the troops to remain in the philippines. if you fast-forward to today, we have one of the best relationships with the philippines that we have seen in a long time. we just had president marcos here. we opened up four new sites. this was the site that we already had. this is the generation that i think we need to provide tremendous capabilities to our allies. this provides australia with in nuclear power, part of the

submarine candle. >> you can find this hearing online at c-span.org. we take you live for votes. . hoe of representatives, the clerk received the following message from the secretary of the senate on april 17, 2024, at 3:45 p.m. that the senate agreed to senate concurrent resolution 33. signed, sincerely, kevin f. mccumber, acting clerk. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to house resolution 1149 and rule 18, the chair declares the house in the committee of the whole house on the state of the union for the further consideration of h.r. 4639. will the gentleman from texas, mr. ellzey, kindly take the chair.

the chair: the house is in the committee of the whole house on the state of the union for further consideration of h.r. 4639, which the clerk will report by title. the clerk: a bill to amend section 2702 of title 18, united states code, to prevent law enforcement and intelligence agencies from obtaining subscriber or customer records in exchange for anything of value, to address communications and records in the possession of intermediary internet service providers and for other purposes. the chair: when the committee of the whole house rose earlier today, a request for recorded vote on amendment number 3 printed in house report 118-464 offered by the gentleman from

new york, mr. lalota, had been postponed. pursuant to clause 6 of rule 18, the unfinished business is the request for a recorded vote on on amendment number 3 printed in house report 118-446 or offered by the gentleman from new york, mr. lalota, on which further proceedings were postponed and on which the noes prevailed by voice vote. the clerk will redesignate the amendment. the clerk: amendment number 3 priprinted in house report 118-4 offered by mr. lalota of new york. the chair: a recorded vote has been requested. those in support of the request for a recorded vote will rise and be counted. a sufficient number having arisen, a recorded vote is ordered. members will record their votes by electronic device. this will be a 15-minute vote. [captioning made possible by the national captioning institute, inc., in cooperation with the united states house of representatives. any use of the closed-captioned coverage of the house proceedings for political or commercial purposes is expressly prohibited by the u.s. house of representatives.]

the chair: on this vote the yeas are 176, the nays are 246. with one recorded as present. the amendment is not adopted. there being no further amendment, under the rule, the committee rises.

the chair: mr. speaker, the committee of the whole house on the state of the union has had under consideration h.r. 4639, pursuant to house resolution 1149, i report the bill as amended by that resolution back to the house with sundry further amendments adopted in the committee of the whole.

the speaker pro tempore: the chair of the committee of the whole house on the state of the union reports that the committee has had under consideration the bill, h.r. 4639, and pursuant to house resolution 1149 reports the bill as amended by that resolution back to the house with sundry further amendments adopted in the committee of the whole. under the rule, the previous question is ordered. is a separate vote demanded on any further amendment reported from the committee of the whole? if not, the chair will put them engross. the question is on the adoption of the amendments. those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. the ayes have it. the amendments is adopted -- the amendments are adopted. the question is on the

engrossment and third reading of the bill. those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. the ayes have it. third reading. the clerk: a bill to amend, to prevent law enforcement and intelligence agencies from obtaining subscriber or customer records in exchange for anything of value, to address communications and records in pot session of intermediary internet service providers, and for other purposes. the speaker pro tempore: the question is on passage of the bill. those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. the ayes have it. the bill is passed and, without objection -- for what purpose does the gentleman from ohio seek recognition? >> i'd ask for the yeas and nays, mr. speaker. the speaker pro tempore: the yeas and the yeas and nays are requested. those favoring a vote will

rise. a sufficient number having arisen, yeas and nays are ordered members will record their votes by electronic device by electronic device. pursuant to clause 9 of rule 20, this five-minute vote on passage of h.r. 4639 will be followed by five-minute votes on passage of 6046, passage of h.r. 4691, passage of 5947 and passage of h.r. 6323. this is a five-minute vote. [captioning made possible by the national captioning institute, inc., in cooperation with the united states house of representatives. any use of the closed-captioned coverage of the house proceedings for political or commercial purposes is expressly prohibited by the u.s. house of representatives.]

the speaker pro tempore: on this vote, the yeas are 219 and the nays are 199 with one answering present. without objection, the motion to reconsider is laid on the table. pursuant to clause 8 of rule 20, the the unfinished business is vote on passage of h.r. 6046 on which the yeas and nays are ordered the clerk will report the title of the bill. the clerk: h.r. 6046 a bill to the foreign terrorist organization and impose on for

other purposes. the speaker pro tempore: the question is on passage of the bill. the members will record their vote by electronic device. this is a five-minute vote. [captioning made possible by the national captioning institute, inc., in cooperation with the united states house of representatives. any use of the closed-captioned coverage of the house proceedings for political or commercial purposes is expressly prohibited by the u.s. house of representatives.]

the speaker pro tempore: on this vote the yeas are 285, the nays are 135. the bill is passed. without objection, the motion to reconsider is laid on the table. pursuant to clause 8 of rule 20, the unfinished business is the vote on passage of h.r. 4691. on which the yeas and nays are ordered. the clerk will report the title of the bill. the clerk: h.r. 4691, a bill to provide for congressional review of actions to terminate or waive sanctions imposed with respect to iran. the speaker pro tempore: the question is on passage of the bill. members will record their votes by electronic device. this is a five-minute vote. [captioning made possible by the national captioning institute, inc., in cooperation with the united states house of representatives. any use of the closed-captioned coverage of the house proceedings for political or commercial purposes is expressly prohibited by the u.s. house of representatives.]

the speaker pro tempore: on this vote the yeas are 278, the nays are 141. the bill is passed. without objection, the motion to reconsider is laid upon the table. you pursuant to clause of rule 20, the vote is on a passage of h.r. 4957. the clerk will report the title before the bill. the clerk: h.r. 5947, a bill to provide for the recision of certain waivers and licenses relating to iran and for other purposes. the speaker pro tempore: the question is on passage of the bill. members will record their votes by electronic device. this is a five-minute vote. [captioning made possible by the national captioning institute,

inc., in cooperation with the united states house of representatives. any use of the closed-captioned coverage of the house proceedings for political or commercial purposes is expressly prohibited by the u.s. house of representatives.]

.. . mr. . . ...

the speaker pro tempore: on this volt the yeas are 259, the nays are 160. without objection the motion to reconsider is laid on the table. pursuant to clause 8 of rule 20, the unfinished business is the vote on the passage of h.r. 6323 on which the yeas and nays are ordered. the clerk will report the title of the bill. the clerk: union calendar number 380, h.r. 6323, a bill to modify the availability of certain waiver authorities with respect to sanctions imposed with respect to the financial sector of iran and for other purposes. the speaker pro tempore: the question is on passage of the bill. members will record their votes by electronic device. this will be a five-minute vote. [captioning made possible by the national captioning institute, inc., in cooperation with the united states house of representatives. any use of the closed-captioned coverage of the house proceedings for political or commercial purposes is expressly prohibited by the u.s. house of representatives.]

the speaker pro tempore: on this vote, the yeas are 271, the nays are 147. the bill is passed. without objection the motion to reconsider is laid on the table. for what purpose does the gentleman from north carolina seek recognition? >> mr. speaker, i ask unanimous consent to take from the speaker's table senate concurrent resolution 33 and ask for its immediate consideration in the house. the speaker pro tempore: the clerk will report the title of the resolution.

the speaker pro tempore: is there objection to consideration of the resolution? without objection the motion is agreed to and the motion to reconsider is laid on the table. for what purpose does the gentleman from north carolina seek recognition? >> i ask unanimous consent that when the house adjourns today it will adjourn until tomorrow morning at 9:00 a.m. for what purpose does the gentlelady from florida seek recognition? ms. wasserman schultz: i ask unanimous consent to address the house out of order. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mdz wasserman schultz: last night, the sunshine state lost a brilliant statesman who loved florida and all of her people. and with the sad passing of our

beloved bob graham, our entire nation lost a proud world citizen, a dedicated american patriot and devout public servant, a tucson of florida, graham rose to serve in our governor's mansion and three terms as a united states senator. despite that august resume, bob graham was at heart a man of the very people he represented. in his first campaign, graham pledged to put in eight-hour days put in the same tough but rewarding work floridas -- floridians do every day. he taught school, moved luggage and picked tomatoes. he moved his work days to touch, see and kneel triumphs of the neighbor he is represented. he led the most ambitious program to improve our education system. like me he was a florida gator. now he can look down on his alma

mater and ensure that it rivals the best in the nation. his love of education was passed on to many in our state and to his own daughter gwen. she now serves in the department of education. perhaps his most remembered impact on florida will be his environmental agenda. his work is being carried forward including his work to save the everglades. he built consensus across the speck tom and that still guides florida's diverse delegation. senator graham stood out as a brilliant master of statecraft. as chair of the senate select committee on intelligence he understood the very real global threats we face as a nation. and he never shrunk from asking the tough questions even as america reeled from the seventh attacks. he bore a heavyweight to demand accountability for this tragedy. yet this man who epitomized what we all think of was a far more.

when a constituent flagged a problem or task he's scribble it in his note bag just like his dad did. his las vegas of family is something every one of his children and grandchildren will testify to as they all love their doodle. as he was affectionately called. even in his, quote, retirement from government he established the bob graham center for public service. he nurtured the noble custom he perfected of serving the community he served so well. there are no words to express my gratitude and respect for senator graham and it is shown by the entire delegation being here to honor him. today we keep his family and those who love him in our thought, including his wife, his

four daughters, gwen, sissy, suzanne and kendall. all his children and great grandchildren, and those across the country who knew and loved him. may his memory be a blessing. i ask that those present in the chamber and gallery and staff and visitors throughout the capitol complex rise for a moment of siebles in honor of our former colleague and friend, senator bob graham. thank you. ms. wasserman schultz: thank you, mr. speaker, i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the chair will receive a message. the messenger: mr. speaker, a message from the senate. the secretary: mr. speaker. the speaker pro tempore: madam secretary. the secretary: i have been directed by the senate to inform the house that the senate,

sitting in trial on desand roe mayorkas in articles of impeachment, upon receipt and exhibit of house resolution 86 has dismissed the articles of impeachment and adjourned sine die. the speaker pro tempore: the chair will entertain requests for one-minute speeches. for what purpose does the gentleman seek recognition? >> i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute and revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. mr. carter: i rise today to honor the life of william herbert hunt who passed away at the age of 95. he was born in arkansas before moving to texas as a young child. he earned a bachelor's degree in geology from washington lee

university. at university he met his soul mate, nancy. they were married for 72 years and raised a large, loving family. herb joined the family oil business and had a successful career in oil and gas exploration where he contributed to discoveries in field developments. his success and expertise in the petroleum industry awarded him various seats on oil industry boards. he was president of the boy scouts of america circle 10 council. he also served on the presbyterian hospital and wadley blood bank board. he had extensive zivic involvement and philanthropy. he found his greatest pride and joy in the family he and nancy raised together. thank you, mr. speaker, i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentlewoman from virginia seek recognition? >> i ask unanimous consent to

address the house and revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentlewoman is recognized for one minute. ms. mcclellan: i rise as we close out black maternal health week to underscore the pressing need to continue addressing the maternal mortality crisis that plagues our nation. the united states has the highest maternal mortality rate of any high income nation in the world and black women bear the brunt of these disparities and are three times more likely to die in childbirth than white women. this crisis has been made worse by the overturning of roe v. wade as states with abortion bans have higher maternal mortality rates than those that do not. i know the risks that black women face all too well as i nearly died giving birth to my daughter, samantha, when she was born nine weeks prematurely and

spent six weeks in the nicu. as a member of the black maternal health caucus i'm encouraged by some progress we have made such as the biden administration's plu blu print for addressing the maternal health coverage, allowing insurance to cover more time postpartum, impacting approximately 65 births for black morse and adopting new regulations under the pregnant worker fairness act to give millions of workers access to unpaid leave. but we must do more including passing the momnibus act. thank you and i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from wisconsin seek recognition? >> i ask to address the house for one minute and revise and extend my remarks. mr. mr. grothman: i think it's important for this body to take a few minutes and discuss and deal with the recent headlines

regarding the national public radio editor who made public that 87 out of 87 members of their editorial newsroom staff registered democrat, not one registered republican. it's obviously of interest and should be of particular interest to fair-minded people everywhere and republicans in particular. and the republican party stands to thwart the constitution, try to defend it and try to keep america the great country it's always been. it's a very difficult thing to get sympathy in our quest from the public as a whole when news outlets have an overwhelmingly left-wing anti-american bias. i would like to congratulate, normally a democrat, for being able to step out and try to publicize a true diversity

problem at n.p.r. and hope in the future our appropriations committee discuss this is problem. thank you. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from illinois seek recognition? >> mr. speaker, i seek unanimous consent to address the house for one minute, to extend and revise my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. >> today i rise to honor a community activist and fighter for justice, reverend walter "slim" coleman. he was part of a rainbow coalition and always worked to help the powerless build power, expand opportunity and hold the government accountable to public's needs. he brought the fight along latino and black leaders. he helped elect the first black mayor, harold washington. mr. garcia: slim was in it for the long haul and nothing deterred him for fighting for

affordable housing, good schools, better safety, better health care and more. alongside his wife, he was a leader of chicago's sanctuary movement in 2006 and declared his church as a sanctuary to protect immigrants from deportation and other churches followed suit. mr. slim, our city is indebted to you and miss you immensely. rest in peace, my dear friend. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from california seek recognition? >> i seek unanimous consent to address the house for one minute and revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, sir, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. mr. lamalfa: thank you, mr. speaker. the united states is the number one importer of wood products p. it recently was china until they slowed down their building. this shouldn't be possible or happening. as you see, california, the west coast, western states have massively overcrowded forests

due to the inattention of the u.s. forest service to keep up with pace and scale, to keep up with the amount of board feet growing each year. take a look across a lot of rural america. you'll see these areas are, indeed, too overcrowded with trees. a healthy forest might have 50-70 adult trees per acre and we see a situation where there's 500-1,000 of all sizes. for a healthy forest each tree needs enough nutrients and water and sunlight to survive but when they grow together they're weakened and are susceptible for insects and other damage. you see on the far side of this poster a dense forest that will be very fire-prone and likely to be attacked by bugs or go through a drought forest and become unhealthy. a thin forest like this we need it to survive fire much healthier and longer. this is what we need. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired.

for what purpose does the gentlewoman from ohio seek recognition? ms. kaptur: i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute and to revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentlewoman is recognized for one minute. ms. kaptur: mr. speaker, i rise to recognize a bright student who is the future of northwest ohio. he won the recognition for his scientific achievement. caleb is a seventh grader at put in bay middle school and when he needed a project for his school science fair this winter, he turned to our nearby great lake erie for inspiration. caleb chose to explore solutions to the algae blooms that historically plague our fresh water kingdom and did this by testing the ability of various plants to keep dangerous nutrients from flowing into the rivers, lakes, and streams. those nutrients harm ecosystems and endanger boaters. if not addressed, swimmers have

difficulties and these blooms also could turn lake erie and lake ontario into swamps if not addressed. caleb's project earned a superior rating, superior! then the district allowed him to compete at the northwest ohio science and engineering fair in february and there he earned again first place in his category, allowing him to apply for a slot for national competition. mr. speaker, let's applaud caleb for his curiosity and his scholarship and hope his generation will help us usher in complete health for the largest body of fresh water on earth, the great lakes. and i yield back. salute you, caleb. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentlewoman from new mexico seek recognition? >> i ask for one minute to address the house and to revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentlewoman is recognized for one minute. ms. stansbury: this week we're closing out black maternal

health week, and focus on improving maternal health for black mothers. across the united states, black mothers are three times more likely to die from pregnancy, making them the most at-risk maternal mortality of any group. and in new mexico, our black babies have the highest rates of infant mortality and premature births. in addition, black women and families are more likely to experience economic instability, lack of access, racism, and implicit bias within the system. black maternal health is a crisis that demands action. that is why i am proud to co-sponsor representative lauren underwood's black maternal omnibus to help address the leading causes. because access to care is a right, not a live. and we cannot leave black women alone in this fight. our black mothers are strong and

resilient. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman's time has expired. ms. stansbury: and we must work every day to make sure they have the respect, support and care they need. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman's time has expired. for what purpose does the gentlewoman from texas seek recognition? ms. jackson lee: it's not enough time to speak on these issues. i rise to address the house for one minute, rerise and extend. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for one minute. ms. jackson lee: i rise before we go in a number of religious holidays that brings us together around peace and faith and

harmony. i want us to recognize that racism is raising its ugly head again. it is raising its head on d.e.i., something that most of us a certain age has no clue what exclusion and exclusiveness and many of the terminologies that can be utilized. we know the question of race and who we are. so it is important as we take to our home districts that we embrace the diversity that is in our districts and we talk about the need to harmony and as well that we recognize we're better together than we are separated. i want to offer a commitment we stand against racism and acknowledge it and support h.r. 40, the commission to study reparations and develop reparation proposals but i look

forward of ridding ourselves of the ugly face of racism. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman's time has expired. ms. jackson lee: and as well to ensure we find a way to solve why we're divided instead of united. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman's time has expired. ms. jackson lee: the gentleman is doing his job and bill continue to say this. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman's time has expired. ms. jackson lee: it is ugly and we mysteried ourselves of it. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman is no longer recognized. ms. jackson lee: i yield back.

the speaker pro tempore: under the speaker's announced policy of january 9, 2023, the gentleman from utah, mr. moore, is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader. mr. moore: thank you, mr. speaker. i ask unanimous consent all members have five legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the topic of this special order. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. moore: thank you, mr. speaker. i appreciate this opportunity to

join my colleagues and share some very important messages. the republicans are responding to many concerns held by americans across this country with the historic crisis at the southern border with the increasing costs of goods and services as a result of the biden administration's tax and spend agenda, burdening hard-working families from utah to california and to ohio. america watched as iran launched a unprecedented attack on israel, our ally, and threatened their very existence. the american people deserve better leadership from this administration and better stewardship of our natural resources and better strength on the stage. i appreciate my colleagues for joining me on the floor to discuss how it is impacting their conference solutions. i look forward to hearing from a few of my colleagues this evening. i'll first go and yield as much

time as the gentleman from south carolina may consume, mr. wilson. would you please feel free to address -- i yield my time to you. mr. wilson: thank you for your leadership, congressman moore. we appreciate it very, very much mr. speaker, last week on april 2, "the new york post" published an op-ed which explained the proven conservative position of peace through strength. this continues the world-changing success for expanding freedom of senator barry goldwater and president ronald reagan. there are over 20 countries now of central and eastern europe and central asia that are free today because of the defeat of soviet communism which war criminal putin wants to revive. quote, the article is that kudos to speaker johnson, moving ukraine aid is critical to national security by daniel

coches, a senior fellow for europe and eurasia. the hudson institute was founded by the visionary herman kahn and is universally respected for its research and accuracy. i'm grateful to find and learn that ambassador, governor nikki haley of south carolina will now be a valued fellow. the column in "the new york post" reads, quote, speaker michael johnson's easter announcement he'll bring a new ukraine aid package to a vote is welcome news. congressional backing for ukraine assistance has been meyered in the political muck for months. with more than 5,000 miles away on the frontlines, the maddening impasse has needlessly cost ukrainian lives and territory. 3/4 of americans recognize the russian war against ukraine and the conflicts that allies israel and taiwan face are important to

u.s. national interests. it's time congress got on the same page acids constituents and found a way to move critical support over the finish line. for ukraine, the dearth has left soldiers to ration ammunition and russia's artillery advantage has increased by a order of magnitude. moscow has been firing five times the number of shells per day as kyiv most of the year. this isn't in the article but you should understand, many of these shells came from north korea, from the dprk, from the dictatorship there, which is also threatening our ally south carolina and japan. russian forces simply outpummel ukraine's defenders. some good news just two weeks ago, the czech republic has stepped into the breach in a major way, scouring the world to secure 800,000 artillery shells. the first batch could reach ukraine early this month.

a lifeline that would allow defending forces to start shooting more rounds, secure in the knowledge that replacements are on the way. but while the czech republic's role as intermediary in finding, purchasing, and securing permissions of export of critical stocks of ammunition is phenomenal, it will not fill the void left and lacking of america's leadership. it's in america's interest to continue to aid our friend, most of those defending their families and homes in ukraine. inaction not only harms u.s. national interest, it expresses not what the american people have told policymakers they desire. multiple recent polls found a majority of americans continue to back the aid for ukraine both economic and military. . behind closed door, most of us recognize the need for

continuing aid. ukraine is far better off than it was two years ago and russia is far worse off. though from a moral perspective, the war remains black -- morality -- remains black and white. it is sending ukraine the systems it needs hasn't helped. team biden's shocking, shortsighted afghanistan withdrawal is still fresh on the minds of many americans and they don't want a repeat but failure to robustly stand with ukraine and deceasively defeat russia makes this more likely to happen. the outcome of russia's genocidal campaign there will have for a broader implications for america's future security than either afghanistan or iraq. there is, however, room for optimism. unlike in afghanistan or iraq,

america is not a combatant in ukraine but we do benefit from its success. ukraine can defeat russia and its backers in beijing. the situation on the frontlines and in the minds of americans is far from irretrievable but it starts with congress finding the will to do what is in the long-term american interest. send russian president vladimir putin a clear, bipartisan message that the united states will stand by ukraine for the listening haul. conservative lawmakers certainly have a duty to engage the administration on the migrant crisis, an issue of key importance to the public, but they should do so separately. recognizing ukraine's security is important. linking aid to migration is a disservice to the american people. the american people know this.

the congress should prove it does too. end of quote and i would like to also offer for inclusion in the congressional record, an op-ed that i provided in the "washington times" of february 9, 2021, and -- 2022, and this indicates why ukraine matters for american families. a destabilized world with higher inflation and gas prices and indeed this op-ed, over two years old, actually is as true today as it was when it was published and that is, it does matter to american families and we need to be understanding to protect the borders of ukraine, of israel, taiwan and america. with that, i yield back. mr. moore: thank you to the secret from south carolina. appreciate your words and appreciate your steadfast work on the armed services committee and all natiol security matters.

i now yield as much time as the gentleman may consume from florida, mr. gates. mr. gaetz. mr. gaetz: i seek to enter the record thing to be yeument styled, unwelcome in niger. i calm to the house floor to expose a coverup in the african country of niger. this coverup exists to conceal the humiliating failures they have biden administration in niger, throughout africa, and throughout the world. you learn of the victims of this coverup, the 1,100 u.s. troops currently stationed in niger, functionally trended by a biden administration which cares more absaving face than saving their lives. our troops in niger have been pleading for help. they've sent intelligence reports and letters stating that they are rarely getting safe water. they can't get diplomatic

oversights to receive medicine, fresh troop rotations or basic supplies. they have no mission. and the local authorities are becoming increasingly hostile. the government of niger has called the u.s. presence in the country illegal. why have these pleas not been heard? it is because u.s. embassy niger has been blocking the intelligence. i fear as we speak the conditions may be forming to create another benghazi-style attack. so how did we get here, with 1,100 american troops stuck, thoroughly unwelcome, in a country where we have invested more than half a billion u.s. taxpayer dollars? it all began when biden and blinken chose niger to be the center priest of their africa strategy. blinken visited the country in march of last year saying, quote, niger is an extraordinary model. a model of resilience. a model of democracy.

a model of cooperation. what a difference a year makes. just a year and a day after those rashes the democratically elected government of niger was replaced by a military coup. and the united states military literally trained the coup leaders. i asked general lang lee who runs after come why this happened -- runs africom why this happen. he said training people to overthrow their democratically elected governments is not in our curriculum but the results are staggering. and embarrassing. guy nee, niger, burkina faso. there were coups in each of those countries and in each a common element, u.s. training for the coup leaders. the coup leader in charge of niger wouldn't meet with general lang lee when he went to talk about our base. he prime minister stleamed door in his face.

you'd think if we trained you to overthrow your democratically elected government we could at least get a meeting. but instead of a pre-u.s. sentiment we have the c, o -- the coup leaders with trained turning to russia as their preferred security partner. where does that leave our 1,100 troops? i did not serb in the military, i represent a military community and i hear that senior enlisted service members at a u.s. installation abroad are a big deal. they're like the mayor of the installation. the senior enlisted service member at the base in niger wrote to congressman dusty johnson. i ask unanimous consent to enter this record into the letter. dear congressman johnson i'm writing to express my deep concern regarding the actions taken by niger involving the ambassador, kathleen a. fits gibbon. i believe congress must address these issues.

as a service member deployed to niger, africa, i have noticed that the embassy intentionally suppressed intelligence information from the ground. force collection elements to maintain the facade to have a great country-to-country relationship. they failed to be transparent, they gave a pretense that things are being worked and that it's above our level all the while diplomatic overfight clearances for u.s. aircraft were purposefully not being abriefd the country's military government as a political bargaining chip to enentice the u.s. government back to negotiate their withdrawal. since july 23, the day of the cue day tau -- the coup d'etat, americans have been told to sit and hold. it's clear the country of niger doesn't want a permanent military presence in the country and have informed us we need to leave. at this time there are approximately 1,100 service members in the country essentially being held hostage

from returning to their homes and families while the state department continues with failed diplomacy by not communicating with the country of niger on what the withdrawal plan would look like. additionally the government of nighier is not processing visas for u.s. service members for entry into the country which is especially concerning pause the u.s. forces were scheduled to end a six month deployment early this month when relief forces arrived. the embassy failed to share any of this information with decisionmakers at any level. the department of defense regarding this further complicating our ability to conduct the swap of personnel. these actions have deeply troubled me and many others in the community at home as well as service members deployed here with me and their families back in the states. our diplomatic and defense representatives need to uphold the highest standards of professional. i and ethical conduct especially in sensitive rejohnson like niger. the actions taken by embassy officials reflect poorly on the united states but also have

potential implication for bilateral relations with other partner nations and the safety of our personnel in this region. when i became aware of this letter, my office conducted a number of interviews which confirmed the claims made by the senior enlisted official, and he signed his name. to that letter which we have entered into the record. and we've done those investigations. we have learned that the top public health official says that in the month of may, they are going to run out of medicine in niger and it's worse than that. our partner country, italy and germany, you would think they'd help us facilitate medicine and supplies but they won't even help transport needed materiel to our service members because they're worried about being expelled from the country. and the fact that we've got russia as the preferred security partner means there are russians behind the wire at air base 101. we have russians on our base somewhere.

that would never happen, the only reason it's happening is because blinken and biden are humiliated that their plan fail. that they poured half a billion dollars into this country and now we're being thrown out by the scruff of our neck. tony blinken and joe biden's failures should not be visited on those fighting for us, wanting to do their patriotic duty. i will fight for them. i will fight against this administration that would use our service members as pawns because they can't get their act together. just because biden and blinken can't say oops doesn't mean we should abandon our troops. thank you, mr. speaker, i yield back to the gentleman from utah and i thank him for his indull yens in the time. mr. moore: thank you to the gentleman from florida and for sharing that information. that's part of the job we need to be doing and what we can do to uncover and for a thorough analysis. i next yield to my colleague from the great state of california, mr. lamalfa, for as much time as he may consume.

mr. lamalfa: thank you, mr. moore. appreciate it once again. as we contemplate and navigate our way through these hard times, difficult economy, with bidenomics working the way it has been the last cup of years for us in this country, we have to get to what is the root cause? what's the route out of this? it really -- it's -- it comes down to getting back to our roots. get back to the source of our economy. where is the economy -- where does the economy come from? how do we make things reasonably priced again and affordable for our countrymen. so you look here, with -- they're all tied together when you get right down to it. cost of electricity up over 28%. food over 20%. rent, residential rent, nearly 20%. and so what are the building blocks that help us to thrive and to help us get back out of

this mess? i'll start. it's a few items i worked on quite a bit on my committee work, back at home and here in d.c. as well. forestry is right at the beginning of that. what do you get from good forestry? healthy forests and the economy that comes from our rural areas of the country that are suffering so much due to shutdowns, regulations and inactivity by the u.s. forest service. you see here a forest, how it looks when it's been treated properly, when it's thinned on this side, that's a healthy forest. it will withstand fire. it's good for the wildlife population. good for he trees to not have to compete for limited soil and water resources especially through a drought period. this side is a tinder becomes that's going to go up and it'll be devastating. so much has happened in the west over the last years. a million acre fire happened in my district. many six digit fires all over the western united states this does not work for very long.

it's not good for the wildlife when it's green, certainly not when it's in the middle of a forest fire. so indeed we have to do much more work in order to catch up on that. because what i mentioned, cost of rent. when you have high costs of building inputs which can come from wood products that just a couple of years ago were in short, and paper product, remember the toilet paper short a, why did we have that? we need to have our american forests be active. over 800 acres of forest, over 350 billion trees in this country. total inventory of 13 billion board feet. annual growth of 300 billion board feet. whether we harvest it or not. america's total wood use, lumber, paper, biomass, firewood is approximately half of annual growth, 150 board feet. we see we have an issue for only harvesting using half of what grows each year, the forests get

more and more dense every year. so we have the ability to do something about that, especially for some reason, i keep wondering, why is the u.s. the number one, recently surpassing china since their economy is slowing down. why are we the number one importer of wood products when we have the resource here that actually needs to be thinned, needs to be harvested, needs to be taken care of, not clearcut, not the whole works. that isn't what it's about. that's first thing the city folks wan to say, you're going to cut all the trees. no, we thin them out. that's what this looks like right here. that forest keeps on growing, it's healthy, the next wave of harvest happens 30, 40, 50 years later. it's a successful program. instead, importing, sending the jobs somewhere else. now that china receded somewhat, number one importer of wood, in the farm bill, we can address some of these issues coming up if we can be successful in what

can be best in a farm bill soon and help with our forest help and the cost of housing and building new housing, building new apartments, whatever, for people. and here's my next poster, having to do with food. another electricity, food and housing have gone up. here we have an example of the food that is grown in my home state of california. but it's important to the whole country and many other states are key to food supply in the midwest and states. we oftentimes have a water problem where the water supply in tougher years doesn't get to agriculture. last two years we had amazing snow pack and indeed, above the

100% level of normal. our lakes are filling, if we can keep after the people making the decisions that allow to fill the last bit to top off because we have a lot of reservoirs that have a lot of space in them. maybe we can survive the next drought or allocate water to agriculture as well as to people in the urban areas that people are rationing water. i don't know how that looks to my colleagues in l.a. county, orange county and san francisco people that you are only going to get 42 gallons per day because of the mismanagement of water supply in our state. we should be building.

1 1/2 million acre-feet of water storage. shasta dam, would yield 630 more acre-feet of water. and filling the reservoir, the last space because they won't run the pumps because of phony numbers they are affecting the fish by running the pumps, there is acre-feet running down the delta. everywhere is fish and environmental water. people are being left behind on this and see the allocation of water to some of the san joaquin in some of the -- in a high snow pack year, great water. we have been blessed and see 30, 35% of their allocation and these crops aren't going to be grown. these crops in, celery, olives,

plums, shelled almonds and walnuts, tomatoes, basically 100% of what america uses comes from california. i know people grow patches of it here and there, but commercially grown, that's what california represents. mandarins, grapes, carrots, broccoli, these are at the 90%. strawberries. wild rice, 60% is grown horseradish. even in my area, they are having water taken away or dams removed. so how are we going to get a handle back on the high price of inflation whether it is energy, like that is up 20 something

percent and tear down hydroelectric dams and replace solar or win. they take out the hydroelectric dams. that isn't going to make like that cheaper. food, if you don't allocate the water and back people off their regulations and electrify every aspect of agriculture and even equipment coming. all it does is drive the cost of food and as i mentioned also with housing, if we cut the timber, can't provide for low cost timber, baffles me that we are the number one importer of wood products. housing won't get cheaper either. but all these things work together to either drive up the

cost for regular americans that are struggling. they don't have the same options of freedom of movement, freedom of time. might want to send their kids to school, tourism, all of those things are curtailed because of government regulations, lack of government foresight on energy. every time you don't allow a pipeline to happen, it has to come from where else, imported oil, gas and yes we are going to continue to use oil and gas in this country. the rest of the world is going to be. if we want to be competitive, we are putting ourselves down a steep rat hole if we don't power certain aspects of our economy, our mobility, et cetera. we aren't going to electrify at the same time we are pulling out hydroelectric dams and we are on

the edge of whether we are going to allow the nuclear power plants to continue to run in california. are we going to build more nuclear power. if you are worried about co-2. so are the hydroelectric dams. co-2 represents .04% of our atmosphere. and they scare the heck out of everybody when it isn't that kind of a factor. there are other things we can do cleaner. less methane. those are good things to work at. co-2 is not the problem. co-2 is sucked up by these plants that we grow and agriculture and in the forest photograph i showed you a minute ago. they are giving us oxygen back. so at the end of it, one of the important things we need to do this year, this spring is move

the farm bill because it's important as far as forevers try goes and food supply goes to have stability in the ag economy and a big portion of it is the snap program which is to keep low-cost food on the table for many americans that are on the low side of the income scale and going through tough times. we have to pass that in order to have the snap program to stay viable and modernized as things change. moving forward with the farm bill is going to be very, very important in the short-term to get a five-year bill not just another extension which doesn't allow us to upgrade the pieces -- farm insurance, some of these crops have to access crop insurance. if you have crop insurance there is less need for a bailout

disaster and promotion of products, some of that through funds and other programs to promote some of these products we export because we need to have an beings port economy and giant negative economy with china and others. and anywhere close to balance on foreign trade. so it's a good thing for us. so, instead, what do we get? things such as inflation reduction act, which is a joke in its name. inflation is going up, still part of our every day worry we have here. and it's what we get is more government spending. instead unleash the economy to log timber, grow food, produce energy. so we need to make a difference to help these producers and help the consumers. we need to mine more minerals in

this country that are important to all these sectors of producing energy. and if we want to have more gadgets, more equipment that uses like that, then why aren't we mining the products here that doesn't have the labor protections or environmental protections we have here. if we do all these thing, makes things more affordable and makes us more accountable. instead we are losing ground. why are we a net agricultural importer while we have more in this country. we are less competitive due to these policies associated with biden omics. these other challenges prioritize farm families. i mentioned crop insurance. the farm safety net is important

which is part of that farm bill. the input costs, water allocations, all the above are important as we work our way through these and thinking that the priorities that seem to be reset around here have nothing to help americans in their every day lives. it's a steep road here but get back to common sense. i had a chance to speak to the president on this floor about water supply and timber situation, our forest situation and he listened. i hope his cabinet and people that surround him will pay more attention to what we are doing and how negatively how these things aren't paid attention to and solved how much it hurts the american people and how much it costs them for their families to do other things other than trying to get by. this inflation we have had the

last three years, we came out of covid, yes. but our economy should be thrierving much better than what it is and not having ridiculous regulations that limit us so much and advantage our competitors around the world, china, the pacific rim and others, especially at such a perilous time and such unres in the world with the wars that are breaking out. we need to be strong and self-sufficient. thank you for the time tonight and i yield back. ms. moore: mr. speaker, as i wrap up our special order and my remarks, the world watched over the weekend as iran launched an unprecedented attack on our ally israel. this attack was met with scorn and such strong cooperation from the u.s., u.k., israel, egypt to

keep jerusalem and its holy sights from being completely destroyed. i never thought i would be in that situation to be in congress to be a part of legislation this week to be at this moment, people look at these holy sites. as i finalized my thoughts here, i think back to one of my first meetings in my first term of congress that i got to meet with the consular general from israeli consulate in los angeles and he was in utah and i got a chance to sit down with him and i said as i dig into this, i am so impressed with the abraham accords and candidly, i think it

was president trump and vice president pence's most significant success in our foreign policy during their administration. the abraham accords are diplomatic and trade relationships with jail ander arab relations and think about the 21 centuries of us trying to find common ground and peace in that region of the world we cry ated an opportunity and the u.s. was a big part of this tore establish these relationships with arab nations and israel. countries, potential bellwether countries like saudi arabia could have joined on. i asked, what was the recipe for success to make it happen and he said it came down to one thing, arab emirates, morocco, bahrain,

they knew the u.s. stood firm against iranian aggression. that is what he boiled the whole entire experience down to. these arab nations knew -- nobody in that region wants iran to gain more influence. they want to destabilize everything over there. the whole region understands this. arab nations, jewish nation, iran wants to be stabilized. to the u.s. as a strong presence to make sure that the u.s. had arab nation' back and israel's back against potential aggression from iran. knowing that they were willing to enter into these trade relationships that were treacherous because iran doesn't want anyone to have a trade relationship with israel.

this is my biggest complaint with president biden's foreign policy, ok, president obama was going on the jcpoa, let's start those talks back up again and ignore the success we had to create peace in the middle east. it has been something that it's something every president has wanted. president clinton, watching what he was trying to do, the absolute tragedy of the assassination that took place during his time. every president, republican or democrat, wanted peace in the middle east. to flatly say and overlook the reason why the abraham accords were successful and to not take that type of same strength to iran, it was the biggest blunder, i believe, in president biden's foreign policy approach. in that particular region. is it any wonder why we're sitting here today with unprecedented missile drone attacks directly on our ally

israel. you have to stand up to iran in order to promote peace in the middle east. you cannot have it all. you can't have the entire pie. you have to call it as it is sometimes and cut it off. the jcpoa should never have been re-engaged. it has not created any positive outcomes in the region. can anybody disagree with that? are we better in the middle east today than when we had the abraham accords thriving? no. anybody who is honest knows that. if you want to be israel's ally you cannot continue to pander to iran. it's not the recipe for success. that's not just the israeli point of view. it's from the arab point of view. we want the biden administration to recognize that. that's what we are doing this week, having several measures to hold iran responsible.

we'll continue to support israel and ensure they have what they need to defend themselves. mr. speaker, thank you very much, i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields. under the speaker's announced policy of january 9, 2023, the gentlewoman from illinois, mrs. ramirez is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader. ms.mrs. ramirez: thank you, mr. speaker. i ask unanimous consent that all members have five legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous materials on the subject of my special order. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mrs. ramirez: thank you, mr. speaker. mr. speaker, the housing crisis impacts us all. regardless of whether you live in a city, you live in a suburb or rural town, many americans are concerned about their housing stability. homelessness has risen every single year since 2017. the shortage of available and affordable housing has only worsened.

high interest rates and student debt has made the american dream of home ownership out of reach and impossible for too many. severely underfunded programs are unable to tackle the most critical issues facing our communities in a meaningful way. and wages, they're just not keeping pace with rising housing costs. the human right to housing is more than a slogan and more than just four walls and a roof over someone's head. the human right to housing means realizing safety and stability and dignity through housing. and that is why today i'm convening tonight's special order hour for the congressional progressive caucus, so that i, along with my colleagues, can talk to you about the housing challenges facing american households and the progressive solutions we can champion to address this issue. solutions like bringing the gap between -- bridging the gap between income and housing

costs. and expanding and preserving the supply of affordable, accessible rental homes for people with the lowest incomes. providing emergency rental assistance to households in crisis. strengthening and enforcing renter protections. opposing efforts to undermine housing first and criminalize homelessness. safe, affordable, dignified housing i know is the foundation on which so much of our quality of life and our economic security is built. i hear often that housing is just too hard to tackle at the federal level but if we want to realize housing for all as a human right, we have to challenge ourselves to move beyond traditional approaches and embrace creativity and innovation. to get us started, i would like to yield to the gentlelady from california, ms. porter.

ms. porter: my son, paul, broke my heart with a question. he asked, mom, will you come visit me when i grow up and live outside of california? why would you want to live out of state, i asked. it wasn't that there's somewhere else he would rather be. he was just a teenager. a teenager. already worrying that he wouldn't be able to afford to live where he grew up. he's right to be worried. we all face a big choughs of living problem. housing has become too expensive and affordable housing altogether too scarce. the national low income housing coalition estimates that there's a nationwide shortage of more than seven million affordable homes. that's not just a problem. it is a full-blown crisis.

washington has bungled this for decades and nothing is changing. earlier this year, bipartisan house and senate leaders promised, quote, the biggest housing investment in -- the biggest investment in housing that congress has made in 35 years. until the deal fell apart. we're back to solving yesterday's problems tomorrow, maybe. washington insiders might not have a plan but i do. let's start with the easiest step. let's create a housing committee. we currently lump housing issues into the financial services committee. a body focused on wall street, banking, and financial markets. but housing is about so much more. it's about shelter. it's about well being. it's about opportunity. not just about wall street

profits. housing should have a dedicated committee. and then republicans and democrats on that housing committee must work together to do three related things. first, increase the supply of housing. second, make housing easier to build. and third, make housing more affordable. believe it or not, the supply part is pretty easy. republicans and democrats alike actually want to increase our housing supply. you don't have to take my word for it. look at the affordable housing credit improvement act which would enhance tax credits to build two million homes over the next decade. it is publicly supported by 111 democrats and 111 republicans. so let's pass that. and then why stop with tax credits? let's unleash private capital for home construction by

guaranteeing and securitizing the condition instruction of one to four-unit starter homes just like the government already does for big apartment buildings built by wall street real estate firms. those are the steps that we need to take to invest in our housing supply. but actually building those homes is still too challenging. and it shouldn'tbe. stick and brick homes are expensive. manufacturing costs have begun down in virtually every industry, except home building. so why aren't we copying and learning from what worked in other industries? imagine a home built at least in part from 3-d printed materials. congress can invest in this type of technology and reduce building costs by over 30%. just by thinking creatively. and all levels of government should be partners in creative thinking. congress should reward counties

and cities that take steps to make their building and zoning requirements more flexible. and the federal government should release some of its unused land so we can build homes on it. with these simple steps, we can build way more affordable homes and get those financed and built. then we just need to figure out how to make them affordable to own. one problem is that hedge funds have been scooping up all of the affordable homes, especially starter homes. we need to pass the end hedge fund control of american homes act and tax wall street investors that purchase hundreds of homes solely for profits. houses should be for homeowners. and mom and pop landlords. not wall street companies looking to drive up their profits. and with the money we make from that bill, we can invest in down payment assistance for

first-time home buyers. often the biggest thing stopping people from owning a home is not having the cash to pay up front for the down payment. even if they can afford the regular payments on that mortgage. down payment assistance will solve that. folks, this is what a plan looks like. congress just doesn't have one. the united states did not wind up with a shortage of nearly seven million affordable homes overnight. our housing crisis the gradual consequence of leaders in washington being asleep at the wheel for over 30 years. congress needs to wake up. lowering people's housing costs isn't pie in the sky. we have done it before. we did it through the g.i. bill for service members and we can do it again for all americans. that's what we need from washington and i'll keep pushing to get it done.

i yield back to the gentlelady. mrs. ramirez: thank you, congresswoman porter. i could not agree with you more. today, this is why we're doing this special order hour on housing. we need our congress to wake up. mr. speaker, can you imagine we're wrapping up session and you had nowhere to go? you didn't have a place that you can lay your head tonight. you had no roof over your head on the coldest day in the year. assume we were in january. the reality is that on any given night in america, more than 600,000 people experience homelessness. and nearly half of these individuals, 250,000, sleep outside. in illinois, the average age of someone experiencing homelessness is not 55. it's not 65. it's not 70.

it's just 9 years of age. can you imagine having a grandchild, a son, a sister, a niece, not having anywhere to sleep at the age of 9? homelessness is inretessing across the country because more and more hardworking families an individuals are struggling to make ends meet. in the richest country in the world, rents are far too expensive. wages are way too low. and decades of failed housing policies have left us to this point. for example, the national low income housing coalition has found that a full-time worker, a full-time worker, must earn $28.58 per hour to afford a modest, two-bedroom apartment. that doesn't get much better for a modest one-bedroom apartment because a person would have to earn $23.67 to afford it.

to put that in perspective, mr. speaker, a worker earning the minimum wage in this country would have to work 104 hours a week, which adds up to more than 2.5 full-time jobs. that is unacceptable. and to think that in less than a week, one of the most important housing cases in a generation, the johnson vs. grants pass, will be argued before the supreme court. johnson v. grants pass essentially asks the court whether cities can punish unhoused people for covering themselves with a blanket. even in the absence of shelter. this is where we are as a nation. we are willing to consider criminalizing a woman with a 9-year-old child, a person experiencing homelessness, a

veteran experiencing homelessness, when there's no shelter and they just want to cover themselves with a blanket. luckily, the district court and court of appeals have held that criminalizing homelessness violates the eighth amendment to the constitution, which establishes the right to be free from excessive bail, excessive fines, and cruel and unusual punishment. if the supreme court upholds the current decision, jurisdictions across the country will no longer be able to controllize people for existing when they have no place to go. but if the supreme court overturns the lower courts and rules in favor of grants pass, it will give cities and states permission to punish people who have nowhere else to go other than to sleep outside.

mr. speaker, that is despicable that those who seek to punish our neighbors for simply trying to survive an impossible situation. regardless of the ruling, homelessness is persistent precisely because we are unwilling to act to solve the problem and the solution is clear. unhoused people need housing. housing is the answer. housing, not handcuffs. we must bridge the bridges. build homes that are a forwardable to people with the lowest incomes and create permanent tools to prohibit homelessness and strengthen housing first policies including permanent supporting housing which are evidence-based because studies show that permit in the event supportive housing, a rate of 98% of households retain

their housing after a year. 98%. and for rapid rehousing, that is 75% and 91% of households remain housed a year after being rapidly rehoused. and because we in congress hold the power of the purse, we have a duty to provide adequate funding for proven housing programs and new and innovative revenue sources to support housing programs. look, prior to coming to congress, i spent 20 years providing social services and working on policy for the unhoused population in chicago. i witnessed firsthand the multi layered effect of not having a stable home, the health outcomes, the access to education, economic development and more. and bottom line, there are many

proven and data-backed solutions to homelessness. we have no excuse. the answers are there. we haven't had the will to enact them. arresting or otherwise punishing homeless folks, veterans, children, is not a solution and jails and fines make the cycle of homenessness worse by taking resources away from housing and support. it's not only a bad policy, it's cruel. advocating for housing not handcuffs is how we lead the progressive fight for housing as a human right. and the 3rd district, mr. speaker, in illinois, have inspiring leaders who have been leading the fight for housing justice. and it is why, mr. speaker, today i rise to honor robert adams and dirk ender, these are

two combat veterans who embody the essence of compassion and service. after years of providing assistance to servicemembers, returning to civilian life, robert and dirk opened the midwest shelter for homeless veterans to help veterans suffering from home lessness. since 2000, the shelter has been a beacon of hope providing vital support for our veterans in due page. from affordable house to outreach, their dream is that no veteran, no veteran is left behind when it comes to share and services they earned and they deserve. the commitment to building a continue you umh of care for our veterans is inspiring. on behalf of illinois 3rd congressional district, it is my

great honor to commend them for their commitment to supporting our veterans and ensuring that they receive the care our nation promised them. congratulations. and we can't talk about homelessness without talking about the high cost of housing. many of our constituents that i serve nearly 40% in my district are renters and in the chicago portion of my district, we have seen rent go up 20% in some cases even higher. for decades, the united states has faced increasing housing costs and declining construction. in 2022, it estimated that 12 million americans are spending more than half of their income on rent and utilities. now think about that. you get your income, you get

your check and worked 40, 50, 60 hours and look and more than half of it is going to rent and utilities. and the rest of it probably to a car payment, most likely for gas, student loans, credit cards. people are living paycheck to paycheck. and given what we have seen since covid reduced housing supply, increasing rent, supply chain issues, these statistics have only gotten worse. when i was tapped to represent the diverse communities of illinois in the state legislature, i was clear, i am going to fight like hell to prevent people falling into homelessness. i passed an expansive housing bill that included eviction moratoriums and rental assistance. we need more programs and policies that make rent affordable for families.

however, i know that is just one piece of the puzzle. even if people are able to remain housed, high rent forces people to choose between basic needs like keeping the lights on or purchasing meed keying. people are having to choose between medication, paying for their light bill or paying rent. and when people have to make these kind of choices, a cycle develops. what is that cycle, you ask? debt, poor credit and predatory lending and all the distressing consequences when unaffordable housing creates financial hardships for our families. it is more important than ever to make housing affordable while we address predatory practices. we have to expand atlantative credit scores that factor in rent and utility payments and

regulate fees like late credit card fees. i was encouraged the consumer financial protection bureau, they finalizedded a rule to cut excessive credit card late fees that cost american families $14 billion. by reducing the fee from $32 to $8, more than 45 million people who experienced an average savings of, $220 per year. consumer protections are part of how we help families navigate. we have to recognize the important role that fair housing act plays in protecting tenant from housing discrimination and predatory lltdz. 2024 marks the 56th anniversary of the federal fair housing act.

and today serving in this congress it seems almost impossible that people can come together to set a national policy of fair housing that bars discrimination based on color, religion, national origin, gender or disability. but we did. and the need is greater than ever. according to the national fair housing alliance answer 2023 fair housing report, there were 33,000 fair housing complaints received in 2022, the highest number of complaints ever reported in a single year. and over our complaints were 5.7% higher than the previous year and complaints increased. while this legislation is still relevant 56 years later, i would argue it could use an update. in illinois the human rights act

which is 45 years old bars discrimination in sex and age ancestry, marital status, unfavorable discharge from military service, sexual orientation, gender-related, arrest records, source of income or immigration status. and here's what i know. if housing is a human right, then we must root out housing discrimination and predatory practice whenever we find them. to hear a little bit more of this housing work across the country and what must be done, i would like to yield to the gentleman from new york, mr. bowman. mr. bowman: thank you representative ramirez and thank you for yielding. dear america, the rent is too

damn high. i repeat, the rent is too damn high. it remains too damn high for the majority of americans. we believe very strongly that housing is a human right. every single person in our country should have access to affordable housing. housing that is truly affordable. if you work full-time in our country, you should be able to afford clean, respectful, dignified, adequate housing. and no american should spend more than 20% of their salary towards rent and/or mortgages. in my district, you have people paying 30, 40, 50, 60, even 70%

of their salaries towards rent. how can you afford transportation? how can you afford child care? how can you afford education or get your child tutoring or to take additional courses for yourself? how can you afford to put your child in martial arts, science or music programs when the majority of your money is going towards rent? in westchester county where the majority of my district resides, you need to make $40 an hour to afford a modest two-bedroom apartment, that means working 2.6 minimum-wage jobs and you will not have discretionary income and not have an exemplary quality of life, which should be the goal of this congress to make sure that every one in our

country have their basic needs met including housing. president biden announced a rent cap in those who use the low-income tax credit. that is a huge help for millions of americans. thank you president biden. but we need for the president to go further and regulate rent across the country. he should use his authority to cap rent at any property with a federally-backed mortgage which senator warren and myself have joined tenant leaders in proposing. i want to give a huge shoutout to community voices heard who are organizing for tenants in yonkers, the bronx and westchester county. i give a huge shoutout to evelyn santiago who is organizing in white plains tenants and

westchester county. and janet garcia who is working for united jorchgers. as development goes up, we have to make sure that rent rent is affordable for the working class and not allowing the displacement or the again try fix of the most vulnerable. huge to west hab and worked closely to build and sustain affordable housing for seniors in yonkers and places in the county and district. we need a green new deal for public housing. we have to rebuild our public housing. the federal government has disinvested in public housing for decades. and over the last 10 years, not a dime given to public housing with a new public social housing

in line with our public climate goals. we need to support representative omar's bills to invest a trillion dollars over the next 10 years to make sure everyone has a home. and for those who are unhoused and may need support in housing, we need to build that, too. america used to be the country of big ideas, but we need to make sure we implement these ideas for marginalized people because housing is a human right and the rent is too damn high. and we still have so many people in our country, millions, not just unemployed, but underemployed, underemployed, housing costs through the roof,

utility costs through the roof. can't afford child care. we are creating a permanent underclass because we do not have a bold vision as a united states congress. the only way our democracy is going to work for everyone is if we focus on equity. step one in focus on equity is making sure everyone has a clean, dignified, respectful, clean energy home. that should be our goal. that should be our mission. thank you, representative ramirez, for your leadership and vision for housing in our country. your leadership in chicago and throughout the state of illinois. and this country is astounding. you inspire women across this country. you inspire latinas across -- across this country. you inspire me. i am a sophomore representative, you are a freshman and i look up to you.

please continue to share your bold vision with the people of america. thank you and i yield back. mrs. ramirez: thank you, congressman bowman and you are absolutely right, the rent is too darn high. today you heard from members from california, you heard from congressman bowman from new york, and now i want to yield to the gentlelady from minnesota, ms. ilhan omar. ms. omar: thank you to representative bowman for that incredible speech and thank you for giving a shoutout to my homes for all act. i want to thank representative ramirez for yielding and for bringing us all together to advocate for housing. in the richest nation on earth, it is a moral failure that we have a housing crisis. but moral victories are not just words. but by urgent -- we don't address moral victories not just

by words but by urgent action and bold policies. fortunately, our local -- localities are stepping up with sensible housing reforms and are creating development models. in minneapolis, our public house authority just unveiled its largest development in decades. the minneapolis housing authority created 84 new units that are deeply affordable, family housing across minneapolis using innovative construction approach that cut development time by 30%. in montgomery county, maryland, local leaders created their own version of affordable housing development by setting up a revolving loan fund to develop dense mixed income mys any play owned housing. now their public developer model

is being replicated in other counties across the country. these local initiatives are vital to strengthening housing affordability but they need more support. the solution to our housing shortage cannot be piecemealed. it demands a combination of local initiatives and bold federal leadership. congress cannot sit on the sidelines. we have the responsibility and the capacity to solve this crisis. we can start by authorizing significant federal funding and public financing options for true public and social housing. this is why i am reintroducing the homes for all act, to transform what housing could look like in the united states through the right reforms and policies. it repeals the fair cloth amendment allowing public housing authorities to build

more housing on a massive scale like we once did in times of great need. to ensure federal disinvestment and neglect does not happen again, the bill also converts public housing operating and capital expense into mandatory spending. it makes historic investments in our housing stock. building 8.5 million new housing units and 3.5 million new private housing units for working families. finally, my bill would establish a fund to help localities develop pro-housing programs that can also prevent residential segregation and displacement. congress needs to play a more active and direct role in strengthening our housing supply. this includes making sure that public and private dollars for affordable housing are used effectively and equitably by supporting local zoning reforms and robust tenant protections.

such policies can work together if crafted carefully. last congress, senator merkley and i introduced the affordable home act to provide that comprehensive approach of ensuring housing construction and acquisition efforts are fair, inclusive and sustainable. for renters and first-time home buyers this legislation provides robust funding for direct rental assistance and down payment assistance. this bill also establishes programs for a national right of first refusal and right to counsel and bans sources of income discrimination and no cost evictions. for people experiencing homelessness, the bill provides billions of dollars in funding for permanent supporting -- supportive housing and not only covering capital costs but also expanding rental subsidies and wraparound services.

for communities, the bill invests in innovative housing models such as resident-owned cooperatives and community land trusts. my bills are only a couple of examples that could help guarantee housing as a human right. i am proud to share this floor with my dedicated colleagues who have championed housing policies that are centered on the needs of our communities and jay vo cats. i also want to shout out representative esther apache, representative go mess, representative mike howard, and representative muhammad who are leading the charge in the state of minnesota to make sure housing is available for all. everyone deserves access to a safe and stable place to live. thank you so much to representative ramirez for your great partnership in this important fight. i yield. mrs. ramirez: thank you, congresswoman. the truth is, i hear you talk,

there are bills prepared to bring solutions to this issue. and what we need in congress is the will, the courage, to prioritize our communities. thank you so much for your leadership. the work that we do can't be done without the people on the ground that are constantly working to make sure that people that need to be seen are seen and heard. these are leaders in our community that often are unsung heroes but that do all of the work so that members of congress like me could be here. and it's why i rise today to recognize my constituent, katherine serpa, a local organizer living her commitment to save to dignify housing. she's a resident of chicago's housing authorities public housing knowing firsthand the

challenges families in chicago and around the nation face when it comes to affordable housing. as president of the north central scattered site, she has worked tirelessly to organize her neighbors including section 8 voucher recipients to protect the rights as ten nantz. serving on the board of the advisory council, katherine brings the voice, the perspective and the concerns of the neighbors living in a public housing to ensure that they are represented and the -- in the decisions that impact them daily. her work has been central to ensuring public housing residents have clean, dignified, well-maintained homes and a key voice in strengthening my legislation, the tenants' right to organize. on behalf of illinois' third congressional district, it is my great honor to honor, to commend katherine serpa for her contributions to our community

and her commitment to housing for all. thank you, katherine. congratulations. mr. speaker, i also rise today to commend my constituent, a leader, an inspiration, zoe savs activism to realize housing as a human right. jose's family migrated from puerto rico in the 1950's and moved into a historic public housing development on the northwest side of the city. jose made strong connections with his neighbors as he grew up and he became a staunch defender of the community and a steward of the strong generational relationships built there. for years, progress to redevelop the housing development have staaled.

while the fite has been long, jose's leadership has been constant. he's been a committed advocate, testifying, marching, calling for accountability. as a lathrop anumb lie leader he's held public officials accountable to do more to protect and preserve affordable public housing. it is my great honor to commend jose zais for his leadership and commitment to fight for public and affordable housing for our communities. jose, thank you. it is my honor to congratulate you with this congressional commendation. to continue to hear about the work that needs to be done around housing throughout the country and the ways that congress can actually act, i'd like to now yield to the gentleman, my friend, from california, mr. garcia.

mr. garcia: thank you, representative ramirez. mr. speaker, our nation faces a severe housing crisis and it's time for congress to start working on real solutions for working families. now we know that we're facing a shortage of three million homes across the country. that's unacceptable. and the deficit has led to years of rising costs for every american. housing is a human right. but today there are millions of people with no access to a safe home, no access to a stable home, and this is happening in cities and towns across america. we know that millions more are at risk. in 2020, half of american renters were forced to spend more than 30% of their income just on housing. and 23% were forced to spend more than half their income on rent. we just know that rent is too damn high. now this is unacceptable. and it's a single biggest driver

of our country's homelessness crisis in. places like l.a. county that i represent, and in communities across america, rents are going up and housing stock is becoming more and more difficult and we know that working families and middle class families have less and less access to not just buying a home, but even renting a home that they can afford. we know our most vulnerable constituents are facing the most severe consequences of this crisis and it impacts especially black and brown and low-income communities across america. we also know this is a crisis for seniors. for people on a fixed income. who can't keep up with skyrocketing housing costs. and it's impacting young people who are entering the job market and starting families, realizing sadly that they'll never be able to afford a home. now for the past 70 years, being

able to buy a home and build wealth has been the gateway to the middle class for millions of families. it's made the american dream possible for so many generations, but now we are allowing that american dream to crumble. the shortage of affordable housing is estimated to cost us approximately $2 trillion a year. due to lower wages and productivity. we need to build more housing. and housing is a social justice issue. housing is a climate issue. we know that communities that adopt smart housing policies can build more affordable housing. and not only does our federal government need to invest in more housing. in more vouchers. in more affordability. and focus on more not just local but national tenant protections, we also need to take a smart approach to growth.

that's why last year i also introduced the people over parking act. to eliminate minimum parking requirements near high quality public transit. now for those that don't know, parking minimums force property owners to create a certain number of spaces regardless of the needs of the people who live in those homes. in fact, parking minimums are oftentimes the single largest driver of housing costs across america leading to less and less affordable housing. additionally, many of these spaces go unused even as the financial costs are passed on to renters and tenants, even folks that may not even own a car. we need to reduce parking minimum we need to increase density across the country, we need to look at our zoning to ensure we can spur more multifamily units and developments across neighborhoods and across communities in this country.

. we need to pass commonsense policies and protect representers and tenants and ensure neighborhoods are for everyone and folks have access to the middle class. housing is a human right. thank you. and i yield back. mrs. ramirez: thank you, congressman garcia. you are absolutely right. the rent is too damn high. with skyrocketing inflation, increasing rents, tenants, like you said, are often finding themselves in a vicious cycle of being rent-burdened and vulnerable to housing prices. while the fair housing act and other nondiscrimination work is critically important, we know incidents of housing discrimination go undetected or unreported. marginalized communities, especially nonnative english speakers, new arrivals,

immigrants, black and brown people can be afraid to speak out against discriminatory housing policies because they fear retaliation. that's why tenant organizing rights are critical. every tenant should use their voice to address the concerns they have regarding their housing situation. that's why i was proud to lead ms. tlaib, rep gosar in a tenants right to organize act, a historic measure that protects and expands community power, changing the landscape of housing for everyone. what will it do? it products the organized rights of tenants with housing vouchers and low income housing tax credits and expands to those who may not be eligible for tenant based restrictions. all tenants have a rightoo to organize.

protecting a tenants union is another way we help people stay housed. i want to also give a shoutout to representative norma hernandez in the state legislature in illinois who has an identical bill in the statehouse to begin doing this work specifically in illinois. norma hernandez, we're so grateful for your work. and the truth is that in parts of my district, genderification is a threat to the housing rights. it displaces families and destroys webs of relationships and the community history. that's why i'm so inspired by the work of a predominantly latino organization. youth and leaders have fought to address genderification by expanding community control of local land use and zoning. in much the same way we protect

renters and homeowners at the federal level, i encourage us to be inspired by the work of the organizations to encourage the models of a future that helps us think beyond the status control, community landownership, and collective financial models because i know that those are the ways of the future. and as we think about our future, we have to reckon with the consequences of climate change on our housing stability. for instance, in my district, polar vortexes are more frequent and lower average temperatures that require more heat which increase household energy consumption and associated expenses. even if we stabilize rents and make housing more affordable, we also have to address how climate change and climate inaction puts us all at risk. it is why we have to realize both pollocks and investments to secure the future of our public

housing. prioritize climate and racial justice and boost our economy and labor force. it is why i'm proud to stand with representative oak waseo cortez and sanders --o causeeo cortez and sanders to confront challenges. the sweeping legislation aims to retrofit, rehab tate, expand and decarbonize the entire nation's public housing stock through an estimated $162 to $234 billion investment in the next 10 years. while we may consider how we future prove our housing with climate uncertainty, we have to pay attention to ensure the 1.6 million people who live in our nation's public housing are protected. because, you see, working families continue to invest in our communities. they work, shop, eat, worship,

learn, and play in our neighborhood towns. and they deserve to be rooted and deeply connected to the people and places that shaped them, and that includes the power to put down roots in the communities that they have lived. and that requires for us long-term affordability for long-term stability. and listen, the solutions we look for are already in our communities from humboldt park to west chicago, leaders and neighbors and organizations are working in solidarity to create affordable housing opportunities. and our road to expand and support their efforts with transformative investments and commonance sense -- con -- commonsense organization is how we lead our housing as a human right. it's why i'm so grateful for the leadership of people who have grown up in the community and continue to do the work to get us closer to housing as a human

right. and it's why, mr. speaker, i rise today to recognize my constituent. she's an experienced and trailblazing voice for fair housing, from the hermosa neighborhood, she's dedicated more than 15 years of her life to helping the members of our community find a place to call home, to keep families safely housed, to fight for the creation of affordable housing and vibrant communities. and as a former executive director of lucha, a affordable housing organization in my district, she's helped uplift the voices and perspective of those in our community to fight for the housing and resources they need to thrive. in february, she made history by being appointed and confirmed as the very first ever latina

commissioner of the department of housing in chicago's history. i've been honored to work with her for many years as we fight to maintain and expand affordable housing. i know that the commissioner will serve our communities well, fighting tirelessly for all chicagoans to have safe, to have dignified housing. so on behalf of illinois' third congressional district, it's my great honor to commend her for her visionary leadership and service to our communities. congratulations. i also today rise, mr. speaker, to honor sally heyman and dr. ann sheets, community activists for the preservation of affordable housing who exemplify the true spirit of solidarity. for more than a decade, sally and ann have been strong

supporters of our community's fight for housing affordability and accessibility. and at a time where genderification threatens to erode the fabric of our communities, they have demonstrated what solidarity and fraternity look like. to support the cause of affordable homeownership, sally and ann donated their house to a community land trust, the here to stay community land trust, to ensure they remain affordable home options. how many people would donate their home so that another family can have the dream of owning a home? through their actions in the lands trust mission, long time residents will now find access to affordable homeownership, ensuring families with roots in logan square can continue to thrive and flourish in the

neighborhood they call home. on behalf of illinois' third congressional district, it is my great honor to commend dr. ann sheets and sally heyman, for their decades of activism, solidarity and actional commitment. sally and ann, you are a true inspiration for congress. congratulations. i've talked a lot today about the importance of addressing homelessness, not criminalizing people experiencing homelessness. we've talked about the importance of rental housing, creating it, and legislation that actually creates a solution. we certainly know there's so much work to be done around homeownership, and this congress has the ability, this congress here, to actually make it

possible for people to be able to have housing as a human right. mr. speaker, i thank my colleagues who have joined me tonight, the progressive caucus special order hour, as we've talked about the progressive fight for housing as a human right. and tonight we've heard from courageous leaders about the work that they're doing. you heard about people in my district, leaders inspiring leaders who are literally giving their life so that others can have housing as a human right. there is power in being rooted. and when we are rooted in ways that nurture safety, dignity, security, love, and joy, mr. speaker, we bloom. our community blooms. our neighborhoods bloom. this fair housing month, i call us to reaffirm our commitment to homeownership as a successful american dream, to housing for

all as a just social security and housing as a right regardless of race or gender. before we wrap up, mr. speaker, i do want to take a moment to talk about a situation weighing very heavily on my heart. you see, for over two years, ukrainians, their way of living and democracy have been under attack by a dictator, a warmonger, and an extremist. and while this country promised to stand by them, we have failed to deliver the aid they desperately need to protect their homes, to care for their wounded and sick, and to recover from putin's attacks. to my ukrainian constituents whose families and hearts are still in ukraine, know that i stand ready to vote in favor of stand alone legislation that provides assistance and humanitarian aid to ukrainians. i call on my colleagues to bring

ukrainian aid to the floor with the conditioning, support, and well-being of asylum seekers, or the lives in palestine, or any other position. we have to support ukrainian families without a delay, and we can do that today. as i wrap up, mr. speaker, i realize that today is a special day. that coming to congress, and sometimes we have extended sessions, it means we may be missing important days back at home. well, today, april 17 is a very important day for the love of my life. today is the birthday of my better half. and in this congress floor, i want to wish him a very happy birthday. i also want to thank the staff who worked so diligently to make sure that we can do this work, that we can move legislation.

and i want to give a special thank you to katherine bray who is working with me today, and to the leaders across the country, to the people that are just a moment from homelessness. know that i'll while here and while the congressional progressive caucus stands, we will fight like hell every single day until housing becomes a human right in this congress, in this state, in this country. and with that, mr. speaker, i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: under the speaker's announced policy of january 9, 2023, the chair recognizes the gentleman from arizona, mr. schweikert, for 30 minutes. mr. schweikert: thank you, mr. speaker pro tempore. we have a half an hour and a number of different things to make it through.

as we know, our running sarcasm is we all work in a math-free zone where we use feelings to make public policy and then we wonder what the hell is going on when we actually have to deal with the honesty of the math. let's actually do a little bit of fun with the honesty of the math. a couple days ago it was tax day. did you know when you paid your taxes, 39 cents out of every dollar you sent in went just to interest. 39 cents of every dollar you sent in as an individual taxpayer. that's the billionaire, that's down to the working stiff that actually had income tax. you paid 39 cents of your tax dollar just to interest. and the point, once again we're going to go through, is understanding how fragile we've

made part of the american economy because the scale of the debt. remember, every 110, 115 days, we're clicking you have a another trillion dollars of borrowing. so yay for that. so also. we also did another benchmark. yesterday we had $100,000 a second we were borrowing. congratulations once again. it's the third time, third time outside covid, when we've clicked through 100,000 dollars a second. the reason i break it down to a second is, how many people can visualize a trillion dollars? it's hard to visualize 12 zeros. let's sort of walk through this. as we're clicking off $100,000 a second, that basically means gross borrowing. looks like it's going to be, if

we stay close to this, $3.151 trillion. $3 -- three trillion, 151 billion dollars. why that's a big deal, that's yesterday. today it fell way down. 99,000 something per second. we were expecting to see the number actually really bounce down because what happened the last couple of days? it was tax collection time. we're trying to figure out what's going on because these are right off the treasury's website, we get every afternoon. you can sign up on our website for our office and get something we call the daily debt. we'll text it to you. we break it down both in grows, gross is all borrowing. because remember we borrow from the social security trust fund. we borrow from the transportation trust fund. we borrow from all of those.

we do pay interest. we've got to pay it back. then there's net borrowing. that's where we go to public bonds. if you saw, what was it yesterday, we had a bond auction that wasn't great. at the interest rates we paid. and even if you do the public borrowing. we're crossing over $2. trillion this year. ok. so let's process this for one moment. because i feel like i can't find a way to get this through people's heads. g.d.p. now, i believe it was yesterday, which is the atlanta fed, they have a little, neat little app you can sign up for. they'll send you updates and give you, you know, market predictions on interest rates and these things. they also give you an estimate of what they think the gross national product is for this quarter. they had a number of 2.9% come out yesterday. that is remarkable.

the american people should be given a ginormous hug for how hard they're out there working. yet how much of that 2. t 9% g.d.p. growth that was on the atlanta fed's website is because we're spending at this remarkable rate. and just as the left used to attack us when we did tax reform, which actually has this elegance of being proper allocation, they've been spending money at a crazy rate, remember, $100,000 a second, and here's some of the other parts of the punchline. so i hope i'm not throwing too much out. tax receipts, so far this fiscal year, are up 7%. ok. that's wonderful. but we're still borrowing close to $3 trillion this year. but tax recent -- receipts are up 7%. and we're still having to borrow like that.

medicare is up 10% so far this year. anyone see a problem? and part of the point we've got to walk through is how much is on auto pilot and we as policymakers, because we're terrified to go home and tell the truth, or let's be honest, let's be honest, a lot of our voters, we haven't told them the truth for so long, how do you get in front of them and say it's not foreign aid, it's not waste and fraud, you can't tax your way out of this. i've shown this a number of times. mr. speaker pro tem, the house is not in order. the speaker pro tempore: the house will be in order. the gentleman in the gallery will remain silent.

mr. schweikert: this building has a horrible echo. it's not being mean. it just has this weird sound quality. if you look at a chart like this, see the blue area, that's all we get to vote on. we function only get to vote on about 26%, 25% of all spending. and part of that, half of that, is basically defense. so if you don't want us to cut defense, don't want us -- you want us to maintain that, you co-do realize that the nondefense appropriations in this place, like 12%, 13% of our spending, that's all we vote on. everything else is on auto pilot. and on my chart here, i have $890 billion as interest. we already know the interest looks like it's going to be 1.1, it actually, if interest rates stay where they are this week, could be $1.2 trillion.

making interest, let's do this, medicare will be $1,450,000,000,000. interest will be $1.1 or $1.2 trillion. medicare will be 839. defense will be right there. now remember. we wrp just calculating that medicare spending has already moved up almost 10% this year. we have medicare coming in as number three. and defense coming in as number four. it's a lot different than the folklore out there in society. part of the point we keep trying to make here is, we've made this society, this government, the world actually, in some ways, incredibly fragile because as interest rates move up, it's starting to consume everything around us. so look. i have not done this chart in

years but we have updated it. understand, it's a little hard to see. we'll put it up on one of our websites. we are right here in 2024. we were supposed to only be boar ring about $1.5 trillion this year. looks like we may double that. so the chart -- this chart is only a few months old and it's already that far out of date. understand it's an interest rate snaree chart. right now, as we're -- c.b.o. has us 3.5%, we're already over there. -- over that. in 3.5%, in nine years we're borrowing close to $4 trillion a year. that's actually eight budget years. if we go up a full point, we're well over $4 trillion. if we go up to the 5.5, which is historically closer to what we were the fake year, the previous decade if you do the 35 years before that, even if you take out the volker years, 5.5 was

closer to what norm was. and then you're starting to approach in nine budget years almost $5 trillion in a single year interest. there's our problem. you know. we've listened to speeches already today. people telling us this is a human right. that's a human right. ok, fine. do you want to think like an economist? or someone that believes in fairy tales. because we make public policy here by our feelings. not by facts. because the facts are uncomfortable and they don't sound that great on campaign stumps. and i actually originally intended to come here, mr. speaker, and just do some basic economics charts and then do

some optimism of solutions but let's run through these charts and then we'll actually talk about the reality that there is hope. there is a way to deal with this. it just requires thinking. and we're so busy having the drama of, are we going to remove another speaker? are we going to knife each other over some foreign aid. and understand. i know some people passionately care about israel, ukraine, taiwan. add up the amount, the total amount of money, remove the money that functionally comes back to the united states, you're talking three or four days of borrowing. people have no sense of the scale. so you look at a chart like this. and here's part of your classic problem. remove covid. that's covid right there. and just look at the basic chart. and all we're trying to say is

historically, next year, bunch of t.c.j., which was the tax reform, expires your tax rates go up next year. if you have an l.l.c., a pass-throughering your taxes go up next year. that's already based in this number. we still functionally get a little less than 18% of the size of the economy in taxes. but, we're basically the blue line going up that you've got to understand and i know it's a 30-year chart. no one wants to think about something, 30-year chart. but this is the crisis. tax receipts stay stable. as a percentage of the economy. so i've already brought chart here's before that shohei, here's times when we've had remarkably high marginal tax rates. here's times when we've had low tax rates. and you get this percentage of the economy that always sort of falls in between, about 17 to

19. it's always right there in that band width. so the secret is have a bigger economy. understand, over the next couple of decades, congressional budget office has a number where saying, 2054, long time from now, what is that, that's like, you know, 28 budget years from now. 31.9% of the economy is in spending. but tax receipts are still projected to be about 17.9%. so the tax receipts stay level but our spending tissue and what is the primary drive over spending? this is the thing we share, at least i share, that gets you unelected but it happens to be true. from today through the next 30 years, 100% of growth of borrowing, and most of the growth is spending, is

demographics. we got old. the fact of the matter is, when i was a kid, $5 to $6 was spent for those under 18 for every $per senior. today that's reversed. today we spend about $5 per senior for every $1 for those under 18. it's a different demographic. different population dynamics. but those health care costs, if medicare is going up 18% this fiscal year, you've got to see what the numbers look like over the next decade, particularly as the baby boomers, close to 70-something million of us, so if you had a revolution in changing the cost of health care, which we've written about, and actually designed ways to do it but you couldn't get a hearing around here because there's too many damn lobbyists

running up and down the hallway say, that'll affect our business model. or that'll affect the bureaucracies. the bureaucracies here have their own lobbyists. math will win. but this place will still curl up in a fetal position of fantasy. and one more time. it keeps ticking away from us. remember, one year ago, we were estimating, oh, this, 2024 budget will only borrow about $1.3 -- then it was $1.5, then $.6. now we're looking at number, the public borrow, bonds, is 2.. and the total borrowing -- this is if the treasury. this isn't from my joint economic economists or schweikert's brain. this is from the treasury's own numbers.

thar at now $1,1436,000,000,000. interest. this fiscal year. and this was put together before the most recent pop in interest rates. so i've said this, and this seems to upset some folks. congress has made a governing decision. and it's not a governing decision whether we want to go through the chaos of removing another speaker. or the chaos of letting the democrats have more power around here. it's the chaos that we've made the decision to have the bond markets in charge of your country. because if we have a failed bond auction, do you understand the cascade of hell that happens in this country and around the world

world. so it's our obligation to demonstrate to those who are willing to buy our country's debt, that we're adults, we understand what is going on, our demographics, our earned entitlements that we've got to pay. and how are we going to pay them when functionally the taxes you just paid, 39 cents out of every dollar you paid went just to cover the interest. and it will be worse next year. so you live in a country where we've made the decision, let's put the bond market in charge of your country because we're too much of a wimp to tell the truth. and for those who say well, schweikert, if you'd just vote against this or that, and they don't understand those are rounding errors.

the scale, it's not today, it's as you move over the next couple years, the scale of borrowing is structural. it is what we are demographically. and heaven forbid in eight or nine years when the social security trust fund is exhausted, and to my democrats who get cranky, you can't use the word "exhausted." that's the social security actuary report, if you read the math, it's what they say, they use the word "exhausted" because it's gone. and you get a 25% cut in social security and we double senior poverty rate in america. and we had a meeting, jodey arrington gets credited for this, asks a simple question. for you democrats, how many of you believe the only solution you would support policy changes and raising taxes?

no, they only want raising taxes. over here the republicans said we've got to do everything. at least the republicans on the committee and the republican witnesses told the truth. the democrats are so locked in that there's this fantasy -- and i've shown the charts over and over and over. you can raise all the caps. and if you give no benefits, raise the caps, now you've turned social security functionally into everything f.d.r. swore it would never be, it's a wealth transfer system. it only covers half, at best, the shortfall. so when you hear people say well, we have a solution, we're going to fix it through tax hikes. you do understand what the fraud is, to be able to close the gap, you've got to tax unearned -- excuse me, unrealized capital gains all up and down the economy. so we're still trying to figure out what democrats mean when they say that because we're walking through the details in their proposals and we're having

trouble making the math work. so you have a house, you have a building, you have a retirement account, you have investments, do they get to come in and take 12.4% of everything you've gained that year? because that's the only way you start to cover these scales of shortfall. the first year -- so 2033. the first year social security is empty, the shortfall is $616 billion. every dime of defense is in the $800 billion range. do you understand the scale of what's coming at us? look, i've already done these charts before over and over saying here we are right now, we're actually a little higher than this. these are interest rates. we're probably at 3.6% and we're going higher with the recent bond auctions. here's what we were in the 2001-2022, sort of the suppressed years of the federal reserve suppressing interest rates. when we go back to 1975-2001,

understand what the average interest rate was on u.s. sovereign debt. it was 3.5%. i just showed you a chart a moment ago that said we're almost at armageddon if we go to 5.5%. so don't think it's some sort of crazy utopian fantasy, you're not getting that high. our math, we're not even going up to what the historical average was, but we want to live in a fantasy world. just another chart trying to show where interest rates are and where they're going. i wanted to do this one again because i had someone looking at the video from youtube from last week's floor speech. and i used this chart and we had a misunderstanding, so i want to walk through it again. this line here is social security.

this line is medicare spending as a percentage of g.d.p. understand, one of the key differences in medicare is there's a trust fund but it only covers maybe 30% to 40%, the hospital portion. the rest comes out of the general fund. social security, even when the trust fund is exhausted, 75% and then it falls to 70% and a little bit less of that comes from your taxes. right now for every dollar you pay in, they basically take that and put it out the door and reach over and cash in a little bit of the special trust bonds, t bills, treasury bills they have to pay out, and that's what's exhausting the trust fund. so when you see this, this is just spending, not borrowing, spending, according to g.d.p. but what's fascinating is sometime in the next decade, you

actually have medicare taking more the total economy than social security. but the thing that i was surprised no one noticed, if medicare is at -- functioning in the 30-year window gets as high as 6.9% of the entire economy and social security is another 5.9% of the economy, and that's just the two earned retirement programs, so you start to think about that, if that's consuming that much of the entire economy, how do you pay for the rest of government? how do you pay for military? how do you pay for anything else? you start to understand how quickly government spending gets around 32% of the entire economy. and that's actually calculated on last year's interest rates. think what those numbers will be

the next two months when we update them. what happens if the interest rate goes back to normal? social security subcommittee yesterday, the democrats' solution for social security is we just need to tax people more. ok. the problem is the crisis we're on the cusp of, 2/3 is health care, 1/3 is social security and the trust fund has another eight or nine years. so when we did tax reform, dirty little secret the democrats never want you to hear, the top income, the top 20% of income earners, did you know they actually today pay a higher percentage of federal income taxes? a higher percentage of federal income taxes before tax reform?

the u.s. tax code got more progressive. a lot of that was because the bottom core tiles, we almost were removed from paying payroll taxes. they pay into their social security and medicare and unemployment. but from the income tax standpoint, if you take a look, the bottom core styles actually pay nothing. top 20% today pays 71% of all taxes. mr. speaker pro tem, how many minutes do i have left? thank you. i'll do more of this in a future speech. i want to go through these fairly quickly because i want to end on something a little more optimistic than some of these more dystopian numbers. social security faces a $39 trillion shortfall over the next 30 years. $36 trillion is subjecting the trust fund. so let's just -- what we're

saying here is this is income, payroll taxes and benefits. the red, see this green part here, that is up to the moment the trust fund is exhausted and that's interest we get from the general fund. the general fund borrows some money and we pay a little interest back. see the purple here? that's how much is going out the door. see this up here? that's the interest covering if the general fund covers the shortfall. these numbers are so stunningly ginormous, a word my 8-year-old likes to use, ginormous. so when you think about this, if social security itself has a structural, $39 trillion shortfall, what happens when i come to you and explain medicare, $90 trillion

shortfall. and that's 100% when you add in the interest, 100% of all the debt today through the next 30 years. i just want to show this to try to make the point again. it's sometimes like talking to a golden retriever, they're adorable but at the end of the day they're still adorable and didn't really understand a word you said. some of my democratic colleagues, when you walk through saying here's your proposals of raising the cap on all taxpayers, you know, and what the outlays are expected in social security that it doesn't actually close the gap. if you just, one more time. this chart does it by percentage of g.d.p. let's conceptually process this. so trust fund is almost gone.

you basically say everyone now pays 12.4%. you pay 12.4%, that's your social security tax. and you give no benefits. no additional benefits for the folks over the cap. you cover -- let's be generous. let's say it's 50% of the shortfall. and you basically have chewed up all the potential taxes that you needed to shore up medicare. and there becomes the math problem is you women almost never see someone on the left, to be shops saying to save medicare and social security and a couple other programs they care about, here's the scale. you even saw the president stand behind the microphone here at the state of the union and notice, he only talked about the medicare taxes. and that didn't solve the

problem, it just short up part of the trust fund a little bit. the vast majority of extending comes out of the local fund. look, we've come here repeatedly and said there are solutions. we actually several months ago wrote an entire chapter in the economic position of the republicans on the joint debt committee. i thought i would get hell for it because i stood on one of the third rails of politics. i had five economists work on a paper. the whole chapter in here, chapter 3, and we talked about what would happen to society if we took on obesity? turns out the single greatest thing you can do to lower the debt of the united states, produce growth, family formation and all those things. we were coming up withs 5

trillion, $7 trillion. we're still doing the math. and i won't commit to it because we still have math to do and it could be $9 trillion over the decade. the greatest thing we can do to save this country and stabilize our debt is actually moral. let's give our brothers and sisters the opportunity to be helpful. maybe i should stop doing the dystopian anger of people not willing to deal with the anger of the math. i'll try to spend more time talking about the fact that there are solutions. with that, mr. speaker, i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields. for what purpose? mr. schweikert: i move the house adjourn. the speaker pro tempore: the question is on the motion to adjourn. those in favor say aye. those opposed, no.

the ayes have it. the motion is adopted. accordingly, the house stands adjourned also at that lawmakers adjourned of the impeachment trial of homeland security secretary alejandro mayorkas after the two articles of impeachment against and fell on constitutional points of order. you can follow the story on our website, c-span.org. house members are expected to be in session on saturday to vote on three foreign aid measures that include funds for israel, ukraine, and the end of pacific. watch live coverage of the house on c-span. announcer: c-span is your unfiltered view of government. a