Providing for Consideration of H.R. Fraud Prevention and Accountability Act; Providing for Consideration of H.R. Stopping Fraudulent Payments Act; Providing for Consideration of H.R. Condemning Actors Seeking to Defraud the United States Government, and Expressing the Sense of the House of Representatives That Governmentwide Fraud and Improper Payment Prevention Reforms Will Meaningfully Improve the Financial Prosperity of the United States, and That Federal Program Eligibility Should Be Verified Before Payment; and Providing for Consideration of S. Secure America Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, we have given Republicans several chances to defeat the previous question so we can kill Trump's insurrectionist slush fund. They have refused time and time again. We are giving them another chance. Let's defeat the previous question so we can consider Ranking Member Raskin's amendment to prevent taxpayer dollars from being used as a payout for anyone who assaulted a police officer on January 6.

Trump wants to turn convicted cop beaters into MAGA millionaires. It is disgusting. These aren't people who supposedly got caught up in the crowd and somehow found themselves in the Capitol. They are people who assaulted police officers, seriously injuring many of them. They pled guilty or were convicted. Donald Trump not only pardoned them, but now he wants to give them your taxpayer money, America.

This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to corruption coming out of this administration: a super pardon for Trump and his family, bribes to pardon well-connected fraudsters, crypto schemes, pump-and-dump stock purchases, weaponizing the Department of Justice to go after his political opponents and a sexual assault survivor, handing out massive contracts to his wealthy friends, appointing unqualified lackeys to important National Security and Department of Justice jobs, and the list goes on and on and on.

Mr. Speaker, I am ashamed at what Republicans have done to this House of Representatives. We are not debating issues on affordability. We are not debating lowering gas prices, controlling healthcare costs, or anything that matters to people. Instead, they have turned the Committee on Rules into the Protect Donald Trump Committee.

Last night in the Committee on Rules, I offered three amendments to go after this slush fund, $1.8 billion. I offered three amendments, and every single Republican, including the gentleman from New York, voted ``no.'' They voted ``no'' to allow us on the House floor to have a debate and to vote on this matter.

This is a pattern that Republicans have. Remember the Epstein files? Do you know how we ended up getting a vote on the Epstein files? It wasn't because Republicans wanted one. Democrats offered a gazillion amendments in the Committee on Rules to bring a bill to the floor to release the Epstein files, and the gentleman from New York and every Republican on the Committee on Rules voted ``no.''

It wasn't until we had a discharge petition and we forced a vote that all the sudden Republicans saw the light, and they came down here, and they voted with us. It wasn't until we had a supermajority where the President couldn't veto it that the President signed it into law, but here we are, the President still isn't releasing the files, and there is silence from the other side.

People are sick and tired of this President's corruption and his lying. They are sick and tired of Republicans going along to get along. We are talking about $1.8 billion going to cop beaters. I hope my Republican friends will vote with us and defeat the previous question and do the right thing for a change.

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