I would bring this thing back to 2019 spending if I could.

I cannot find one American in my townhall--and I do many--when I ask them: Does anyone in here think that the Federal Government was too small and didn't spend enough money in 2019? Nobody raises their hand, no matter where they are on the political spectrum. Yet, my colleagues in this body want more and more money in this environment that is supercontentious.

So, we take a 6-month CR that flatlines spending levels and move it into the next Congress, the 119th Congress, and into a new Presidential administration, whoever that may be.

They say they are going to control the White House. Good. Go ahead. I say they are not. We will let the American people determine that, but we will remove this political nightmare show from the entire consideration of the American people.

Let the American people have a clear field to vote in. Let them hear about the policies and principles of the candidates that stand before them and make their determination reflective of their own deep policy principles and their core beliefs.

We have a solid solution to this thing. To say that my colleagues in the Committee on Appropriations have not performed, no, you are not getting that past me. They passed five appropriations bills funding 72 percent of the Federal Government months ago, and where do those bills sit? In the Democrat-controlled Senate.

Pay attention to what is happening, America. This is the future of our country we are talking about. It is the right thing to do to pass this 6-month flatlined spending CR into March.

Let the new Presidential administration, whomever it may be, get situated and name their team. Let the 119th Congress get sworn in and populate our committees. Then, we will continue again.

This is a very important election cycle. We have to protect the integrity of that election, and we have to remove this contentious environment of this threatened government shutdown from this election cycle.

Mr. Speaker, my bill accomplishes that, and I encourage all of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to support H.R. 9494.

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