Providing for Consideration of Senate Amendments to H.R. Consolidated Appropriations Act, Providing for Consideration of H.J. Res. Disapproving the Action of the District of Columbia Council in Approving the D.C. Income and Franchise Tax Conformity and Revision Temporary Amendment Act of and Providing for Consideration of H.R. Critical Mineral Dominance Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Georgia for yielding me the customary 30 minutes and for his riveting presentation, and I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, before I say a word about the rule or the bills in front of us, this is the first full day that we have convened since two Federal officers shot and killed another American citizen in Minneapolis, Alex Pretti, an ICU nurse who took care of our Nation's veterans.

Alex was on a public street. He was exercising his First Amendment rights while filming Federal agents. He was exercising his Second Amendment rights as a law-abiding, concealed-carry gun owner. He was doing what any decent person would do: helping a woman off the ground after she had been shoved down by a Federal officer. For that, he was punished with death, shot by his own government.

This wasn't an isolated tragedy, Mr. Speaker. It was the second public killing of an innocent American in Minneapolis tied to Homeland Security. Renee Good, a mother of three, was shot by ICE on January 7, mere weeks before the murder of Alex Pretti.

Mr. Speaker, as co-chair of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, named after our former colleague, the only Holocaust survivor to serve in the United States Congress, I have spent years documenting and standing up to human rights abuses carried out by authoritarian regimes against their own people.

Let me say this plainly: A functioning democracy does not execute people in the street. That is the kind of thing you see in North Korea, Mr. Speaker, or Iran; not in the United States of America.

It is beyond the pale. In my view, this administration and those at the Department of Homeland Security, in particular, should not get another cent until there are some serious actions taken. I personally believe we should abolish ICE and start all over. At a minimum, there needs to be some serious, systemic reforms made, which brings us to today's rule debate.

Over the weekend, the Senate acted on the government funding bills House Republicans sent them 2 weeks ago, except for a short-term CR that continues DHS funding at the current levels for the next 1\1/2\ weeks.

I want to be crystal clear about where I stand: I am voting ``no''. I will not stand by and give any more money to Stephen Miller and Kristi Noem to bankroll an out-of-control operation that is terrorizing communities and shredding the Constitution.

We are watching masked, armed agents force their way into homes without judicial warrants. We are seeing blatant violations of the Fourth Amendment. We are witnessing agencies act with impunity. We are hearing about kids getting kidnapped on their way to school and grandparents dragged from their homes. We are listening as government officials smear dead Americans as domestic terrorists instead of answering basic questions about what happened.

Mr. Speaker, I am not interested in business as usual, not for 2 more weeks, not for 2 more seconds.

A Federal judge recently described ICE's conduct in January as an extraordinary pattern of defiance of court orders. They said ICE ``has likely violated more court orders in January 2026 than some Federal agencies have violated in their entire existence.'' That should give every single Member of this House pause. It is certainly my red line, and I think it ought to be a red line for this whole body.

Mr. Speaker, it is not just DHS funding. This package also gives a massive increase in funding to the Pentagon. Why are we writing a blank check for the so-called Department of War while this administration threatens allies, breaks the law, and treats Congress like an afterthought? Why are we giving Pete Hegseth more money than the administration even asked for while we get fewer answers, fewer guardrails, and fewer constraints on reckless action?

On top of all of this, Republicans have jammed in a measure to repeal D.C.'s new tax law. Let me just tell my colleagues, this would blow a $600 million hole in D.C.'s budget, over half a billion dollars gone because Republicans in Congress want to meddle in local governance when they can't even manage a budget of their own.

I mean, they just added $4 trillion to the national debt in their one big, ugly bill. Let that sink in. I mean, it is ridiculous. The Mayor and the chairman of the D.C. Council warned that this would throw a huge wrench into D.C.'s current tax filing season and force people to refile their taxes. That is insane.

If this bill becomes law, they would be ripping away D.C.'s new child tax credit, money that would go directly to families to help them put food on the table and reduce childhood poverty. Republicans talk a big game about family values, and then they turn around and take money out of kids' pockets. It is shameful. By the way--you can't make this stuff up--this measure had no hearing and no markup. I say, so much for regular order.

When I asked the Oversight Committee chairman yesterday basic questions about D.C.'s budget, he had no answers. He had no idea how big D.C.'s budget is or how much D.C. spends on the Metro, schools, or infrastructure improvements. He had no idea how much money D.C. raises in local taxes and how much of a budget shortfall their outrageous bill would cause. These are the most basic questions that you could possibly ask about whether to overturn D.C.'s tax law, and he couldn't answer them. He had no clue.

Let's be honest about what this is. It is powerful people in Washington telling local communities: Sit down and shut up. We know better. Then they leave working people to clean up the mess.

The final bill in this rule is another massive giveaway to mining CEOs and polluters that lets them gut their own regulations. It is the same pattern. It is the same pattern every single time: more power for the strong, more pain for the vulnerable, more protection for insiders, and more excuses for lawlessness. Enough is enough.

Mr. Speaker, I am voting ``no'' on this rule, ``no'' on this underlying package, and ``no'' on all these bills. I reserve the balance of my time.

I want to respond to the gentleman from Georgia, who comes down here with the same old, tired MAGA talking points when it comes to ICE and Homeland Security.

He comes down here to confuse people, to somehow imply that Democrats don't want to lock up violent criminals. On the contrary, we do. That is what we were promised that the worst of the worst would be pursued and would be held accountable. However, that is not what is happening. That is not what is happening.

In Minnesota, ICE agents have been intimidating people in hospitals, forcing hospital management to issue protocols for employees on how to best engage. Our doctors and nurses ought to be focused on tending to patients and not dealing with ICE agents. It is despicable. I mean, agents showed up to a Minnesota hospital with a man who immigrated here legally. Just 4 hours after his arrest, he had at least eight skull fractures in addition to life-threatening brain hemorrhages.

When people have exercised their First Amendment rights to protest, ICE meets them with only more abuse, beating peaceful protesters and dousing them in pepper spray.

Mr. Speaker, we have all heard by now the horrifying story of Alex Pretti, an innocent American citizen, an intensive care nurse who was brutally murdered by Federal agents. This wasn't an isolated incident. The administration has shot 13 people during immigration enforcement operations since September.

I am going to say that again, 13 people have been shot by the Department of Homeland Security. Four of those shootings were fatal. Those are four people who would be with us today if not for the insane administration's cruel oppression of our communities. I mean, ICE agents are not protecting our borders. They are ambushing our communities, decimating our families, and taking innocent lives.

Mr. Speaker, Republicans nearly tripled ICE's budget last summer with their big, ugly bill; and all that money ought to be clawed back. As far as the appropriations package before us, again, I refuse to send another cent to Stephen Miller or Kristi Noem. She ought to be impeached, and he ought to be fired immediately. They are undermining our Constitution, and the Department that they run is murdering American citizens on the street.

We are hearing about young children being kidnapped. We are hearing about off-duty police officers being detained by ICE. We are hearing about ICE going after people because of the color of their skin. That is what we object to. Let's go after the criminals.

By the way, we are not the party that pardoned all the insurrectionists on January 6 and said that the slate is clean. By the way, those people go on to murder innocent people, to rape women, and molest children.

There is a difference here. We want to go after the violent criminals, those who have committed terrible crimes. That is what we were promised, and we were lied to. We have had it.

Mr. Speaker, the Florida man who just spoke characterized the murder of two Americans by ICE agents as unfortunate. It is not unfortunate. It is goddamned unacceptable, and everybody should be outraged by that.

He also bragged about the fact that he has been in Congress for 10 months, and the government has been shut down twice. I hate to be the one to remind the gentleman, but the last time I checked, his party is in control of everything: the White House, the Senate, and the House. You run the show. Maybe November will be a month of reckoning. Let's hope so for the sake of this country.

Mr. Speaker, if we defeat the previous question, I will offer an amendment to the rule to make in order amendment No. 47 to the Senate amendments to H.R. 7148, which would allow for an up-or-down vote on whether to cut the $75 billion Republicans gave ICE in their big, ugly bill and use those funds to undo some of the big, ugly bill's disastrous healthcare cuts.

Mr. Speaker, last year, Republicans voted to kick more than 15 million people off their healthcare--15 million Americans--through an over $1 trillion cut to Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act.

Republicans claimed that this was for deficit reduction, but we know that wasn't true. That was a lie. According to the nonpartisan budget experts at the Congressional Budget Office, their big, ugly bill added $4 trillion to the national debt, in part, by giving ICE boatloads of cash to run roughshod through American cities with zero safeguards. This must end.

If Democrats defeat the previous question, I will offer an amendment to repurpose these ICE funds toward lowering healthcare costs, which Republican Senators Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins voted for just last week. I challenge my Republican colleagues in this body to do the same.

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Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, to discuss our proposal, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Rhode Island (Mr. Amo), the sponsor of this amendment.

Mr. Speaker, I am confused. I mean, the gentleman wants to say that the Republicans are not in control, even though they control the White House, the House, and the Senate. Yet, the Republicans were in control to throw 15 million people off of healthcare. Republicans were in control to add $4 trillion to the debt. The Republicans were in control to cut Medicaid by $1 trillion. The Republicans were in control to give ICE unlimited amounts of money with no guardrails. Now, they are telling us they are not in control? I am confused.

Let me just say this. My colleagues across the aisle can't have it both ways. Again, I hope that the Republican control of this House and of this Senate is short-lived because, quite frankly, this country cannot stand another 2 years of this, where if a person is rich and well-connected and a friend of the President, they get all kinds of sweetheart deals. If they are not, if they are a hardworking, middle- class family, they get screwed. People have had it. They see through this.

To say that my colleagues are not in control when they have been cutting programs that have helped poor children, that have helped middle-class families, when they have given tax breaks to multimillionaires and billionaires, give me a break.

Mr. Speaker, I thought the gentleman was asking me a question and that we would have a conversation. I will tell him that we don't want a shutdown. We want them to reel in an out-of-control ICE agency that is killing American citizens right before our very eyes. That is what we want.

I don't understand for the life of me why that is such a heavy lift from my Republican friends, but that is what we are asking for. We don't want to shut the government down. That is not who we are.

By the way, again, Republicans are responsible for the last shutdown. They went on vacation rather than stay in Washington to try to negotiate a deal.

Here we are. All we are asking for is let's reel in this out-of- control agency, and my friends find that too difficult to comprehend.

Lois Frankel).

Ms. LOIS FRANKEL of Florida. Mr. Speaker, let me be clear. I support the five bills that received bipartisan support, but I cannot vote for a package that includes funding for the Department of Homeland Security without immediate action to stop the ongoing violation of human rights and law by ICE. They have turned into thugs, and it has turned our country, America, into a place that many of us don't recognize.

Donald Trump promised to take violent criminals off the streets. Instead, his immigration enforcement has become a campaign of cruelty against peaceful people, tearing families apart, hollowing out businesses, and paralyzing neighborhoods with pepper spray and fear.

Mr. Speaker, the crisis is national in scope. It is not just the headlines of the cold-blooded murders in Minnesota.

The Department of Homeland Security has detained hundreds of thousands of decent people this year, often in unspeakable conditions and without a fair process. That includes over 10,000 people in my home State of Florida, including a mother torn away from her child while nursing her baby. These people are largely good, decent mothers and fathers who are workers contributing to our communities.

We do need to take the time for bipartisan immigration reform, but today--today--we must rein in ICE. That includes ending masked enforcement with roving patrols, requiring judicial warrants, mandating body cameras, ending total immunity, and repurposing the billions of dollars that are being used to menace our communities.

Security does not require brutality. Enforcement does not require lawlessness, and our immigration policy should reflect our values, not force us to abandon them. We can secure our borders without terrorizing our neighbors, and I will not support funding that enables cruelty.

Congress must act now to impeach Kristi Noem and rein in ICE.

Mr. Speaker, unfortunately, under the Republican rule, we don't have regular order anymore. We should be debating appropriations bills one at a time. They bunch everything together.

Mr. Speaker, not only do they bunch things together, but they don't even call for amendments anymore. This is the most closed Congress in history. The Rules Committee and this House of Representatives has become a place where democracy goes to die. My friends should be ashamed of what they are doing to this institution.

Mr. Speaker, that was a lot of words to justify the most closed Congress in history.

Mr. Speaker, 83 percent of the rules have been closed. That is 8 out of 10. Republicans don't even call for amendments anymore, and people know that it is a waste of time to come to the Rules Committee because they have already been tipped off that there are going to be no amendments in order.

Mr. Speaker, 90 percent of Democratic amendments have been rejected. A big chunk of Republican amendments have been rejected. I am sorry that Republicans' rank and file are such cheap dates when it comes to legislating, but they cave all the time and they vote for these crappy rules that are totally closed, so that is a bunch of bullshit. Let's be honest. That is what we are talking about here. That is not an accurate assessment of what is going on here.

This is the most closed Congress in history. Republicans should be ashamed.

Mr. Speaker, I remind my Republican friends, who kind of just go along to get along, that Mr. Arrington, who is a chairman, had 71 percent of his amendments blocked.

I will go right down the list.

Congresswoman Mace had 76 percent of her amendments blocked.

Congressman Steube had 79 percent of his amendments blocked.

I could go right down the list. These are all Republicans who just routinely get blocked.

Enough. Enough. This is a ridiculous argument. The bottom line is a lot of words to justify the most closed Congress in history.

Leger Fernandez).

Ms. LEGER FERNANDEZ. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak up against Kristi Noem's Department of Homeland Security. Speaking up is what we must do when we see that the Constitution is violated and the moral fabric of our Nation is brutalized the same way that they are brutalizing our communities and killing our citizens.

Whether it is in New Mexico or Minnesota, fear has become a policy for ICE and CBP, and cruelty has become their strategy. They take money that is taxpayer money that could be used for affordable housing, healthcare, and bringing down the cost of living, and they are spending it to terrorize our communities.

Following the Constitution, respecting the First, Fourth, and 14th Amendments should not be optional. It should never be up for negotiation. We should make it a requirement and make sure that they do not have immunity because then they act with impunity. We should not give another penny to the Department of Homeland Security until we get accountability.

Mr. Speaker, I urge that we vote against this rule.

Mr. Speaker, in closing, listening to the debate by my Republican colleagues, I know Republicans want to pretend like they are not in control because that absolves them of responsibility and accountability. They don't want to own their own record because they know their record sucks. They want to pretend like they are not in control because if they pretend like they are in control, if they acknowledge that they are in control, then they will be held accountable in November.

Look at what they have promised compared to what they have done so far:

Tax breaks for billionaires; they make sure their big donors are taken care of while they screw over regular people.

$40 billion to Argentina; hurting our farmers and ranchers, importing more beef from South America.

Bombing Venezuela, threatening to invade NATO allies.

Meanwhile, prices are not down. Prices are up because of the stupid tariffs and lousy economic policies.

They promised to release all of the Epstein files. They still haven't done that. In fact, they are covering up for the President of the United States.

People are struggling more than ever because Trump's economy sucks. They are making it easier for the elites, easier for the billionaires, easier for the Epstein class, and harder for everybody else.

Maybe that is why even Republicans are finally acknowledging MAGA was all a lie. Of course, their members only acknowledge that after they leave. Let's listen to Trump's former top ally, Marjorie Taylor Greene. Here is what she said: ``I think people are realizing it was all a lie. It was a big lie for the people. What MAGA is really serving in this administration, who they are serving, is their big donors.''

Look at who Republicans have helped. They have been in charge for a year. They have helped Big Oil. They have helped Big Banks. They have helped Big Tech.

Look who was in the front row at Trump's inauguration: billionaires. That is all he cares about. Look at their promises to go after ``the worst of the worst'' when it comes to immigration, another broken promise. Stephen Miller and Kristi Noem are not going after the worst of the worst. They are going after kids, VA nurses. They are deporting veterans, for God's sake.

We are sick and tired of the broken promises and the lies. Enough. I talk to Republican colleagues all the time who privately confess to me that this is a disaster, and then they come on the floor and talk to the press and say everything is beautiful. That is just not reality.

This President and this administration are taking this country in the wrong direction. We have people that are being murdered in our streets by U.S. Federal agents. When is enough going to be enough? I can't believe this. Go along to get along, I get it. Everybody over there is afraid of the guy in the White House, but maybe you should be more afraid of your constituents. Maybe you ought to listen to your constituents because they are sick and tired of this BS. They have had it. They want Congress to be a body that fights for them, that fights to improve the quality of life for average people. They want this body to be a place where we debate important issues passionately, and we skip all the crazy debates we have on trivial matters.

We can do so much better, but it requires my friends on the other side of the aisle to kind of grow a spine, to stand up and to say and do the right thing.

This is nuts what is happening: People being murdered in our streets; Federal agents crashing into people's homes without a judicial warrant; former off-duty police officers being detained by ICE; people with brown and black skin being detained routinely by ICE. This has to stop.

Mr. Speaker, I urge all of my colleagues to vote ``no'' on this rule. Let's get to the negotiating table. Let's do something to reel in this out-of-control agency. Going along to get along is no longer an option.

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

The yeas and nays were ordered.

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