Providing for Consideration of H.R. Consolidated Appropriations Act, and Providing for Consideration of H.R. Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act, and for Other Purposes

Floor Speech

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Mr. MEEKS. Mr. Speaker, we should vote today to end these tariffs and lower costs for everyday Americans. Instead, this House majority is paralyzed by fear, making it one of the least effective in modern American history.

The American people sent us to Washington to address affordability and to lower the cost of healthcare, housing, and groceries. Yet, this Congress has taken fewer votes in 2025 than in any nonpandemic year this century.

Apparently, the majority doesn't think affordability is important enough to vote on. Instead of focusing on prices, the White House has spent the past week talking about invading Greenland or using our taxpayer dollars to buy an island that isn't for sale.

To advance this fantasy, President Trump threatened yet another round of tariffs that would raise prices even further, only to walk back the threats after the stock market tanked yesterday.

Regardless of what the President does, we are a coequal branch of government. We should be addressing affordability right now by passing the resolutions I have offered and resolutions that have already passed the Senate to terminate these tariffs.

When asked to explain why we are not doing everything we can to lower costs for American families, the Speaker responded that the President is exercising Article II powers to impose tariffs. There is only one problem. The President has no Article II powers to tax or tariff. Those powers are explicitly assigned to the United States Congress under Article I of the Constitution.

The Republican majority is more interested in providing cover for Donald Trump than honoring their oath to the Constitution of the United States and deliberately avoiding doing its job to lower costs for Americans.

Mr. Speaker, the American people are watching. The camera of history is recording. I urge my colleagues to defeat the previous question and demand a vote on terminating the tariffs.

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