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REPUBLICANS ARE ADDRESSING THE MAJOR CRISES
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of January 4, 2021, the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Gimenez) is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.
General Leave
Mr. GIMENEZ. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the subject of my Special Order.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the gentleman from Florida?
There was no objection.
Mr. GIMENEZ. Mr. Speaker, during our time tonight, my colleagues and I will address the major crises happening here at home and happening abroad. Our message tonight will all have a consistent theme: House Republicans are leading the fight, whether it is protecting the Hyde amendment, taking action to fix President Biden's economic crisis, or holding China accountable for the COVID-19 coverup once and for all.
On the last point, the time has come for Congress to take seriously its job to hold China accountable for their role in the proliferation of the COVID-19 pandemic. This pandemic has killed over 600,000 Americans, ruined the American economy, forced into closure many people's livelihoods, and destabilized our way of life.
Just as we did in the aftermath of 9/11 and in response to the Great Recession, Speaker Pelosi and her colleagues on her side of the aisle cannot abdicate Congress' constitutional responsibility to investigate the origins of COVID-19 and the roles both the Chinese Communist Party and the World Health Organization played in preventing an expeditious global response.
A March 2020 report by the University of Southampton found that if interventions in China could have been conducted 1, 2, or 3 weeks earlier, then cases could have been reduced by 66 percent, 86 percent, and 95 percent, respectively. That is inexcusable.
Luckily for the American people, Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy and House Republicans have a plan to hold China accountable and ensure an atrocity such as the CCP virus never happens again.
The American people deserve transparency. That is why Congress must declassify information related to the origins of COVID-19. Yes, that includes any report that comes from President Biden's recent requests.
For far too long, the government has allowed individuals with known ties to the CCP or Chinese state-owned enterprises to benefit from American research and innovation. That is why we must continue to pursue policies that curb any gains made by the Chinese Communist Party.
It is also time for Congress to prohibit the National Institutes of Health or any entity that receives grants and funding from NIH from conducting research or spending resources on research with malicious foreign actors. This includes China. Our taxpayer dollars should not be going into arming our adversaries.
Foreign policy is a crucial element in holding China accountable. Congress must compel the administration to flex its foreign policy posture and reform the World Health Organization. As more information comes forward, it is evident that the WHO was complicit in China's coverup of the exploding pandemic. Their negligence is directly responsible for the loss of millions of lives. We need trusted actors such as Taiwan to form part of the organization.
In keeping in line with a tough foreign policy stance, Congress must implement a new round of tough and deliberate sanctions on anyone--
whether they are Chinese nationals with ties to the CPP or high-level executives at the World Health Organization--who willfully participated in the coverup of the COVID-19 pandemic and helped prevent a robust global response. Millions of lives are on their hands.
Another tool at our disposal is for Congress to pass the resolution introduced by my Florida colleague, Congressman Michael Waltz, and Senator Rick Scott to prevent Beijing from hosting the Winter Olympics.
Finally, we need to allow them to sue the Chinese Communist Party and any CCP official who participated in the coverup that killed over half a million Americans. They deserve no sovereign immunity.
Mr. Speaker, it is time for us to do our jobs and join Leader McCarthy and the House Republicans in holding China accountable, holding our adversaries accountable, and ensuring an atrocity such as this never happens again.
Mr. Speaker, it is my honor to introduce the Congressman from Texas, Congressman Van Taylor. Congressman Van Taylor is a decorated Iraq War veteran and an important member of the Financial Services Committee.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Taylor).
Mr. TAYLOR. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from Florida's 26th District for yielding.
On the heels of a global pandemic, which crippled small businesses and hurt workers, President Biden has offered a budget that doesn't address the problems that we so desperately confront as Americans.
There is not any additional funding for border security at a time right now when our border is in crisis, despite the fact that this budget has the highest sustained tax burden and is the largest budget ever in the history of this country. It is the largest budget to ever be before this body.
The prescription in that budget is exactly the opposite of where we need to be going. As our economy comes out of the fits and starts of recovering from COVID, this threatens to overheat even further our economy.
We know our economy is overheated. Let me give you a couple of examples.
Since May 2020, home prices have increased by almost 13 percent. Used car and truck prices are up over 20 percent. Lumber prices are up over 300 percent. Cold rolled steel has gone from $630 a ton to $1,450 a ton.
Our economy is overheated. The last thing we need is the massive $55 trillion of taxes and spending that is in the budget today in front of this body. You heard me correctly, Mr. Speaker, $55 trillion directly from the pockets of Americans who are already struggling to pay these higher gas prices and to pay for higher prices for groceries. This is all a result of President Biden's misguided fiscal policies.
Mr. Speaker, I urge my Democrat colleagues to please reconsider your support for Biden's broken budgeting methods. In the great State of Texas, small businesses and families live within their means. We must do the same.
Mr. GIMENEZ. Mr. Speaker, I thank my esteemed colleague from Texas for his great words.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from the 22nd District of Texas
(Mr. Nehls), who is a veteran law enforcement officer.
Mr. NEHLS. Mr. Speaker, I would like to highlight some of the stated goals of the INVEST in America Act.
The INVEST in America Act creates and sustains good-paying jobs, restores global competitiveness, tackles climate change, modernizes infrastructure, and spurs long-term economic growth.
These are laudable goals that most if not all of us here support. However, Mr. Speaker, when you focus on the rail title, the INVEST in America Act misses on all of those marks and, in fact, has the potential to turn back the clocks on our envy-of-the-world freight rail system.
Freight railroads provide excellent, high-paying jobs, with a Class 1 freight employee's compensation averaging $132,000 per year.
On competitiveness, the freight rail industry met the demands of our Nation during the pandemic by never closing and continually moving the goods we needed to preserve public health. They did all of it, I might add, without asking for any bailout money.
On the environment, freight railroads are also the most fuel-
efficient way to move freight over land. On average, railroads move 1 ton of freight more than 480 miles on 1 gallon of fuel.
On modern infrastructure, unlike the rest of our Nation's transportation system, our freight rail system receives the highest grade from the civil engineers for their infrastructure, a B.
On economic opportunity, freight rail's economic impact in 2017 alone manifested itself in over 1.1 million jobs, $219 billion in economic output, $71 billion in wages, and nearly $26 billion in total tax revenues.
The freight railroads can meet all of these goals because the railroads, not the American taxpayers, spend the $25 billion annually needed to improve and maintain their infrastructure. Private companies are simply better custodians of infrastructure networks than the Federal Government, and we should be utilizing that simple reality, not bemoaning it.
While President Biden, Secretary Buttigieg, and Chairman DeFazio regularly profess their love for trains, the truth is that it only extends to the highly subsidized passenger version.
The INVEST in America Act spends almost $100 billion on Amtrak. Amtrak ridership was already collapsing outside of the Northeast Corridor before COVID. Where passenger rail makes sense, private companies like Virgin Trains are building new passenger lines.
The rail title couldn't include provisions to accelerate the deployment of new safety technologies on freight rail but ensures that French toast will be served on every Amtrak train. It does nothing to expand freight rail service by moving new and in-demand products like liquefied natural gas but will pay to roll empty Amtrak trains through new parts of the country.
If Amtrak is so good and deserves an 850 percent funding increase from the previous rail title, I challenge everyone voting for the INVEST in America Act to use Amtrak instead of an airline the next time you need to head from your district to the Capitol.
This rail title is too expensive, too damaging to the economy, and too partisan to pass. However, it is not too late to work together.
I introduced an amendment to the Rules Committee to strike the entire rail title. The base text is simply too flawed to fix, and we must do better.
Mr. GIMENEZ. Mr. Speaker, it is my honor to introduce the Congressman from California, Mike Garcia. Congressman Garcia flew over 30 combat missions during Operation Iraqi Freedom as a naval aviator. We thank him for his service.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from California (Mr. Garcia).
Mr. GARCIA of California. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to call on Congress and the Biden administration to hold China accountable for its role in the COVID-19 pandemic. The evidence suggests that this virus, like too many other things in the world, was made in China.
Despite the growing evidence surrounding China's lack of transparency and mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic, House Democrats continue to stonewall Republican efforts to investigate the origins of COVID-19. Republicans have made numerous calls for the need to investigate the origins of COVID and hold China accountable, but the majority has yet to hold a single hearing on it.
This is shameful. Americans deserve transparency, and they deserve answers. We must hold China accountable for its coverup of this deadly virus that has taken the lives of 3.8 million humans worldwide, including 600,000 American lives.
Under the Trump administration, we had an investigation in place to investigate the origins of COVID-19, but that necessary investigation was ended by this Biden administration. Instead of holding our adversaries accountable, the current administration is bowing down to them. They have chosen a strategy of appeasement rather than accountability.
If America wants to remain a leader on the global stage and if we want to remain a safe and secure nation, then we must hold China and other adversaries absolutely accountable.
My Republican colleagues and I stand ready to work across the aisle to deliver the transparency and answers that Americans deserve. I hope that our colleagues across the aisle will join us in our efforts.
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Mr. GIMENEZ. Mr. Speaker, Glenn Grothman from Wisconsin is an experienced legislator in Wisconsin and a United States Congressman.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Grothman).
Mr. GROTHMAN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.
As we turn on the news every night and we think again and again about all of the changes to America that have happened in the last 4 months, it is so easy to just focus on the border or focus on the inflation or focus on the constant drumbeat that America is a horrible, racist nation. And by doing so, we forget the huge changes we have had in American law and American funding that affect the number of abortions that happen not only in the United States, but around the world.
It is hard to believe that throughout most of this country's history, even before ultrasounds were invented, the consensus in this country was that abortion was horrific; it was murder.
What have we done in the last few months?
First of all, we have repealed the Mexico City policy so that funds are once again going to organizations abroad that don't directly but indirectly fund abortions.
Secondly, we have overturned President Trump's Protect Life rule, which will reopen Title X Family Planning funding for Planned Parenthood. We believe that under this, Planned Parenthood has received
$60 million a year, which not only, in part, goes to fund abortions, but also goes to fund an organization that is designed to encourage or change America's traditional dislike of abortion.
We are restoring funding to the U.N. Population Fund, which supported China's birth limit law, and is also proselytizing for abortion.
In the latest attack on unborn babies and pro-life Americans, President Biden released a fiscal year 2022 budget that removes the Hyde amendment, the longstanding provision that prohibits Federal funding of abortions.
We don't believe this is what Americans want. The vast majority of Americans do not support taxpayer funding of abortion. So much for the unity that President Biden promised us.
There is, over time, more and more scientific literature that demonstrates unborn babies can feel pain at a very earlier gestational age, at the 15-week-old gestational age. So much for science. This is pro-abortion extremism. We can start by making the Hyde amendment permanent by passing H.R. 18, the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act.
Mr. GIMENEZ. Mr. Speaker, I couldn't agree more with the gentleman about the Hyde amendment. I think the majority of Americans couldn't agree with the gentleman more about the Hyde amendment. We need to maintain that the majority of Americans do not want to fund taxpayer-
funded abortions.
Mr. Speaker, Congressman John Rose from Tennessee is an eighth-
generation farmer and a key member of the Financial Services Committee.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Rose).
Mr. ROSE. Mr. Speaker, I thank Representative Gimenez for yielding.
Mr. Speaker, I rise before you tonight to speak on behalf of those who cannot speak for themselves. The right to life is one of the founding principles of our Nation. Every human being born or unborn is entitled to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Our government was created to secure these rights without exception, not to take them away. Yet, today, we see this right under attack as the Biden administration continues their war on the unborn by seeking to remove the Hyde amendment, a longstanding pro-life protection that has saved 2.5 million lives from abortion since 1976.
As a father of two sons, Guy and Sam, I have been blessed to watch them grow from a tiny dot on a medical monitor to the strong and healthy boys they are today. When I look at my sons, I am crestfallen for the millions and millions of children whose lives have been cruelly taken right as they were beginning.
Not too long ago, President Joe Biden stated: ``Those of us who are opposed to abortion should not be compelled to pay for it.''
But this proposed budget fails to include the Hyde amendment, making it clear that President Biden does not value life. Before coming to Washington, I vowed to be unapologetically pro-life.
I stand before you tonight because I, along with most of my fellow Tennesseans, disagree with this administration and believe taxpayer dollars should never be used to fund abortions.
Societies are measured by how they treat their most vulnerable. That includes the unborn. This is why it sickens me to see the Biden administration's intention to use the power of the Federal Government to force us to support and fund organizations that perform abortions.
I thank God for the miracle that is life, and I will work to secure a chance at life for every unborn baby so that we may hear their voice, see their potential, and give them the same basic opportunity at living that we have secured and received ourselves.
Mr. GIMENEZ. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for his comments.
Congressman Glenn Thompson from Pennsylvania is the ranking member of the Agriculture Committee. Mr. Thompson and I share a common experience as former firefighters.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Thompson), a Congressman and a former firefighter.
Mr. THOMPSON of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, I thank my brother firefighter for yielding.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to address the importance of the Hyde amendment.
In the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson penned three unalienable rights: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
As Members of Congress, it is our job to uphold those rights, and that can start with protecting the Hyde amendment. For over 40 years, the Hyde amendment has maintained bipartisan support and passed through Congress. Even President Joe Biden, then-Senator Joe Biden, supported this amendment.
The Hyde amendment ensures that Americans are not forced to pay for abortions with their tax dollars. But this year, the Hyde amendment is under attack. The current administration budget proposal calls for the Hyde amendment to be removed from the fiscal year 2022 budget. This is radical, even for Democrats.
The Hyde amendment saves lives. Since its original introduction, nearly 2.5 million lives have been saved from abortion. With nearly 60 percent of Americans agreeing that taxpayer dollars should not be used to fund abortions, we must keep the Hyde amendment in the fiscal year 2022 budget and beyond.
For these reasons, I am proud to be an original cosponsor of H.R. 18, the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act. This bill would make the Hyde amendment permanent and governmentwide. Mr. Speaker, we know life begins at conception. That is why we must stand up and continue to fight for the unborn.
Mr. GIMENEZ. Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Thompson for his comments.
Mr. Speaker, Congressman Scott Perry from Pennsylvania retired as a brigadier general in the Army and now represents the people of Pennsylvania's 10th District. I thank the gentleman for his service.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Perry).
Mr. PERRY. Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Gimenez for being here and inviting us.
Over the past year and a half, the American people have endured a nationwide pandemic and its impact on every aspect of all of our lives. More than 600,000 Americans have died, and their families have suffered the immeasurable grief of that. This was all preventable.
The Communist Party is directly responsible. I don't know why we can't say it. I don't know why we can't look into it. Our economy was devastated and lives were crushed; things that can never be gotten back. People lost jobs. People lost their dreams. It can't be gotten back.
It is going to take our economy years to rebuild. Americans want answers and they deserve answers. I don't understand why the majority party here doesn't want to investigate this. They want to investigate everything else, but they are not interested in this.
Let me tell you what we know. In November of 2019, scientists at the Wuhan Institute of Virology came down with a sickness consistent with COVID-19. We know that the World Health Organization's initial report--
and I say initial because it was so politically charged, they had to come up with another one--China maintained sole authority of those investigating it.
Oh, by the way, 60 of the people who were investigating it weren't scientists. Somehow we trust them, but we can't have our own investigations. The Chinese Communist Party is guilty of obstruction of evidence. It is clear. It is clear.
Now, while the majority has denied calls for an investigation, continuing the cult of fear--and let me talk to you about the cult of fear. Remember when touching a doorknob was supposed to give you the virus?
You couldn't shake hands. You had to buy as much toilet paper and water as you could because you couldn't go to the store. You couldn't visit your loved ones. And heaven forbid your kids go to school. And even today, when we want our kids to go to school, we are told we are terrorists and science deniers.
Let's stop the cult of fear. Let's stop it. Let's get the majority party, let's beseech the majority party to open an investigation because the American people deserve to know the origins of this virus.
Mr. GIMENEZ. Mr. Speaker, I thank the Congressman for his comments. I couldn't agree with him more. My opening statements were about China and their complicity, and we do need to investigate China and the World Health Organization and find out what did they know and when did they know it. Again, as I said, if we had known about this 1, 2, or 3 weeks earlier, we could have saved an incredible number of lives.
Mr. Speaker, Congressman Michael Cloud represents the 13th District of Texas and is the only Texas Republican on the Agriculture Committee.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Cloud).
Mr. CLOUD. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate being here, and I thank the gentleman for leading this. This is such an important topic.
We have seen ourselves in the last year and a half go from the greatest economy the world has ever seen to very perilous times for the American people.
Some of it not of our choosing; some of it, unfortunately, of our choosing. About a year and a half ago I would ask in virtually every meeting I went to in my district throughout Texas, I would ask every industry: What is your biggest problem right now?
And they would tell us: We can't find enough people.
Now, the reason was very different a year and a half ago than it is today. I get the same answer, but for very different reasons. A year and a half ago the economy was doing so good. Businesses were booming. We were hiring. Wages were growing across every demographic. Now it is because we are paying people to stay home.
This is an attack against the American worker, against the American economy, against the American work ethic that took us from struggling Colonies to an amazing, amazing influence on the world stage, to the greatest economy ever in all of humanity.
Now, what is really troubling is to see the attack against the American worker that this administration has chosen to pick out, certain industries that were very strong for us, particularly the energy industry. We have seen pipelines shut down here, while pipelines are encouraged to be built in our adversarial nations. We have seen this push toward green energy so that we can buy solar panels from China, while China continues to build hundreds of coal power plants.
So this, obviously, isn't about the environment. This is about destabilizing the economy here at home, while we empower adversarial nations abroad.
Recently, I was at the border. And we funded border infrastructure in the last administration. But now we have stopped it, even though the contract is already signed, and we won't even continue the contracts enough to plug in the lights that are already built at the border.
What is going on at the border is wreaking havoc on communities throughout our States and throughout this Nation.
We talk also about China and the devastating impact they have had on the coronavirus. We need to investigate that. This administration needs to step up and investigate that. There was some talk some time ago about how Fauci had sent money to the Wuhan lab and whether or not that was funding gain-of-function research or not.
Whether or not it was, what in the world are we doing sending money to a Wuhan lab when China is the number one thief?
They steal more intellectual property than any other nation-state from us.
We can make America work. America works when we support the American worker. Let's get back to doing that.
Mr. GIMENEZ. Mr. Speaker, I thank Congressman Cloud for his comments.
Mr. Speaker, Congressman John Joyce of Pennsylvania is part of the Doctors Caucus and has worked with the U.S. Navy at Naval Hospital Portsmouth in Virginia during Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm. I thank the gentleman for his service.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Joyce).
Mr. JOYCE of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, my commitment to life is rooted in the unequivocal truth that every person is created in the image and likeness of God. As a father and a grandfather, I can tell you that there is no greater gift than new life.
As a doctor, I can tell you that science confirms what we have known for centuries. Every unborn child is a person deserving of fundamental rights. During the span of my own medical career, I have witnessed remarkable innovation. With today's technology, there can be no doubt that a child in the womb is a living person.
Despite this evidence, Democrats are mounting unprecedented attacks on pro-life protections. First, President Biden repealed the Mexico City policy. Then House Democrats blocked the Born Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act. Now they are attempting to repeal the Hyde amendment, which bans Federal funds from being used to pay for abortion services.
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Since 1976, this key protection has been attached to all legislation passed in Congress, preventing American taxpayers from funding abortion against their will.
It is wholly reprehensible to require pro-life Americans to pay for abortion against their conscience. As Congress considers appropriations legislation, I urge my colleagues to dispense with their attack on the longstanding Hyde amendment.
To uphold the dignity of human life, we must preserve this protection. It is simple: The Hyde amendment saves lives.
Despite the challenges ahead, we must persevere in this fight. As we read in Romans 12: ``Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.''
Our enduring commitment to protect image-bearers and defend the sanctity of human life will prevail.
Mr. GIMENEZ. Mr. Speaker, who would know better about protecting life and saving life than the good doctor from Pennsylvania and my colleague, Congressman John Joyce.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. Hill), who has led a distinguished career in business and public service and serves as a member of the Financial Services Committee.
Mr. HILL. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend and appreciate him calling us together tonight to talk about the mistakes that President Biden is making, the crises that his policies are brewing across a number of areas.
Tonight, I rise, Mr. Speaker, to address the state of our economic future.
In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, Congress came together last year on a bipartisan basis and targeted relief to provide for families and hardworking Americans.
Now, as vaccines are distributed and Americans are returning to work, the Biden administration is spending an unprecedented amount of money in an untargeted way. Six trillion dollars, Mr. Speaker, and $6 trillion of deficits for 10 years to come. They are funding a manic, untargeted wish list that, in my view, is going to impoverish our kids and grandkids and contribute to too many dollars chasing too few goods.
When you combine this fiscal policy with the Federal Reserve buying of $120 billion of Government debt every month, you are brewing inflation, Mr. Speaker. In my view, inflation is just a tax on hardworking Americans trying to save for retirement, trying to save money for kids in college, trying to buy the necessities of gas, food, build a new home, add onto a home; and this inflation is a tax on working Americans. Joe Biden and his illiterate economic policy, both in monetary policy and fiscal policy, are contributors.
Mr. Speaker, Republicans have a better way. We have a better way to target spending, balance our budget, and not impoverish our kids and grandkids. If Republicans take this House back, Mr. Speaker, we will get our economic house in order.
Mr. GIMENEZ. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Pennsylvania
(Mr. Meuser), who comes from a family dedicated to public service. He serves as a member of the Veterans' Affairs Committee and the Education and Labor Committee.
Mr. MEUSER. Mr. Speaker, we are here with over 600,000 American fatalities from the COVID virus.
Anyone who referred to the COVID virus as the China virus, or originating in Wuhan, has been somewhat ridiculed along the way. Yet, the evidence continues to mount that the origins of the virus were certainly from Wuhan and very likely from the Wuhan virology lab.
Leader McCarthy recently put out eight pillars of action, an action plan, for what we, in a bipartisan manner, as Americans, should mandate, should require, should pursue.
The first, number one, is declassification of intelligence; bringing transparency to U.S. intelligence about what China knew about the virus, about its origins, and when they knew it.
Number two, prohibit the dangerous gain of function research in and with China.
Number three, prohibition on the National Institutes of Health that are funding adversarial foreign governments. We need to ensure American tax dollars don't fund foreign governments intent on harming the U.S. and our allies.
Number four, an overhaul of the World Health Organization and counterintelligence investigation. Transparency and clear understanding of the inner workings of the World Health Organization is what Americans and the world are demanding.
Number five, utilizing existing authorities to perform investigations and launch independent investigations of COVID's origins.
Number six, visa restrictions and sanctions on any agency or individual who there is evidence to show was involved in any form of coverup or misleading of the general public when it comes to COVID's origins.
Number seven, yes, waive Chinese sovereign immunity; allow families of COVID victims to sue China for any damages.
And, unless the above is met, we relocate the 2022 Olympics from China. The world cannot gather in China for peaceful games when we have strong evidence to believe that this virus originated in Wuhan and was covered up.
Mr. GIMENEZ. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleague from Pennsylvania's 13th District for those strong words and strong ideas on why we need to hold the people accountable who unleashed this horrific virus on the United States and the world at large.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Illinois (Mrs. Miller), who is a farmer, a business manager, and a member of the Agriculture Committee and Education and Labor Committee.
Mrs. MILLER of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, the Biden administration is promoting its American Jobs Plan as an infrastructure proposal. In reality, it is just a tax-and-spend package that has little to do with actual infrastructure.
We can all agree that the Nation's infrastructure is a key component to a well-functioning economy. However, Democrats are disguising a liberal wish list of big government programs as infrastructure.
Of the $2.25 trillion in total spending, only 5 percent is going to go toward traditional road infrastructure projects.
The Biden administration is labeling everything they propose as infrastructure in an attempt to deceive the American people into thinking that they are talking about roads and bridges.
Our constituents deserve an honest accounting of what Congress proposes to do with their hard-earned tax dollars.
President Biden's infrastructure plan is not about infrastructure; it is about growing the size and power of the Federal Government.
This plan is fiscally irresponsible, and it adds to the massive debt burden that we are leaving our children and grandchildren. We should mourn over what we are leaving our children and grandchildren.
The American people deserve better.
Mr. GIMENEZ. Mr. Speaker, I couldn't agree with the Congresswoman more. As a father and a grandfather, it is atrocious, the debt that we are going to be leaving our children and our grandchildren. We are stealing their future. They will not have the money that they need to provide for their programs and their infrastructure that they are going to need to fund in the future. That is one of the reasons why I wholeheartedly agree with her.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Kansas (Mr. Mann), who is a fifth generation Kansan and proudly serves on the Agriculture Committee and Veterans' Affairs Committee. He represents Kansas' First District.
Mr. MANN. Mr. Speaker, I rise to discuss winners and losers under President Biden's policies.
When I was a kid playing eight-man football for the Quinter Bulldogs in rural Kansas, there wasn't much room for debate on the winners and losers of the game. You either won or you didn't. You either scored more touchdowns, more 2-point conversions, and got more tackles than the other team, or you didn't. Plain and simple.
The same is true with America today. President Biden's progressive policies make for very clear winners and very clear losers. Consider these three examples:
Winner number one: Communist China. Loser: America.
On January 31, 2020, America received warning that the coronavirus had possibly been engineered in the Wuhan Institute of Virology in Wuhan, China. In late 2020, America began investigating the link between the spread of the coronavirus and the Wuhan lab. In one of his first acts as President, Joe Biden prematurely ended the investigation into the Wuhan lab.
Now, with new, insurmountable evidence that the coronavirus could have been engineered in the Wuhan lab, President Biden and Speaker Nancy Pelosi refuse to investigate the origins of COVID-19 even with overwhelming support for an investigation. On top of that, President Biden refuses to stop American taxpayer-funded research at that very Wuhan lab.
It has been more than a year since the pandemic shut down the country. Today, nationwide, coronavirus cases have dramatically decreased. America is finally getting back to normal. Businesses across the country are ready to reopen and welcome back customers. Unfortunately, President Biden's bonus, the new monthly unemployment checks being distributed on top of the already existing unemployment checks, is paying a premium for workers to remain at home rather than finding work. The data doesn't lie. There are nearly 8 million job openings in America right now, a new record. I have heard from countless small business owners in the Big First who cite the Biden bonus as the reason they cannot find workers and completely reopen.
While Communist China covers up COVID-19, President Biden is denying science, keeping people unemployed, and hurting America's prosperity. Under President Biden's policies, America loses.
Winner two: The Mexican cartels. Loser: America.
President Biden created a full-scale crisis at our southern border. He promised outright citizenship to more than 11 million illegal immigrants, placed a moratorium on deportations, and halted border wall construction.
These lax policies lure drug cartels, who in turn make hundreds of millions of dollars exploiting children. The cartels will even throw migrant children in the Rio Grande as a distraction, to avoid being apprehended. The daily average of unaccompanied minors crossing the southern border has skyrocketed since President Biden took office.
These policies also create chaos for Americans living near the border. American farmers and ranchers on the border are forced to check their livestock in the daylight, as it is too dangerous for them to leave their homes at night. American families are keeping their kids indoors at all hours of the day. American law enforcement officers and Border Patrol are overworked and shorthanded.
Meanwhile, President Biden and Vice President Harris have yet to visit the border and refuse to secure our country and enforce immigration laws. Under President Biden's policies, America loses.
Winner three: Socialism. Loser: America.
Just a few weeks ago, later than any other President in a transition year, President Biden released his $6 trillion budget. The budget is the most egregious, most shortsighted, and costliest budget America has ever seen.
President Biden's budget is a progressive wish list in disguise. He wants us funding the Green New Deal, spending $174 billion on subsidies to the electric car market and $40 billion to retrain employees who lost their jobs after he blocked the Keystone Pipeline, all in an attempt to replace the oil and gas industry. He wants $63.5 billion for international spending, but none for America's longtime ally, Israel, clearly bowing to Democrats on their record of anti-Semitic language and slurs. And he refuses to protect our dollars from being spent on abortions, removing a pro-life protection that 77 percent of Americans support and a protection even Biden supported for years before his Presidential campaign.
While socialists are pleased with Biden's latest spending spree, the economic disaster to follow will cripple American families' purchasing power and leave future generations with the crushing burden of the national debt. Under President Biden's policies, America loses.
Sadly, the greatest loser in all of this is our freedom, the freedom to open our businesses and make a living when we choose, the freedom to own land without the fear of a land grab, the freedom for law-abiding Americans to own and use firearms, the freedom to live out our faith without being persecuted by the government, the freedom to speak freely on college campuses, and the freedom to win.
Our Founding Fathers ensured that these freedoms do not flow from a king, another country, or government, and they never will. Under freedom, America always wins.
Mr. GIMENEZ. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Alabama (Mr. Carl), who is a successful small business owner and a valued member of the Armed Services Committee and Natural Resources Committee.
Mr. CARL. Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Gimenez for overseeing this and calling us together.
Mr. Speaker, let's not forget what we have gone through in the last year and a half.
In the last year and a half, personally, I have seen a campaign that we have had to run while talking through doors. We had campaigns that were virtually unheard of in the past.
Those of us that did win, when we came to Washington, we were all treated equally, but we were treated like a disease. We were locked down in a hotel; our food was slipped to us through a plastic cover, in a paper bag; and that is the way we lived for a week through orientation.
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I am not blaming anyone. We had no idea what was going on. We all lived in fear. We all worried about this. But we are Americans and we are tough. We are tough. So we have made it. We have made it so far.
The changes we have seen, the birthdays that we have missed, the parents that we have seen that have passed away without us being there with them, I mean, we have all lived through this. We have got to reach across the aisle, and we have got to get America answers, answers to where this pandemic actually started. I encourage everyone to do that.
Millions have lost jobs and necessary incomes while countless others lost loved ones to the virus. Meanwhile, the American public is constantly being misled over the origins of the spread of this COVID-
19.
First, we need to declassify all information related to the origins of COVID-19. Then we need to prohibit the National Institutes of Health from giving funds to irresponsible foreign governments, like China. And, finally, we need to investigate the Chinese Communist Party's role in the origin and the spread of this virus.
The evidence is clear that the Chinese Communist Party intentionally hid information and lied about the truth about this virus. It is time for answers, and it is time for us to hold them accountable for the spread of this horrific pandemic. The American people and the whole world deserves to know the truth.
I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to stop, hesitate, and let's work together on this. Let's join together and find out the truth and prevent something like this from happening again. It is very important to this country and this Nation.
Mr. GIMENEZ. Mr. Speaker, I now yield to the gentleman from Texas
(Mr. Babin), who represents Texas' 36th District. He is a lifelong resident of east Texas and my colleague on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and the Science, Space, and Technology Committee.
Mr. BABIN. Mr. Speaker, I thank my good friend from Florida, a former mayor, for yielding. I am a former mayor myself.
Mr. Speaker, every single action that the Chinese Communist Party takes leaves me with no doubt that they are not friends of ours. For years, Beijing has stolen American intelligence, technology, and intellectual property in their relentless pursuit to supersede us as the number one superpower in the world.
So it should come as no surprise to anyone that more than a year after COVID-19 magically manifested itself and escaped China and took the world by storm, killing millions, we are still asking ourselves: How did it happen? Is there something that China is not telling us?
The simple answer is yes, there is plenty that the CCP is not telling us. We can't even begin to solve the question of how this happened until we start a formal investigation.
Unfortunately, it is not just the CCP who refuses to allow a transparent and thorough investigation into the pandemic's origins. It is also my colleagues across the aisle. After all, secrecy and diversion seem to be a standard practice for both the Democrat Party and Beijing.
Why are the Democrats refusing to allocate resources so that we can solve the problems and questions surrounding something this major?
They are perfectly happy to spend $1.9 billion of Americans' hard-
earned tax dollars for security upgrades to the Capitol complex due to the events of January 6, where one person died, but cannot be bothered to spend a dime to investigate how 600,000 Americans died.
There is mounting evidence that the COVID-19 pandemic started in a Chinese laboratory and that the Chinese Communist Party covered it up.
Don't the more than 33 million Americans who have been infected with COVID and the loved ones of the more than 600,000 Americans who passed away from it deserve an explanation?
To blindly just believe that this global pandemic started from a bat in a wet market in the very same city where genetic analyses of coronaviruses are done at the Wuhan Institute of Virology without doing any sort of an investigation is a dereliction of our duty. It is inexcusable and downright ignorant.
This administration and this Congress must hold the Chinese Communist Party's feet to the fire and give us some answers. We deserve the truth.
Mr. GIMENEZ. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Franklin), my friend and colleague. He has served as a naval aviator in the U.S. Navy for 26 years. I thank him for his service.
Mr. C. SCOTT FRANKLIN of Florida. Mr. Speaker, because of its great weather, beautiful beaches, and low taxes, a friend who once served as my Congressman liked to say that, for many around the country, Florida is the reward for a life well lived.
As liberal States continue to run their governments into the ground and the pandemic has accelerated our ability to work remotely, it is no longer just retirees who are moving to the Sunshine State in droves. In fact, nearly 330,000 have relocated there in the past year alone.
With its strategic location along central Florida's I-4 corridor, Florida's 15th Congressional District is one of the fastest growing areas in the country. Our current transportation infrastructure is already inadequate. It is a problem that will only accelerate going forward unless we act now. I am sure many communities across the country can relate.
Both sides of the aisle can agree that our Nation's highways, airports, water infrastructure, ports, and broadband networks are the arteries of our national commerce and worthy investments of taxpayer money.
The good news is Republicans are taking the lead to meet these infrastructure needs. First, we are proposing a major overhaul of our Federal project review and permitting processes. When I formerly served on the board of the Transportation Planning Organization in my home district, we routinely had critical needs that waited years for funding. Some of those have still not been funded. So speeding up that process is a critical first step.
We are also proposing a $460 billion framework that will make crucial investments in our Nation's transportation system, water infrastructure, and broadband networks. This framework represents an investment in the real infrastructure Americans need, not bizarre reinterpretations of infrastructure or partisan pet projects.
Congress has talked about infrastructure investment for years. It is time to put words into action. I hope the President will continue to listen to voices on both sides of the aisle to enact a bipartisan solution that our country so desperately needs.
Mr. GIMENEZ. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Tennessee
(Mrs. Harshbarger). She has been a successful pharmacist and business owner for over three decades.
Mrs. HARSHBARGER. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak about the important need for an investigation into China's role in the origin of COVID-19.
More than 600,000 Americans and 3.8 million people have died worldwide from the virus, and now it is becoming more evident than ever that the virus may have originated from a leak at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
It is also clear that China withheld critical information at the beginning of the pandemic to cover up how deadly the virus could become. We have demanded an investigation to find out what Chinese Communist Party leaders knew and when they knew it. My colleagues from across the aisle have blocked our attempts.
Millions have died and countless others have suffered from the economic effects of the pandemic. The American people deserve answers as to how the outbreak originated, and the Chinese Communist Party must be held accountable if they are responsible for the outbreak and its global spread.
The bottom line is this: China lied and people did die. We need an investigation now.
Mr. GIMENEZ. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Wittman). He is an experienced government official. We share a common background in local government, having both served as mayors.
Mr. WITTMAN. Mr. Speaker, over 3.8 million people across the world have died from COVID-19, over 600,000 Americans have died. We deserve to know how the COVID-19 pandemic began.
There is mounting evidence to show that the Wuhan Institute of Virology is a probable source of that. If we look at the assertions by China to say that this was transmitted naturally from a bat through a wet market, things just don't add up.
If we look at the information we have gotten from our intelligence communities, if we look at what we have seen to this point across the whole spectrum, we deserve to know exactly what has happened.
If we want to uncover the truth behind COVID-19, if we are serious about preventing future pandemics, if we are serious about holding China accountable, then I believe we need to do everything we can to follow the science.
By profession and by education, I am a biologist. In fact, I worked in and ran laboratories for years, laboratories that handled pathogenic organisms. I know the things that need to be done to uncover exactly what happened at the Wuhan lab.
It doesn't make sense to look at the assertions that China makes and somehow believe that that is indeed the case. I don't think that this is a random event. I do believe that there are links to the Wuhan lab that must have an independent and thoughtful evaluation of exactly what happened.
We have to force China to allow a free, objective, and independent evaluation of exactly what happened at the Wuhan Institute of Virology and determine what role did it play in the origins of this pandemic. We have to do that.
I want to ensure the investigation happens and that we hold Chinese officials accountable. That is why I introduced The World Deserves to Know Act, because, indeed, the world deserves to know. The World Deserves to Know Act will sanction key Chinese officials in their Centers for Disease Control, in their national health commission who obfuscated data, the data necessary to determine exactly what happened; and also, through our intelligence gathering, to identify those individuals in the Chinese Communist Party that persecuted scientists, that persecuted citizen journalists that sought to divulge the truth about what happened there. There must be a free, open, and independent evaluation that is allowed in order for us to know. Again, the world deserves to know.
In the meantime, what my bill would do is also prohibit funding from going to China from any U.S. institution, our universities, our colleges, anyplace that would send money either to the National Health Commission or any entity associated with the National Health Commission, like the Wuhan lab for the research that we have seen going on there, the gain-of-function research. We have to make sure that that happens.
I want to make sure, too, that we identify where dollars have gone from the U.S., from the National Institutes of Health or any other governmental entity or any entity associated with our Federal Government, State governments, or local governments that may have sent money to China for gain-of-function research. We have to know exactly where the money went, where it came from, and who was the decisionmaker about how that money got there. And that needs to go all the way up through our bureaucracies not only at the Federal level, but at the State level also. Anywhere there is an association, that needs to be known.
I want to make sure, too, that my bill allows Taiwan observer status in the World Health Organization to make sure that they check China's malign influence over the organization. Taiwan was at the very beginning of making sure that this was transparent.
This is not about political gamesmanship. This is about getting to the truth not only for the sake of truth itself, but to make sure the United States never suffers another pandemic like the one we just endured.
I hope that all my colleagues on both sides of the aisle will join me in holding China accountable and supporting and cosponsoring The World Deserves to Know Act.
Mr. GIMENEZ. Mr. Speaker, I now yield to the gentleman from California (Mr. LaMalfa). He represents California's First District. He serves on the Agriculture Committee and the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.
Mr. LaMALFA. Mr. Speaker, we talk a lot about infrastructure around here. The American people wonder what is that actually going to mean coming out here. Well, it really needs to be focused on things that we are short of, but would be fixing our highways, fixing our bridges, things like that.
In California, where I come from, the subject is water. Water storage is desperately needed. We have had some years of drought, but we also have not added to our water storage in a significant way in 40 years. With a growing population, there is a growing need.
For example, what does that mean to all Americans, not just Californians?
The food we eat. The top crops in California that are grown approximately 99 percent or more in California are almonds, artichokes, celery, figs, garlic, raisins, kiwis, honeydew, nectarines, olives, cling peaches, pistachios, plums, sweet rice, and walnuts.
If California is not growing those items, where do we intend to get those?
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For almonds especially, California grows all the domestic production Americans use and 77 percent of the global production. We also produce 92 percent of the Nation's avocados, grapes, lemons, and mandarins. No avocados? No guacamole.
What are we going to do, import all this? We have to be producing this stuff in the State of California.
What does that mean? We need to invest in water infrastructure. We can be raising Shasta Dam, which is a Federal project. Eighteen feet yields over 600,000 new acre-feet for these crops. We could be building Sites Reservoir. Both of these have been invested in slightly by the Federal Government lately. We need to do much more because we are the leading State in so many of the important products that Americans actually use.
So, we have to talk a lot more about water storage.
Mr. GIMENEZ. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
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SOURCE: Congressional Record Vol. 167, No. 109
The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
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