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

Floor Speech

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Mr. SCALISE. Mr. Speaker, I thank the Chair for yielding and for helping get this process to the floor, despite so many attempts by the Democrats to block this effort to cut waste, fraud, and abuse in government spending. We have seen it over and over and over again.

Every time we have tried to get our economy back on track to put more money in the pockets, by the way, of hardworking families, as we just succeeded in doing with the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, every step of the way, the only people trying to block that effort have been Democrats in Washington.

They are getting nervous. They are feeling the heat from people back home, Mr. Speaker, that are angry, saying why did you vote--those waiters and waitresses, who make $32,000 a year, when they keep hearing them talk about billionaires. They are not voting against billionaires. They are voting against waiters and waitresses earning $32,000 a year and cops working the beat who don't want to have to pay overtime taxes. We protected them from that.

Every Democrat voted no, Mr. Speaker. I can understand why they come up here and want to talk about anything other than what we are actually doing to deliver for those families.

It is interesting how they talk about Jeffrey Epstein because for 4 years, Mr. Speaker, President Joe Biden had those files and not a single Democrat that you are hearing tonight tried to get those files released.

The House Republicans are working to do that and, of course, they are in a tizzy, Mr. Speaker, because they are finally being exposed for covering it up for 4 years.

Let them continue to come up and talk about all the deficit spending that they created while they cite and talk about the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. If you look at our scorekeeper here in the House, Mr. Speaker, they said it is going to add $4 trillion to the deficit by giving people their money back, along with cutting waste, fraud, and abuse that we did in this bill.

They are citing the same organization that the last time we gave families more of their hard-earned money back, that same group, CBO, said, oh, it is going to add $1.5 trillion to the deficit.

Mr. Speaker, we actually have the numbers now, and CBO was just a little bit off. The same people they cite as Gospel on $4 trillion said that we were going to add $1.5 trillion to the deficit back then. Do you know how much they were off by, Mr. Speaker? The numbers are in. They were off by $1.5 trillion.

They have lost their credibility. The Office of Management and Budget actually came out and said that the One Big Beautiful Bill Act would reduce the deficit by $1.4 trillion. They don't want to talk about that because every Democrat voted no. Every Democrat voted against, by the way, reforming and revamping America's air traffic control system, which was in that bill. Every Democrat voted no.

Every American family wants that air traffic control system reformed. They sure want that tax relief. Those small businesses want to be able to get back up on their feet, and they will be able to because House Republicans said we are going to just focus on doing the work of the American people. Anybody that just wants to go root for failure and continue to try to keep inflation high, interest rates high, and vote ``no'' on every bill that puts power back in the pockets of families, let them have to answer for that back home, Mr. Speaker.

We are going to keep working. This bill tonight is part of continuing that trend of getting spending under control. Does it answer all the problems? No. I would say $9 billion is a good start. Hopefully, we do more things like this, but they are going to come up here and talk about everything other than this bill because they are all going to vote ``no.''

I think it is important to know, Mr. Speaker, what they are going to vote ``no'' against. Let's talk about what is in the bill.

They are going to be voting against $6 million that was spent for net zero cities in Mexico, and $8 million for the anti-Israel U.N. Human Rights Council, a group that is anti-Israel. Why should $8 million of American tax dollars that are being borrowed from other countries be going to that organization? How about we actually get spending under control?

$300,000 was to hold a Pride parade in Lesotho. If Lesotho wants to hold a Pride parade, let them do it with their tax dollars, not with American tax dollars.

$1 million was for voter ID in Haiti. This is rich. They are angry that we are cutting that money off, but those same Democrats who are going to vote ``no'' on that will oppose voter ID in America. They are okay with voter ID in Haiti, but they are against it in America.

I will continue.

They keep talking about Sesame Street. $3 million was going to Iraqi Sesame Street. Again, if the people in Iraq want to have Sesame Street on TV, let them go do it. How about if they do it with their own tax dollars, not with American tax dollars? Better yet, they probably can get it put on one of the many options that the private sector would have, just like here in America. We have thousands of private-sector options to watch any kind of show you would want. Anybody in America can watch all of that.

$33,000 was for ``Being LBGTQI in the Caribbean.'' That is what we are cutting, and every Democrat will vote against that cut.

$643,000 was for LGBTQI programs in the Western Balkans. Mr. Speaker, every Democrat is going to vote against that cut and start talking about, oh, my God, the world is going to end, and that we won't even be able to do diplomacy because we are not going to be spending taxpayer dollars to have an LGBTQI program in the Western Balkans. I think our relations with the Western Balkans will be just fine if we save that taxpayer money and try to get spending under control in Washington. They don't want to do it. At least we do.

$5.1 million was to strengthen the resilience of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, and queer global movements. I don't know what those global movements are. I think they can do that without taxpayer money. Then, of course, there was funding drag shows in Ecuador.

The list goes on and on, Mr. Speaker.

Let's finally get control over waste, fraud, and abuse. We started it in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. We are continuing it here, and we are going to continue it through the appropriations process.

If Democrats want to vote ``no,'' that is their prerogative. They have become the party of socialists. Let them vote that way.

We are going to fight for those hardworking families who want to get our great country back on track.

Let's pass this bill, keep moving, and keep working toward a better, stronger America.

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