Providing for Consideration of H.R. Prohibiting Voting By Noncitizens in District of Columbia Elections; Providing for Consideration of H.R. District of Columbia Federal Immigration Compliance Act of Providing for Consideration of H.R. Protecting Our Nation's Capital Emergency Act; and Providing for Consideration of S. Halt All Lethal Trafficking of Fentanyl Act

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from Indiana (Mrs. Houchin) for yielding me the customary 30 minutes, and I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, the bills in this rule today are nothing more than a cheap distraction and another smokescreen from House Republicans, who are desperate to change the subject. I get why. After all, it was just 2 weeks ago that nearly every single Republican in this Chamber voted for what may be the most shameful piece of legislation that this body has produced in years, the GOP tax scam.

Mr. Speaker, it is bad enough that it gives massive tax breaks to billionaires and wealthy donors, but it does that by literally taking food out of the mouths of hungry seniors and children and ripping healthcare away from more than 16 million Americans.

In case it wasn't clear, Republicans are gutting Medicaid and even targeting Medicare, programs that millions of families depend on. It is not because they have to but because they want to.

Mr. Speaker, I know my friends across the aisle hate to hear us say the truth out loud. It makes them uncomfortable because they know what they are doing is wrong. Yet, that is just the cold, hard truth, Mr. Speaker.

In the process, Republicans are adding trillions of dollars to the very national debt that the majority loves to complain about when it is politically convenient. That is also the cold, hard truth.

Numbers don't lie. Look at the Congressional Budget Office's analysis. The Republicans' math does not add up. Again, this adds trillions of dollars to the debt.

Since the backlash has been swift and deserved, Republicans are scrambling to do everything they can to sweep it under the rug and change the narrative. That is what these bills are about--political misdirection, not meaningful solutions.

Let's be clear. Three of the bills this week meddle in D.C.'s local governance. It is not because there is some urgent crisis but because Republicans want to score cheap political points and take power away from a local government that they weren't elected to make decisions for.

In fact, Republicans referred to the District of Columbia as ``property'' in last night's Rules Committee hearing. Who talks like that? I thought I was watching ``Gone with the Wind.''

This is so incredibly offensive. The people who live in D.C. are not the Republicans' property. Their land is not Republicans' property. Their money is not the property of the Republicans. The majority should keep their hands off of it and keep their hands off of them.

Republicans, Mr. Speaker, are on a power trip. These bills either chase problems that don't exist or duplicate efforts already underway. That is not legislating. That is performative politics.

Here is the real kicker: If my Republican colleagues were serious about public safety in D.C., as my colleagues on the other side of the aisle claim, then the first thing to do is restore the $1 billion in the city's funding that they slashed earlier this year.

I want to be clear. This is not Federal money. We are literally talking about the city being able to spend their own money that D.C. residents have paid in taxes for the District. That money, taken from D.C.'s budget and paid by D.C. taxpayers, goes toward supporting public safety, social services, and critical infrastructure that residents and tourists alike rely on.

The Senate already passed the fix. The bill is ready for us to vote on. Even Donald Trump says he supports it. I can't believe it, but he says that he supports it.

Mr. Speaker, why is it that House Republicans here in Congress are dragging their feet? I thought they did everything Trump directed them to do, Mr. Speaker. Why are Republicans willing to stand strong against Trump on this, but when it comes to taking away healthcare and food assistance from their constituents, my colleagues on the other side of the aisle suddenly have no backbone and go along with Trump on that? Give me a damn break.

The fourth bill this week makes formatting changes to the HALT Fentanyl Act, a bill that we have debated before.

I will be very clear. The fentanyl crisis is real. It is deadly, and it demands serious action. Yet, that action must be more than slogans and symbolism. You can't say that you are serious about fighting fentanyl while slashing funding for mental health services, addiction treatment, and Medicaid. That is hypocrisy, and that is dangerous.

Yet, this is the Republican playbook. Republicans pay lipservice to real problems, undercut the solutions that actually work, and shovel more tax breaks to the ultrawealthy--rinse and repeat.

Mr. Speaker, the American people deserve a hell of a lot better. They deserve better than a party taking away their healthcare in the middle of the night. America's hardworking moms and dads, who may work multiple jobs but still don't make enough to afford groceries under this administration, deserve to know that they can rely on SNAP during rocky times so that their 7- and 8-year-old kids have something to eat.

Seniors deserve to have full fridges and access to healthcare that they have paid into so that they can live out their remaining years with dignity.

If seniors are paying their fair share in taxes, billionaires, hedge fund managers, and people who can afford to dump millions into political campaigns should pay their fair share, too.

People are tired of all of these giveaways to multibillionaires while hardworking, middle-class families or those struggling to get into the middle class get screwed over.

What we saw from Republicans in the last week of May, Mr. Speaker, is reprehensible. It is not what the American people deserve.

Mr. Speaker, I hate to be the one to have to inform the gentlewoman of this fact, but the head of CBO, according to The Wall Street Journal, is a registered Republican.

Now, we are being told by the Republicans that we can't trust the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office to give us correct numbers on how much things are going to cost or how much the tax cuts are going to cost. Who do we rely on for that? Is it Elon Musk? Maybe not anymore because Elon and Trump are fighting.

The bottom line is that CBO has been kind of the gold standard that both parties have pointed to in various debates on budgetary bills over the years.

I should also point out, because I think I want it to be very clear, there is no Federal funding in Medicaid that goes to provide support for undocumented immigrants. CBO also states that, so that little red herring out there is just, again, to distract. It is just not truthful. That is not truthful. I think everybody in this Chamber knows that. Enough of that.

Mr. Speaker, if we defeat the previous question, I am going to offer an amendment to the rule to bring up H.R. 2753, the Hands Off Medicaid and SNAP Act of 2025, which would block the Republican budget from cutting Medicaid or SNAP benefits and kicking people off of these lifesaving programs.

Mr. Speaker, 3 weeks ago, House Republicans jammed through their multitrillion-dollar budget scam by a one-vote margin. Some Republicans didn't even know what was in the bill. They rushed it through so fast that we are reportedly going to have to revote on it later this week to fix all the errors in the bill.

While we stand here debating three bills to micromanage the affairs of the District of Columbia, which has its own Mayor and city council, who are perfectly capable of representing their constituents, Republicans are moving forward with more tax breaks for billionaires and corporations while lower income Americans are made worse off through their largest cuts to healthcare and food assistance in our Nation's history.

We live in the richest country in the history of the world. I will inform the gentlewoman and those in this Chamber that we have 46 million people in the United States of America who are hungry or food insecure. We should all be ashamed of that. Rather than trying to address that problem, by the way, which is a costly problem, the Republicans instead chose to cut $300 billion out of the SNAP program.

They have also cut funding out of a whole range of other nutritional benefit programs, as well. Before they have a chance to vote again on their big bill later this week, I urge my Republican colleagues to correct their mistakes and to vote to protect healthcare. Don't throw American citizens off of healthcare. We should be protecting their healthcare and protecting SNAP for millions of Americans.

This is not about undocumented immigrants. Stop that nonsense. This is about American citizens. Stop these cuts by voting to bring up the Hands Off Medicaid and SNAP Act.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. McGOVERN. Simon) to discuss our proposal.

Mr. Speaker, let me respond to the gentlewoman when she wants to know why the numbers keep on going up in terms of the number of uninsured. The reason is the Republicans continuously changed their bill and made it worse. That is why. The majority has made it worse.

The bill that we voted on throws more people off of healthcare. Boy, that is something to be proud of. There is no denying the fact that their big, ugly bill cuts SNAP by $300 billion. They cut SNAP by $300 billion.

This is a benefit that, on average, is about $2 per person per meal, and they cut $300 billion. They want us to believe there will be no adverse impacts. Everything will just be beautiful. Really? I mean, come on.

They cut $300 billion out of the SNAP program. That is going to impact senior citizens, veterans, and children. Let me tell you, the savings that is going to be garnered from the $300 billion cut that the Republicans are using to offset the cost of tax cuts for billionaires, that is going to be very costly because hungry kids don't learn when they go to school. Senior citizens who take their medication on an empty stomach end up in an emergency room. People who don't have access to decent nutrition end up with chronic illnesses that last a lifetime. Workers who are hungry are less productive in the workforce. That is what my friends are doing.

Don't give me this garbage about undocumented immigrants. CBO made it clear that there is no Medicaid funding going to undocumented immigrants in this country. It is clear. That is a smoke screen so that people don't focus in on how their big, ugly bill is going to hurt regular people in this country.

It really is astounding to me. I thought we all came here, no matter what our politics might be, to help people.

They are pushing forward a bill that is going to hurt people. It is going to hurt almost everybody in this country except if you are well- off and well-connected. If you are a billionaire, if you are a big donor, if you hang out at Mar-a-Lago, you are doing fine, but not everybody else.

The other thing that Republicans are doing is cutting medical research, cutting NIH. If you want to talk about lifesaving investments, let's find a cure for cancer. Let's find a cure for diabetes. Let's find a cure for Alzheimer's. Instead the Republicans are cutting that research.

Mr. Speaker, I will just take a couple minutes here to talk about something else because this is a rules debate, and this is something that I find particularly annoying at this moment.

I will take a moment to talk about process. Perhaps the only noteworthy thing the Republican majority achieved last Congress was shattering their own record for the most closed Congress ever. That is not something you want to be known for.

To be clear, they made history for running the most closed, antidebate Congress we have ever seen. In total, Republicans issued 115 totally closed rules, meaning 115 times where the House could not debate a single amendment on the House floor. Republicans basically told us: nope, no debate, no amendments, no input to make these bills better. Just do whatever we tell you to do.

This wasn't an accident. It was the whole game plan, a legislative lockdown that delivered the most unproductive, dysfunctional Congress in modern American history.

Did they learn anything from it? No, they did not learn a thing. This Congress they have taken that broken model and somehow made it worse.

As of last night, they have racked up over 50 closed rules in just 5 months. More than 90 percent of the bills they bring up have no amendments, no discussion, no democracy. It is just take it or leave it.

At this rate, Republicans are on track to issue over 200 closed rules this Congress. What are we even doing here?

In just 5 months, we have seen Republican leadership block over 800 amendments. These are amendments that our colleagues, Democrats and Republicans alike, have submitted to make bills better. Only 14 amendments were selected by Republican leadership to be debated across just four bills. That is a 98 percent rejection rate. They block 98 out of every 100 ideas they receive.

What does this look like in practice? It looks like a complete destruction of the deliberative process. Republicans have blocked--get this--debate on amendments that would protect SNAP and Medicaid for millions of Americans and debate on amendments to protect access to the ballot box, the foundation of our democracy.

They even blocked debate on bipartisan amendments which would provide a permanent pay fix for Federal wildland firefighters and allow grants to help with fentanyl prevention and education efforts.

No wonder nobody likes Congress. The issues that are important to the American people are not even allowed to be debated. As we see here today, Republicans are okay with debating trivial issues passionately but important ones not at all.

Mr. Speaker, when I chaired this committee, back when we gave a damn, we welcomed ideas. We let the House work the way it is supposed to work. In our first 5 months, Democrats allowed over 25 percent of all amendments, more than 200 thoughtful proposals to be debated.

Here is the kicker: We gave Republicans more chances to debate their ideas than their own leaders do. In 5 months, only 6 of the 220 Republicans, over 97 percent of Republicans in this Chamber, have had an amendment made in order. That is not by mistake. That is a design flaw; a big one.

I don't understand how my Republican colleagues, some of which were so excited about having a bigger, better, open process, can say with a straight face that this is what they wanted. They have no voice in improving legislation. Amendments that we offered last night were blocked.

At this point in the 117th Congress, Mr. Speaker, under Democratic governance, over half of all bipartisan amendments were made in order. This Congress, we have yet to see a single bipartisan amendment make it to the House floor this year. Not even one.

Mr. Speaker, this Republican leadership seemed to have forgotten that this institution is a democratic legislative assembly. Instead, they are running it like a wannabe authoritarian dictatorship.

I know that Donald Trump speaks admiringly of Vladimir Putin all the time, but this place is becoming like Russia.

Come on. Have some respect for the House of Representatives. Let's open this place up a little bit more. This process right now is a disgrace and the American people deserve so much better than this.

Wow, the gentlewoman is defending this process.

I just want to repeat, when I was chairman, I made one out of every four amendments in order. My Republican friends are making 1 out of every 50 amendments in order, and 0 bipartisan amendments.

Again, I don't quite know--well, I guess I do know. I mean, again, the way the Republican leadership is operating here is that, again, we don't debate serious proposals on the House floor. They don't want to have votes. They don't want to have debates. They just want to bring things to the floor under a closed process and tell people to take it or leave it. Then they do this other thing of sneaking things in the rules so we can't even have a vote up or down on major changes. However, that is not the way this place is supposed to run.

In terms of, again, the Congressional Budget Office, the head of the Congressional Budget Office, according to The Wall Street Journal, is a registered Republican. If we are not going to rely on the Congressional Budget Office for analyses, who are we supposed to rely on? What, Stephen Miller? I mean, who? I mean, I am just trying to figure out who. Are we supposed to take your word for it or just take the President's word for it? I mean, this is a guy who doesn't read anything. He says he watches everything on TV.

I don't even understand. This new position of the Republican Party is that there is no such thing as objective analysis unless it always agrees with them. Well, that is just not the way it is.

In terms of fear-mongering, I mean, your big, ugly bill that you passed a couple of weeks ago is going to throw millions of people off of healthcare. It is going to throw--millions of people are going to lose their SNAP benefits, their nutritional benefits, and the reason why is because you are making major cuts. It has nothing to do with undocumented immigrants. You can say that all you want.

The gentlewoman knows that Medicare does not provide healthcare for undocumented immigrants. She knows that. Republicans know that. They keep on repeating it anyway because they don't want people to focus in on the reality. I think the American people are beginning to see through all of this. Again, they don't like what they see.

Mr. Speaker, I just want to say that it is not just CBO saying that your big, ugly bill costs trillions of dollars, it is the Joint Committee on Taxation, Budget Lab at Yale, Penn Wharton Budget Model, and the right-leaning Tax Foundation. All of them, all of them say that your big, ugly bill is going to add trillions to the deficit, will explode the deficit, add to the debt, and that is--I mean, it is just everybody.

The only people who are saying this is not going to explode the deficit are my Republican friends here in the House. I think they think if they keep on saying that it is not going to cost anything, then people will believe that. That is just not the case.

Mr. Speaker, I hate to tell the gentlewoman this, but every one of the organizations that I mentioned actually do account for growth. I have the charts here. I am happy to share them with you. From the Tax Foundation to the Penn Wharton Budget Model to Budget Lab at Yale to the Joint Committee on Taxation, here is the graph. I am happy to share that with you so you can see. If your leadership is telling you that they don't, then they are not being honest with you about the extent of this. Mr. Massie, a member of the Republican Party, has also talked about how your big, ugly bill is going to add trillions to the deficit and the debt.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, may I inquire of the gentlewoman, how many more speakers she has on her side?

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, may I inquire as to how much time is remaining.

Mr. Speaker, the truth is that these bills are nothing more than window dressing to cover up a truly grotesque set of priorities. Let's not forget, Republicans just voted to rip healthcare away from 16 million people, not undocumented immigrants, but 16 million American citizens. They voted to deny food assistance to children, seniors, and veterans. They are set to explode the deficit by trillions--trillions-- just to reward their wealthy donors.

Now, with even their own Members having second thoughts and regrets about that vote, as The New York Times reported last week, they are desperate to change the conversation. However, these bills, these distractions won't work because the American people are paying attention. They see what is happening. They see the cruelty behind these choices, and they are not fooled. This isn't about policy. This is about morality, about what kind of country we want to be, about whether we stand with working families or with billionaires; whether we choose compassion or cruelty.

I know Democrats will keep fighting. We will keep speaking truth to power, and we will make damn sure that the public knows exactly who is responsible when services disappear, when costs go up as a result of these crazy tariffs, and when families are left behind.

I urge my colleagues to reject these bills, to reject the politics of distraction, and start doing the hard work the American people sent us here to do. People want us to fight for them. They want us to be focused on their priorities, on making their lives better; not on the priorities of the Elon Musk-wing of the Republican Party, the billionaire class. They want us to focus in on what matters to them.

Prices are going up, life is hard, and life is challenging. Rather than dealing with bills that might make their life better, we are dealing with this stuff. This is crazy. The American people want us to rise to the occasion, to be about something more than just politics as usual. This is about people's lives.

I will tell you: We owe the American people much better than this Congress is delivering. Really, it is shameful that week after week after week we come up with these distractions that mean nothing in people's lives. Even worse, we pass this big, ugly bill that we did 2 weeks ago that is going to hurt my constituents and the gentlewoman's constituents, as well. There is no denying that people will lose their food benefits and their healthcare benefits in order to pay for tax cuts for billionaires. It is grotesque.

Mr. Speaker, I urge a ``no'' vote on the previous question. I urge a ``no'' vote on the rule. If the rule passes, I urge ``no'' votes on all these damned bills, and I yield back the balance of my time.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

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

The yeas and nays were ordered.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source