Financial Services and General Government and National Security, Department of State, and Related Programs Appropriations Act, 2026

Floor Speech

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Mr. ROY. Mr. Chair, I thank the Chairman and the ranking member for getting these bills to the floor in a semblance of regular order, as I described in the Rules Committee yesterday.

Mr. Chair, Republicans rise to offer two amendments today, one of which is the amendment that I am bringing forward right now. That amendment is dealing with what we call general government. It is that portion of funding that deals with a number of areas including our judges and how judges are funded.

One of the issues we have been addressing is the extent to which the President, who is elected to fulfill a mandate, has been carrying out policies that he believes fulfills the mandate the American people gave the President and that Members, my colleagues on this side of the aisle, believe should be fulfilled.

Yet, there have been judges who have been putting their personal preferences and their activist tendencies in front of the will of the people and in front of the policies the President is putting forward in such a way that raises questions about whether they are carrying out their jobs responsibly and in accordance with normal judicial ethics and procedures.

Therefore, I offer this amendment that would reduce the budget of the district court, the D.C. District Court and D.C. Circuit Court, by 20 percent and would take away the staff funding for Judges Boardman and Boasberg.

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Mr. ROY. Mr. Chair, I thank my friend from Maryland for his comments. I wish him well on his retirement. I look forward to regaling that retirement often over the next 10 months.

Mr. Chair, I would just note that I am reminded of the line in ``A Few Good Men'' when they say ``strenuously object.''

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Mr. ROY. Mr. Chair, I am reminded of that line in a ``Few Good Men'' when they talk about strenuously objecting and somehow that that makes a more emphatic statement.

I would also remind my colleague the way we have drafted this bill is to reduce the budget by 20 percent. Nowhere in the Constitution does it stipulate the amount of money that should be put----

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Mr. ROY. Mr. Chair, at some point we might be able to get an argument out in some sort of fashion where the American people can see it. I would appreciate being able to engage somebody on the House floor.

Mr. Chair, the fact of the matter is, if I can keep my train of thought, Mr. Chairman, what I would say is that this has been drafted specifically--drafted specifically--to avoid the constitutional question the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer) raises.

It was directed at the budget. Nowhere in the Constitution does it talk about the budget. It was directed at the staffs. It was not directed at the judges.

Mr. Chair, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Biggs).

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Mr. ROY. Mr. Chair, I yield an additional 15 seconds to the gentleman from Arizona.

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Mr. ROY. Mr. Chairman, I yield 30 seconds to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Clyde).
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Mr. ROY. Mr. Chairman, we created this court. We can dissolve this court. We can determine the funding for this court. The fact of the matter is that we have a situation right now where judges abuse their power, plain and simple.

The D.C. Circuit Court and the D.C. District Court are the locus of that abuse. In particular, they have harassed staff members because people raised the question about why you zero out staff.

Mr. Chairman, ask Dan Scavino. Ask Mark Meadows. Ask a number of the people who have been targeted and were harassed by these judges and January 6ers. We should make amends, and we should not fund this court to continue its lawlessness.

Mr. Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.

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