Directing the Removal of United States Armed Forces From Hostilities Within or Against the Islamic Republic of Iran That Have Not Been

Floor Speech

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Mr. SCHIFF. Mr. President, it has been 13 months to the day since the House first passed Donald Trump's ``One Big Ugly Bill,'' 290 days since it was signed into law--the largest cut to healthcare in American history; $1 trillion slashed for families, children, seniors, our most vulnerable; billions taken away from hungry families; millions of Americans pushed closer to poverty, closer to financial ruin; rising costs.

And for what? To pay for tax cuts for the richest Americans, to give big corporations another leg up, and to give ICE and CBP a budget so astronomical it rivals the military budget of many industrialized nations.

For the average American, it has been 290 days of lost opportunities and less affordable healthcare; of harder conversations at the kitchen table; of more sleepless nights worrying about how to get by; more skipped meals; more doctor visits postponed; week upon week of American families hoping against hope that this President and this Congress might recognize the difficulty that they are facing, the struggle they are enduring, the central promise that this President is breaking.

Day one of Donald Trump's final term is long past, but the prices-- much to the contrary of what he has promised--have not dropped. His first 100 days are now 15 months ago, and still, inflation persists. Indeed, it is worse.

Two hundred and ninety days into the lifespan of the President's supposed signature legislative achievement, this ``Big Ugly Bill,'' and life for so many Americans is not bigger, and it is not more beautiful. At gas stations across America, the reality of Donald Trump's America is clear. At grocery stores in California to the Capitol, that reality is hitting people in their pocketbooks.

And we are not on the right track either--an illegal war in Iran that has neither a clear goal nor an endgame, that has pushed prices higher, that has rocked markets on a daily basis and made the summer road trip that so many families were looking forward to the latest victim of Trump's economy; a misguided tariff agenda that has been struck down by the highest Court. But now this administration will only take steps to return the billions in illegal duties it levied to the corporations that charged them, not the Americans who paid them.

This body recognizes the immense strain that our constituents are under. I know it does because people are making their discontent loudly known at the ballot box and at public fora all over the country in the red States and the blue States alike.

I can assure each and every one of you watching that Members of Congress understand the American dream is slipping out of reach. We know that you are worried about making ends meet. We understand that you are agonizing over whether you can keep your business afloat or what opportunities will be there for your kids.

We have heard your stories. We understand the dread you feel as you near the first of the month, the fear that is all too real when you open the mailbox, unsure of what surprise bill will arrive and tip your family into bankruptcy, the terrible math that you must use to decide which dose of medicine or which meal you can afford to skip just to keep the lights on. This is the reality for so many Americans, and we understand that.

It might be--I don't know--worse, if you could just accuse the Congress of being in the dark, if we were somehow blind, rather than a majority of this body willfully turning a blind eye to the struggles of regular people.

But as I stand here recounting to you the myriad ways in which the past year of Trump's America has gotten harder--a reality that you live every day--Republicans are getting ready to act on their next big budget resolution, not to help drive down costs, not to address the healthcare crisis, not to do something to help. No, their grand plan to address our Nation's challenges is asking the American taxpayer to give even more money out of their pocket, out of their bank account, to ICE and Border Patrol agents.

An out-of-control police force that has killed Americans and terrorized our streets, and they want more money for CBP and ICE without even a modicum of reform. Now, how is that supposed to help your life? And the short answer is: It isn't. There is nothing in this bill to make your healthcare, your energy, or your housing more affordable. Nothing.

So if there is no money, no billions in this bill to improve the quality of your life, just what are my colleagues proposing to spend these billions on? And it is this: on Agencies that have shot and killed American citizens in our streets, in broad daylight, on video, for exercising their constitutionally protected right to free speech; the agents that have broken into homes, refused to show their faces or their badges, and taken children from their parents; this run-amok force that has defied court orders, detained citizens and people with lawful status, denied them basic medical treatment, which has resulted in an unprecedented number of deaths in immigration custody and denied their constitutional rights.

ICE and CBP get $140 billion in this bill after getting close to $170 billion less than a year ago, for a whopping total of $340 billion. I am sorry, but that is an insane amount of money. That is more than we give to the Marine Corps and the FBI and the DEA and all the other Federal law enforcement Agencies combined.

So if you take the money from the Marine Corps, one of our incredible military services, and you add it to the money for law enforcement Agencies like the FBI and the DEA and the ATF, and you add it all together, it isn't a fraction of what we are giving to just these two pieces of immigration enforcement. That is what they get.

That is what these Agencies get: $340 billion. And you? You get nothing. You get not a dime. After putting more than $3 trillion on the Nation's credit card to give tax breaks to the rich and to give these Agencies the funding to arm themselves to the teeth, after taking your healthcare dollars and plowing them into heavily armed and ill-trained ICE agents, they want to put even more money into what is becoming Trump's private army.

A Gallup poll released last month found that about 1 in 3 adults, U.S. adults, the equivalent of about 82 million people, reported having made at least 1 daily life trade-off in the past year to pay for healthcare expenses. That is 39 million Americans stretching a prescription longer than the doctor recommended; it is 38 million Americans going into debt to pay a medical bill; it is 28 million Americans skipping a meal. One in nearly every 10 Americans reporting the cutback on utilities or on the amount they are driving. And that was even before gas prices spiked thanks to Trump's Iran war with no solution in sight.

And we see these impacts playing out across the country in realtime, month after month, week after week, hospitals are shutting down, clinics are closing, workers are laid off, services are canceled, and families are paying more out of pocket and going without the care they need.

Earlier this year, a hospital in Oakland, CA, announced plans to lay off 300 medical staff because it is projected to lose more than a hundred million a year thanks to the ``Big Ugly Bill.'' Another hospital in Santa Rosa, CA, had to shutter its pediatric unit; Corona, CA, lost its labor and delivery unit; clinics in Madera and Fresno had to lay off staff. There are so many of these stories, and thanks to the trillion-dollar Medicaid cut forced by Republicans in their last budget.

And where layoffs or service cuts were not enough to balance the budget, a worse fate awaited these healthcare providers. Clinics in Compton, Gilroy, Santa Cruz, San Mateo, and South San Francisco all closed their doors thanks to Donald Trump.

Thousands of Californians, all now without a place to go for medical care; that is if they can afford care at all.

Our insurance Marketplace in California saw a 30 percent decline in enrollment as premiums spiked to sometimes double what they were paying for their healthcare before the ``Big Ugly Bill.''

But healthcare--let's face it--it is not the Republican priority. This is something they are not willing to fund. This is not something in this bill.

Instead, we are asked to fund immigration Agencies that have already seen their budgets explode and their accountability erased by this administration.

For months, Democrats have sought on behalf of the families and communities terrorized by ICE to enact basic guardrails, reforms, and oversight of their conduct; to mandate they wear body cameras and clear identification, just like any other law enforcement agency; to stop the use of excessive and deadly force, and to guarantee that when they do there is accountability in the form of truly independent investigations; to mandate the use of judicial warrants so that when they are going to someone's home, as the Constitution requires, they have a judicial warrant; to stop racial profiling and the targeting of schools and churches.

All of this for a reason: So we don't have more tragic victims like Alex Pretti or Renee Good or the people that have died in detention centers like Luis Beltran Yanez-Cruz or Gabriel Garcia-Aviles, a list that is already far too long.

Now, bear in mind, these reforms that I have mentioned are all wildly popular with the American people, and we have worked in good faith to try to secure these very basic guardrails, saying clearly until these commonsense measures can be implemented, we would vote not for one more dime for these Agencies that have taken lawless instructions from the likes of Stephen Miller and Greg Bovino.

But the administration and my Republican colleagues don't want to solve the problem of excessive use of force from ICE and CBP; they don't want the accountability; they don't want the reform. And so they will use this budget and reconciliation process to bypass the need for changes to how ICE and CBP operate, to jam more money through without Democratic support, and to advance a budget that contains literally not a single dime for healthcare, hospitals, food and groceries, energy bills, nothing but more money for ICE and CBP.

And the terrible tragedy is that we in this Chamber, we here could meet this challenging moment in our Nation when people cannot afford the cost of living.

We could meet that need with a budget that would help people in need. John F. Kennedy on his first day of office stood on the west steps of the Capitol and said:

If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.

For every day of Donald Trump's second term, he has sought only to save the rich, to help those that already have so much, to line pockets that are already so deep; and in doing so, he has revealed his campaign rhetoric to be just that, just words.

My Republican colleagues may see this as a convenient way to avoid our demands for accountability, but the American people will see this as a failed opportunity for the GOP as it squanders perhaps the last chance in the 119th Congress to act meaningfully on making America affordable again.

The attempt to sell the ``Big Ugly Bill'' has failed. The American people were not fooled, neither will they be fooled now, because the billions wasted and the millions hurt will not go unnoticed. There will be an accounting, if not now, then in November.

And the American people's rejection of this President's agenda will be big, and in its own way, it will be beautiful. It will certainly be necessary.

If we are ever to make this economy work for people again, we must reject more money for lawless agents in favor of more money for healthcare for the American people.

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