As prepared for delivery.
Good afternoon.
More than 600 days ago, the American people entrusted House Republicans with the gavel. It was easy to see why. After nearly two years of an unchecked Biden Administration, the country was reeling. On their watch, the nation endured grim milestone after grim milestone: the highest gas prices ever recorded, the worst inflation in four decades, twelve major cities with new homicide records, and an unmatched illegal immigration crisis. At every turn, radical Democrat policies either created the issue, actively impeded the solution, or both.
Everyday Americans drafted House Republicans to protect them from these harmful policies and provide a check on the White House. This is a duty our majority takes very seriously. Indeed, it’s why we’re meeting today.
President Biden can’t even put a sentence together but the administrative state we’re assured he oversees continues to churn out reckless left-wing policies. What’s more, his presidency still emboldens his enablers. Together, their agenda imperils everything from the sanctity of the vote and Title IX to the availability of effective and affordable home appliances. In keeping with what we were hired to do, House Republicans are advancing measures meant to protect our country from the rash and ultimately destructive policies of the left.
President Biden welcomed an invasion at the southern border—from his rhetoric to the over 60 destabilizing executive actions he ordered. Every corner of the world took him up on the opportunity to enter our nation illegally. The numbers don’t lie. Since he entered office, there have been more than 9.7 million illegal immigrant encounters nationwide. That doesn’t include the 1.8 million known ‘gotaways’ who evaded apprehension on President Biden’s watch—more than the previous decade combined. For context, May marked the 39th straight month where monthly illegal encounters were higher than even the highest month seen under President Trump.
To add insult to injury, President Biden released nearly 5 million illegals into the country and is openly touting a plan to reward their fellow law breakers with amnesty. His choices are shameful but not at all surprising. What is surprising is how fervently his surrogates and supporters dismiss concerns over illegal immigrants circumventing the letter of the law and corrupting our democratic process.
The President and his enablers have been asking Americans to reject the evidence before their very eyes a lot lately. This is no different. And the evidence that noncitizens register to vote and illegally cast ballots in federal elections is substantial.
The National Voting Rights Act, enacted in 1993, requires states to provide a federal voter registration form at the time an individual applies for a driver’s license or state benefits. In some states, noncitizens —including illegal immigrants—are eligible to receive driver’s licenses and public assistance, meaning non-citizens have undoubtedly been provided voter registration forms in these states. And they’ve been registering. For example, Pennsylvania admitted that just a few years ago it had inadvertently allowed over 10,000 noncitizens to register to vote and a Georgia audit found more than 1,600 noncitizens had attempted to register.
Alarmingly, this doesn’t stop at registrations. In 2011, Fairfax County, Virginia, discovered over 278 noncitizens on the voter roll and learned that 117 of them had illegally voted in Virginia elections. Additionally, over the past decade, several different Arizona counties reported finding hundreds of noncitizens on the voter rolls and determined some of them illegally voted in federal elections.
The SAVE Act, introduced by Rules Committee member Chip Roy, closes the loophole created by the National Voting Rights Act and supercharged by left-wing sanctuary policies. It requires proof of U.S. citizenship to register an individual to vote in elections for Federal office. Anyone who believes in safeguarding our democratic process from illegal foreign influence should vote for H.R. 8281.
This Administration’s radicalism also threatens Title IX, which has protected women and girls’ access to educational opportunities for more than 51 years. In April, the White House released an unlawful Title IX rule that: 1) ignores a Supreme Court ruling, 2) strips students and educators of their rights, and 3) enshrines in law the left’s ongoing war against parents. Since Title IX’s enactment, female participation in high school sports has grown more than 1000 percent and in collegiate sports more than 600 percent. Their radical actions threaten that progress.
Unlike the White House, House Republicans believe women should be safe in intimate spaces and men should not compete in women’s sports. It’s why we’re advancing H.J. Res. 165, which prevents the Administration’s radical gender ideology from infiltrating education and hijacking Title IX.
Thanks to the Biden Administration, the left’s radical whims are also poised to infiltrate everyday Americans homes. The Department of Energy’s new dishwasher efficiency standards would take more than twelve years for the proposed efficiency upgrades to breakeven and would save Americans just $1.12 dollars a year. Consumers understand what options work best for their household and Washington shouldn’t stand in the way of their appliance choices. H.R. 7637 and H.R. 7700 ensures the DOE’s excessive energy standards will not continue.
Finally, the Committee will consider H.R. 8772, the FY25 Legislative Branch Appropriations Bill. While I anticipate my friend the ranking member will strongly disagree with my contextualization of today’s meeting, I hope he will at least echo his fellow Democrats in the Committee Report and take no issue with the funding levels within the measure. The Legislative Branch Subcommittee delivered a robust $5.5 billion package that supports Congress and our ability to work on behalf of the American people.
With that, I look forward to testimony from our panels and welcome the opportunity to move important legislation to the House floor.
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