Relating to Consideration of the Senate Amendment to H.R. Rescissions Act of 2025

Floor Speech

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Mr. JEFFRIES. Mr. Speaker, I thank the distinguished gentleman, the top Democrat on the Committee on Rules, Mr. McGovern, for his leadership and for yielding.

I thank all the distinguished members of the Committee on Rules for their steadfast, courageous, and insightful participation in opposition to this rule and the substantive legislation that underlies this particular rule.

I also thank Rosa DeLauro for her principled and strong opposition to this reckless Republican rescissions package, this effort by the Trump administration to, once again, hurt everyday Americans.

Mr. Speaker, it was just said on the House floor that the American people are fed up with out-of-control, wasteful government spending. As Democrats, we are committed to making sure that taxpayer dollars are spent in an effective, efficient, and equitable manner.

This bill that is on the floor right now has nothing to do with waste, fraud, and abuse. It represents an attack on the public health of the American people, the national security of the American people, the public safety of the American people, and the ability of the American people to actually get information, particularly in rural America, that they may need through public radio or public television in the face of an emergency.

Mr. Speaker, no one is buying the notion that Republicans are actually trying to improve wasteful spending.

In the aftermath of this one big, ugly bill that just passed this Chamber and has been signed into law that explodes the debt by more than $3 trillion, and then asks everyday Americans to pay for part of the expenses in the bill by ripping away healthcare for more than 17 million Americans, hospitals will close, nursing homes will shut down, and community-based health clinics will be unable to provide services to everyday Americans. As a result of the one big, ugly bill, people will die.

It is an all-out assault on healthcare and the largest cut to Medicaid in American history. It also rips food out of the mouths of hungry children, seniors, and veterans. All of this is being done to provide massive tax breaks to billionaires.

Then, Mr. Speaker, in this one big, ugly bill that has now been signed into law, the debt and the deficit will explode by trillions of dollars.

How dare anyone from the other side of the aisle claim to be the party of fiscal responsibility. That is fake, and that is phony.

When you look at this particular piece of legislation that is in front of us right now, this reckless Republican rescissions package, it undermines American national security and American leadership in the world.

This is not an America First bill. It is a China first bill because of the void that is being created all across the world. It is in America's interests, our national security interests and our leadership interests, to make sure that we are investing in development, diplomacy, and democracy all across the world.

Great leaders have recognized that throughout the American journey. It was Abraham Lincoln who came to the House Chamber in the middle of the Civil War, in the early 1860s, and spoke to the Congress and talked about America being ``the last best hope on Earth.''

President Lincoln said that in the 1860s, a visionary declaration of the role that America might one day play as the leader of the free world.

This legislation, this reckless Republican rescissions package, undermines our ability to keep our people safe here and to project America's soft power all over the globe.

Mr. Speaker, why would we undermine our ability to use diplomacy, democracy, and development to protect our own national security?

The President promised that on day one he was going to end the war in Ukraine that is now going on. In this particular piece of legislation, we are undermining the ability of Ukraine to continue to valiantly fight against Russian aggression.

Russia is not our friend. They are our enemy. Vladimir Putin is a sworn enemy of the United States of America.

Mr. Speaker, why is it Republicans in this bill are once again undermining Ukraine?

Ukraine stands on the side of democracy. Ukraine stands on the side of freedom. Ukraine stands on the side of truth. Russia stands on the side of autocracy, tyranny, and propaganda.

Why would we stand on the side of Russia? That is inconsistent with American leadership. This reckless Republican rescissions package does the exact opposite.

Mr. Speaker, we just saw tragedy unfold in the Texas Hill Country. More than two dozen children have died. Parents should never have to bury their children. More than 100 Texans died in the deadly floods.

There are a lot of questions that need to be asked about government failure and State government failure in Texas. The Governor of Texas has a lot of questions that need to be answered. Instead, he is trying to rig the Texas congressional map in the middle of a search and rescue operation. He has got to answer some questions.

The Trump administration needs to answer some questions about the National Weather Service and the devastating cuts that have been inflicted on them. Mr. Speaker, the Trump administration needs to answer some questions about the stated goal to defund FEMA.

In the midst of this tragedy that we all need to collectively respond to in Texas, just as we needed to respond to the tragedy that unfolded in California and the wildfires earlier this year, this reckless Republican rescissions package is going to undermine the ability of people in rural America and in small-town American to receive advance warning or necessary information when disaster strikes, when extreme weather strikes, when flooding strikes, and when hurricanes strike.

That is what happens when public radio is shut down and public television is shut down, which is what this reckless rescissions package will do. It is all extraordinary.

Mr. Speaker, I don't understand why Republicans continue to advance legislation on the floor of the House of Representatives that hurt everyday Americans. Is it simply because the goal is, as always, to reward billionaires, as was done with the one big, ugly bill, providing them with massive and unnecessary tax breaks?

Mr. Speaker, at the beginning of this Congress, as House Democrats, we made it clear that we would work with anyone in this town in order to make life better for the American people. We would work to lower the high cost of living of the American people and to address the affordability crisis afflicting the American people.

We thought perhaps we would have some partners in this necessary endeavor. Why? Mr. Speaker, Donald Trump and House Republicans promised that they were going to lower costs. In fact, costs were going to go down on day one. Those are not my words. Those are President Trump's words.

Costs haven't gone down in the United States of America. Costs are going up. Inflation is on the way up. Life is getting more expensive for the American people.

Nothing in this reckless rescissions package is going to make life more affordable for everyday Americans. It is going to complicate their life even further just like what happened with the one big, ugly bill.

Mr. Speaker, we are strongly opposed to this legislation. This is legislation that apparently Republicans don't even want to actually debate on the House floor. Once again, they want to address an issue to be debated in this Chamber under the cover of darkness.

Finally, Mr. Speaker, the challenge that we have with this legislation is that the appropriations process has historically and traditionally been bipartisan. It means Democrats and Republicans will work and try to come together to reach a spending agreement that meets the needs of the American people in terms of their health, their safety, and their economic well-being. House Democrats and Senate Democrats, along with House Republicans and Senate Republicans, will do it in a bipartisan appropriations process to try to reach an enlightened agreement.

Mr. Speaker, what this rescissions package signals to us and the people that we represent and, more importantly, what it signals to America, as the OMB Director just said, Republicans aren't interested in bipartisanship. They aren't interested in commonsense solutions to finding common ground anchored in Democrats and Republicans coming together.

We know that is the case because we have made clear our willingness to solve the challenges that the American people face and work with anyone in this town, particularly when it comes to lowering the high cost of living in the United States of America. Republicans continue to do nothing about that. They are not doing a damn thing to make life more affordable for the American people.

That is one of many reasons why we continue to be opposed to this reckless legislation that Republicans bring to the House floor. It will hurt everyday Americans. It will hurt children. It will hurt families. It will hurt older Americans. It will hurt people that Republicans represent in rural America and all while undermining American leadership in the world.

Mr. Speaker, once again, this is unfortunate. Once again, we see a Congress not functioning as a separate and coequal branch of government. We see a Congress, given this Republican majority, not willing to serve as a check and balance on an out-of-control executive branch but always willing to do the bidding of the executive branch, as if we work for the Article II branch of government.

Mr. Speaker, we don't work for Donald Trump. We don't work for JD Vance. We don't work for the OMB Director. We work for the American people, and that is why we are a hard ``no'' against this reckless rescissions package.

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