The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“POSSIBILITY OF OVERTURNING ROE V. WADE” mentioning the U.S. Dept. of Justice was published in the in the House of Representatives section section on pages H4846-H4850 on May 11.
The Department is one of the oldest in the US, focused primarily on law enforcement and the federal prison system. Downsizing the Federal Government, a project aimed at lowering taxes and boosting federal efficiency, detailed wasteful expenses such as $16 muffins at conferences and board meetings.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
POSSIBILITY OF OVERTURNING ROE V. WADE
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Ms. Brown of Ohio). Under the Speaker's announced policy of January 4, 2021, the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. Johnson) is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.
General Leave
Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the subject of my Special Order.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the gentleman from Louisiana?
There was no objection.
Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Madam Speaker, the left has officially gone off the deep end, invading church services, going to the homes of judges, throwing Molotov cocktails into office buildings.
What has them all riled up? What has predicated the nationwide spate of violence, trespassing, threats, and other intimidating tactics?
Are they protesting skyrocketing inflation, the price of gasoline for their cars, empty store shelves making it hard for American mothers to feed their babies?
No, Madam Speaker, they are not. Here is what has the left all riled up. Last week, we learned of a draft Supreme Court opinion indicating that the Court may be prepared to finally, finally, overturn Roe v. Wade. That is right. Of all the very real problems in our country that could have sent them over the edge, this is the one that has them animated in the streets and causing chaos everywhere.
It turns out that the possibility that individual States may again be allowed to restrain the killing of unborn children is, of course, what has sent the left into a tailspin.
On our side, Madam Speaker, we understand the grave nature of the Supreme Court leak, and we pray that the Justices will remain resolute in their convictions in this pressure campaign.
But make no mistake, it bears noting that what spurs our Democrat friends into furious action is not record inflation, not soaring illegal immigration, not empty store shelves, not Americans just trying to make ends meet, but abortion.
Just this afternoon, our House Democrat colleagues made time to march over to the Senate to rally support for their bill allowing for abortion on demand until the moment of birth. If they think abortion on demand through all 9 months of pregnancy is the key to rallying the American people back to their side, I am afraid they are in for a rude awakening.
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I am grateful to my many colleagues for joining us tonight to discuss the myriad crises facing our country that are taking a backseat to the Democrats' abortion agenda.
Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Babin), my good friend.
Mr. BABIN. Madam Speaker, thanks to my good friend, Mike Johnson from Louisiana, for this Special Order and how important it is.
While we face countless crises, all of which are getting worse by the day, it is not hard to stand up here and soundly condemn and criticize President Biden and my colleagues on the other side of the aisle for the atrocious job that they are doing managing the United States of America.
Tonight, I am going to focus on one particular issue that literally is life or death for millions of future Americans. In the coming weeks, the Supreme Court of the United States will rule in the Dobbs v. Jackson case on whether Mississippi and other States like them can prohibit the murder of an unborn baby after 15 weeks.
Thanks to modern science, we can now see that at 15 weeks, the humanity of an unborn child is completely and absolutely undeniable. At 15 weeks, babies can suck their thumbs and have fully formed noses, eyes, and eyebrows, and most of all they can feel pain.
Make no mistake, we have reached a pivotal moment in our relentless fight for life--the lives of the innocent, the most innocent among us.
The Democrats have embraced an anti-life agenda so radical that they are actually supporting now infanticide--even though 71 percent of Americans support protections for our unborn. Think about that.
Americans across the country are eagerly supporting babies, mothers, and families. In 2019 alone, more than 2,700 pregnant centers provided more than 1.85 million mothers in the United States with free maternal services. But, par for the course, the party of science continues to ignore the science completely.
Last week's leak from inside the Supreme Court was a blatant attempt to obstruct deliberations and to intimidate Justices. Standing outside and intimidating Justices on the Supreme Court is illegal.
It was appalling and dangerous, and I hope that the investigation into this breach of trust holds those responsible accountable for their actions to the very fullest extent of the law.
That being said, the ongoing protests by pro-abortion activists outside the private homes of our Supreme Court Justices, again, folks, is outright illegal. I am calling on Attorney General Merrick Garland to do his job and act immediately to enforce the rule of law.
If the leaked Dobbs decision stands, the most innocent among us will finally have their voices heard. Half a century of error will then be corrected and millions of lives will be saved. No matter the outcome of this momentous case, I will never ever stop fighting for the unborn.
Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Madam Speaker, I thank the doctor for his conviction and consistency that he has always displayed, we appreciate that so much.
Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Grothman).
Mr. GROTHMAN. Madam Speaker, now that we are back in Congress this week, I think it is time for all of us to share a little bit of what we learned when we were back in our districts. Given that my district has more manufacturing jobs than any other district in the country, I, of course, spent some time touring my manufacturing facilities and seeing what is going to become the cost of American goods in the immediate future.
There are some people who are claiming that this inflation is only something that arose out of recent developments--out of what happened in the Ukraine. That is not at all true.
As we look here to my right, we see a graph that around the time of the American Rescue Plan--maybe the most irresponsible piece of legislation that has ever passed this House--we began to have M2, a measure of the money supply go up about 35 or 37 percent compared to the prior year.
In the last big inflation in the 1970s, it would go up 8 or 9 percent over the prior year. Now we are at around 37 percent. Look at this. That was before the preposterously big spending, bipartisan infrastructure bill was passed.
When you have that great of an increase in the money supply--in other words, when the Federal Reserve has to print that much money in a short period of time, what do you think will happen? Any middle-schooler could have told you when that American Rescue Plan passed that you were going to have hyperinflation, and that is exactly what you are getting.
When I tour my manufacturers again and again and again, I find the cost of metals and the cost of the materials that are going to go into the final price in a few months going up 300, 400, 500 percent. I am very afraid of what is going to happen in the future to our economy with such hyperinflation.
I will point out, compared to a very large and controversial bill that we passed last night with regard to the Ukraine crisis, that bill was about 2 percent of the spending of the massive American Rescue Plan and a small fraction of the bipartisan infrastructure bill.
I only hope that this body from here on out, beginning with the budget that is going to pass for the calendar year beginning October 1, finally stands up to President Biden, finally stands up to the more extremists in the majority party, and finally says ``no'' to this spending, or we threaten to permanently ruin the American economy with all this money the Federal Reserve has to print to assuage the huge amount of spending that some Members of this body want to undergo.
Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Madam Speaker, I thank Mr. Grothman. They have an insatiable appetite for spending.
Did you know the American people are just as upset as we are?
A CNN poll just came out and only 23 percent of Americans rate our economy as somewhat good. That is a shocking decline of 14 points just since December. A Fox News poll says 67 percent of Americans disapprove of President Biden's economic job performance.
Mr. GROTHMAN. Madam Speaker, I hope we knock down that proposed budget for next year. How could anybody ask for so much more spending?
Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from California (Mr. Garcia).
Mr. GARCIA of California. Madam Speaker, some matters go beyond simple coincidences. Some things are simply inexplicable and inexcusable.
The blizzard of crises our Nation has endured since January of 2021 cannot be attributed to a simple string of bad luck. The reality is that these were intentionally induced crises by our elected officials in the White House and in this body. What we have seen in the last year is an unprecedented frontal assault on middle-class Americans and their security. This is the leading edge of the dismantling of the fabric of our Nation that the far left has been asking for for years.
With a slow boil over the last year, our Nation has endured record high crime, record homicide rates, record high fentanyl deaths, record high illegal crossings across our borders, record debt, record high gas prices, interest rates have gone parabolic, affordability metrics are at all-time lows, the stock market is now in a straight line downward trend crushing our workers' retirement accounts, and our supply chain challenges persist.
Madam Speaker, these are just the man-made domestic challenges. On the world stage, our Nation is now no longer the sole and preeminent superpower. On the heels of the Afghanistan debacle, in the midst of a national security crisis where we have lost operational control of our southern border, and on the cusp of a recession and more war and conflicts with peer threats like Russia and China, many are looking at the so-called leaders in D.C. as the source of the problem, and with good reason.
We are now controlled by a single party who is flying us into the ground. We are in a nosedive. Any one of these crises alone can be fatal. But the confluence of these challenges poses a truly existential threat to our country, and we need this body and this President to do better.
Madam Speaker, I rise today to seek explanations. Over the course of the last years, I, along with many Americans have been scratching our heads, racking our brains as to why this administration is doing certain things.
Why does it choose to support those who want to defund the police? Why is this administration so accommodating to China and Iran? Why does it support mayors and district attorneys who give hope to the criminals rather than protecting the victims? Why choose to continue to spend recklessly without any regard for our children's future? Why does your party care more about the borders of other nations than our own? Why is this administration focused on our military adopting woke policies instead of being able to win a war?
While I agree with very little from this administration, I do agree with one statement the President made last August. August 15, just days before 13 Americans were killed in Afghanistan, our President said: I am President of the United States and the buck stops with me. Indeed, it stops with the President. We all end up paying for these mistakes, Madam Speaker.
We pay for our record debt, our record spending, our inability to look past petty politics, we pay for the accommodations to the far left progressive flanks of your own party, a party that no longer resembles the ideals inspired by President Kennedy.
A party that has been hijacked by BLM and special interests. Hijacked by fear rather than a devotion to our beautiful Constitution. Why does this administration continue to do the inexplicable and the inexcusable?
Madam Speaker, you and I sit on opposite sides of the political aisle, but like passengers on an airplane, when we fly through a storm that doesn't matter, we just want the pilot to be qualified and to get us through the storm. It doesn't matter if you are on the left side and I am on the right side of the aisle, we all just want to get to our destination safely.
For the first time in my life, I am worried that there is no one in the cockpit qualified to fly this aircraft. I know most Americans share this concern.
I have spent my life defending this beautiful country. Since the age of 18, as a naval officer, I have been willing to give my life for this Nation. If I am willing to die for it, I am willing to work for it. If I am willing to work for it, I am willing to do what is right for it. In this mission, I will never stop. But I expect the same from you, Madam Speaker, and I expect the same from our President.
I can't understand why elected officials would choose to put our country in harm's way. It is only inexplicable and inexcusable. Ours is a Nation that deserves to be loved and not intentionally flown into the ground. She is a precious one, Madam Speaker, but she is not invincible.
Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Madam Speaker, I thank the former top gun Navy pilot who did a great job describing our economy as in a nosedive. If only we had a former fire chief that could describe the five-alarm fire that is America right now--oh, we do--he also happens to be a former mayor of Miami.
Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Gimenez).
Mr. GIMENEZ. Madam Speaker, from the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia's barbaric invasion of Ukraine to the spikes of illegal immigration and illicit drugs flowing into our country, world events over the past few years have further underscored the importance of countries preserving their national borders.
When a State cannot control and secure its own border, it loses the ability to protect its people and strategic interests. In order for a State to survive, secure borders are paramount.
The current border policies under the Biden administration allows for millions of unvetted, undocumented individuals to freely flow across our southern border. They allow acts of war to be played out by the cartels and the narco-traffickers with hard, illicit, dangerous narcotics--such as fentanyl, methamphetamine, heroin, and cocaine--to permeate across the border and be transported to communities throughout the country where they are killing thousands of our fellow countrymen.
These failed border policies leave our children, our grandchildren, our citizens vulnerable. They leave our national security vulnerable. They are a total abdication of the President's duty as the leader of the United States, whose prime responsibility is--above all--to protect the American people.
Instead of handling this border crisis, President Biden and Secretary Mayorkas seem to be more interested in solving Mexico's immigration problems. As the majority of migrants apprehended at our southern border are coming from other countries, such as Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, and frankly from all around the world, it makes absolutely no sense for asylum seekers to show up at our borders seeking refuge from their home countries.
Think about this logically. If a migrant is escaping their home country because of horrible living conditions or other factors, shouldn't they be seeking asylum at the Mexican border and waiting to go into Mexico? Which is exactly what they are doing. Instead, President Biden's weak and gutless policies gives Mexico a free ride by incentivizing them to pass their border security issues and responsibilities to the United States.
President Trump had it absolutely right. We must bring back the remain in Mexico policy and make sure Mexico is doing its part in keeping their borders safe. Customs and Border Protection has made clear what they need to secure our southern border, and by extension, protect the American people. We must move swiftly to finish constructing approximately 280 miles of the wall, and fortifying that barrier with bolstered technology, such as radar sensors, drones, and autonomous surveillance towers.
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By strengthening our barriers--both physical and technological--we would be ensuring our law enforcement officials are equipped with the resources necessary to deter grave national security and public health threats created by unvetted, undocumented individuals crossing into our border, curb the proliferation of human trafficking along the southern border, and stem the flow of illicit drugs into our country that, again, are killing thousands--thousands--of our American citizens.
The time has come for the President's administration to take the crisis on our southern border as a serious national security threat, one that puts our families, our communities, and our country at incredible risk. No more hot air and useless speeches. It is time to get real on securing our border.
Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Madam Speaker, I thank the chief for that clear message. He is right. We heard from former Border Patrol officials this morning, and they told us that for an absolute certainty we have lost operational control of the border. We really have no border security at all, and if you don't have border security, Madam Speaker, you don't have safety in your country, and, ultimately, you don't have sovereignty either.
Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Rose).
Mr. ROSE. Madam Speaker, I appreciate the gentleman yielding time tonight.
Madam Speaker, an unborn child is a human life. Abortion ends that human's life. As the father of two young sons and one who passed away in the womb, I know firsthand that all children's lives are very precious whether inside or outside the womb. Unfortunately, Members of the Democratic Party would rather ignore this fact and instead advocate for more access to abortions up until the moment of birth and even in some cases after the baby is born, when the attempted abortion failed to kill the baby before it was actually born.
Because of this kind of extremism, millions of children will never get to walk this Earth as their Creator intended. Their lives are being cut short by those who believe the ends justify the means.
Since the Roe v. Wade decision in 1973, those on the right side of history have worked tirelessly in State legislatures and in Congress to secure the right to life.
Now it seems that our Constitutional Republic is under attack and the fundamental respect for the law has gone by the wayside as a draft document tied to one of the most consequential cases in the history of the Supreme Court was leaked to the press.
It begs the question: If the Supreme Court can't keep a secret, who can?
I have no doubt that the bad actor who leaked this document violated the law. That is why I led more than 20 House Republican Members of Congress in calling on the Department of Justice and the FBI to open a criminal investigation. After nearly 30 years as an attorney, I have never seen a more radical and unethical action take place in the legal arena. The leaker intended to undermine the division of power in our government and influence the High Court's decision. They must be held criminally accountable to the full extent of the law.
It is inexcusable that the Supreme Court Justices are now facing protests at their homes that could easily turn violent.
And the reason for these nefarious protests?
For simply abiding by their oath to uphold the Constitution and interpret the law the way it was written.
I will remind folks that nowhere in the Constitution does it enumerate a right to an abortion. In fact, our own Declaration of Independence says something quite different:
We are endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Yet proponents of abortion appear to be willing to do whatever it takes to have their way. Some are calling to burn down the Supreme Court and even the Justices' homes. Some Members of Congress wasted no time calling for the end of the filibuster and an expansion of the Supreme Court, something that President Biden even said as recently as 2019 would be ``a very dangerous thing to do.''
All in all, the leak is a reminder to the American people that Democrats have no desire to legislate under the parameters of our Constitution. If left to their own designs, they will stop at nothing until taxpayer funded on-demand abortions up until and even after birth are a permanent reality--a reality that most certainly will come at the cost of millions of irreversible tragedies and act as a stain on this great Nation until we right our wrongs and become a voice for the voiceless.
Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. My friend has spoken so well.
Madam Speaker, the sanctity of human life is something that we must stand for. Thankfully, it looks like the States and the people will be able to decide that issue again very soon.
Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Murphy).
Mr. MURPHY of North Carolina. Madam Speaker, for the first time in this Nation's history, the United States has surpassed over 100,000 drug overdoses. In fact, the CDC just estimated that 107,000 Americans died. 2021 was a record year, in fact, a 15 percent increase over the year prior, disproportionately affecting African Americans and other minorities.
As a physician for more than 30 years, it is a tragedy to see President Biden's war on America that is fueling the opioid crisis that is killing Americans every day. Fentanyl is more than 100 times more potent than morphine, and in just a short period of time, fentanyl overdoses have become the leading cause of death for adults age 18 to 45.
Let us think about that for just a minute. The leading cause of death for these Americans is not COVID-19, not car accidents, not cancer, and not heart disease. It is illicit fentanyl coming across our southern border, a border that we no longer control.
Let us be clear: this is a national security threat. We do not have operational control of the United States-Mexico border. Biden's war on America has invaded every town in this country, and his policies are actively making it worse.
Madam Speaker, this is a real and definite dereliction of duty by the President of the United States of America. He could fix this deadly nightmare overnight by simply reinstituting President Trump's commonsense border policies. This is negligence--pure, unadulterated negligence. The American people are suffering and dying because of this President's willful negligence.
How could he possibly believe this is the right thing to do?
Madam Speaker, Joe Biden is ultimately responsible for the massive increase of these fentanyl-induced deaths across America. He has done this for political motivation, and he should not be taken seriously because of this. He is being willfully ignorant, or he simply does not care about the American people.
Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Madam Speaker, Dr. Murphy is exactly right. The other tragedy is, of course, the cartels are making billions of dollars on all this flooding it into our country and killing innocent Americans.
Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Baird).
Mr. BAIRD. Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague from Louisiana for holding this Special Order.
Madam Speaker, I rise today to stand in support of our most important and fundamental right: the right to life. In the seventies then-Senator Biden said of Roe v. Wade: ``I don't like the Supreme Court decision on abortion. I think it went too far.''
A decade later he would sign a constitutional amendment that would allow States to overturn the Supreme Court ruling. Times have changed. Thanks to the advancements in science and our understanding that babies can feel pain at 15 weeks, we must support policies that advocate for and protect the most vulnerable among us.
I believe that life begins at conception, and I believe that life is a miracle that should be enjoyed, celebrated, and shielded.
I will close by saying this: When we know better, we do better. Now that we know better and know unborn babies can feel pain, it is time that we do better.
Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Madam Speaker, I thank my friend for that reminder of history.
President Biden was a whole lot more pro-life. Back in the seventies and eighties he opposed Roe v. Wade. He said that it went too far. In 1982 he wanted a constitutional amendment--voted for it--for the States to overturn that Supreme Court ruling.
But do you know what he did this week, Madam Speaker?
He issued a brazen statement calling on Congress to codify Roe v. Wade. What a tragedy. What a tragedy.
Madam Speaker, I yield to gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Burchett).
Mr. BURCHETT. Madam Speaker, I thank Vice Chairman Johnson. I appreciate your stand on life. It is heartfelt, and I really do appreciate it.
I will address two points, Madam Speaker, about the U.S. Supreme Court's draft ruling that was intentionally leaked to the press: one, whoever leaked the decision--I feel they are pretty gutless--they need to be held accountable for violating the sanctity of our Nation's highest Court; two, the pro-abortion activists are lying about what overturning Roe v. Wade really means.
First, I believe this leak was an act of political intimidation by left-wing operatives, and now the Supreme Court Justices are being forced to deal with an angry mob over a draft decision that was supposed to be confidential. If you check the date on that leak, Madam Speaker, it was not a recent draft, so this is obviously well-planned.
I know Roe v. Wade is a controversial case that gets a lot of folks fired up. I feel strongly about it, too. I think it should be overturned. But leaking a confidential draft opinion is not the way the Supreme Court is supposed to operate. It is supposed to uphold our laws and our Constitution regardless of the political drama here in Congress and down the street at the White House. Dragging the Justices into the political chaos is unacceptable, Madam Speaker, which is why I wrote to the director of the FBI demanding he launch an investigation into the leak. We are yet to hear a response. I have been very disappointed in the FBI. This is another one of those instances where it is not so much my local folks, but here at the national level they continue to let us down.
To my second point, the pro-abortion activists are panicking and screaming that this decision would immediately eliminate abortions across the country. That is not remotely true, Madam Speaker. Overturning Roe v. Wade would not impose any kind of national abortion ban but would leave those decisions to State governments.
For some States that value the lives of unborn children, overturning Roe v. Wade would allow our lawmakers to better protect these sweet little babies. In my home State of Tennessee and in several other States, this decision would activate trigger laws that would outlaw abortions in those States.
I believe currently in Washington, D.C., it would still be legal, if I understand the law correctly. However, in States that don't value the lives of unborn children and celebrate abortion as a human right--which it is not--their laws would remain unchanged. Overturning Roe v. Wade would not outlaw abortions across the country, as many pro-abortion activists would have you believe. It would simply give State legislators more freedom to pass their own laws.
I promised east Tennesseans I would fight to protect life and uphold our laws while I serve in Congress, and I intend to keep that promise. I will keep pushing to hold the person who leaked the decision accountable--although I doubt the FBI will lift much of a finger to do anything about it, Madam Speaker--and, more importantly, I will always keep fighting for the lives of the unborn.
I thank Chairman Johnson. His leadership skills are lackluster at best, but on this issue, Madam Speaker, he is exceptional. I thank him for that. I believe his gifts will be eternal for that, so I thank my brother.
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Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. It is a critical issue that we all believe to our core. That is for certain.
Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Clyde).
Mr. CLYDE. Madam Speaker, I thank my good friend, Vice Chairman Johnson, for yielding.
Madam Speaker, last week, a leaked draft opinion regarding the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization case revealed that the U.S. Supreme Court is likely to overturn Roe v. Wade, the disastrous 1973 decision that legalized abortion.
Once this opinion is officially signed by the Court, the cover of Federal law over the murder of innocent babies will finally be removed. Hallelujah.
While millions of precious lives have tragically been taken due to the evils of abortion, this monumental news is a giant leap forward in our fight to protect the unborn.
Yet, in light of this historic pending victory for the sanctity of life, Democrats' disturbing hysteria has truly gone off the rails.
Due to heightened tensions and increased threats from the left, fences and barricades had to be installed at the Supreme Court Building; Justices have received additional security; and Justice Alito and his family had to be moved to an undisclosed location.
While the White House initially refused to condemn protests targeting Justices' homes, radical pro-abortion extremists took that signal and violated Federal law by organizing unruly demonstrations outside the homes of Justices Kavanaugh, Roberts, and Alito.
Churches and pro-life organizations have also faced dangerous threats. Despite fake news reporting that attempted to downplay the crime, an anti-abortion facility in Wisconsin was arson attacked with a Molotov cocktail over the weekend.
What has sparked such outrageous acts of violence? The threat of saving human life. That is right; it is the threat of saving human life.
Think about that for a moment. Just the possibility that abortion regulation will rightfully return back to the States, giving millions of innocent souls a chance at life, enrages the left to the point of violence. It is sickening, unconscionable, and downright evil.
Yet, President Biden wants to call Republicans extreme? I will tell you what is extreme, Madam Speaker. Abortions on demand; that is extreme. Murder of the innocent unborn; that is extremely wrong.
My colleagues on the left are big proponents of abortion, but when you look at the disproportionate number of abortions in minority communities, it becomes quite apparent that to them, Black lives matter, but only after they are born.
This is the bottom line: Life is our first and foremost fundamental right--fundamental, unalienable right. As a proud pro-life American, I will never stop fighting to protect it.
So, I want to end with a thank-you. Thank you to Justices Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett. Thank you for defending the Constitution and standing for the right to life. Thank you for finally putting an end to the lie of a supposed constitutional right to abortion. May the Lord greatly bless you and bless your family and your family's family for generations to come for standing up for life. Soli Deo gloria.
Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. All glory to God. Thank you, my friend, for that strong word.
Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from California (Mr. LaMalfa).
Mr. LaMALFA. Thank you again, Mr. Johnson, for leading this opportunity here tonight.
Madam Speaker, we have April's Consumer Price Index just having been recently released. Unsurprisingly, it shows a lot of inflation, skyrocketing inflation.
Nearly every single American has been feeling that in their pocketbook on the basics of life, especially since the last 15 months of President Biden's policies have kicked it into place.
I guess what the surprise was, though, is how bad the rate of inflation really is. Inflation, through the CPI, has increased 8.3 percent over the last 12 months, the biggest single year of growth since 1984. Combine that with a decrease of 3 percent in real wages under the Biden era, and American families are facing serious damage to their wallets and their dreams.
Inflation is, indeed, a tax on every American and has been skyrocketing thanks to Biden and the Democrats' out-of-control spending. Inflation has increased every single month of the Biden Presidency.
First, he claimed the high prices were transitory.
Secondly, he blamed it on Russia's invasion of Ukraine, even though that was over a year into his term, and prices were already rapidly rising.
Then, he actually pretended it didn't exist. While Americans were suffering, he wanted to just sweep this self-made economic crisis under the rug.
Finally, this week, he claimed that combating inflation was now his top priority.
Oh, but wait. It is the Republicans' fault that inflation is so bad. This is under his party's rule here in Washington, D.C.
The economic crisis actually started his first day in office when he launched a full-fledged assault on domestic energy production that catapulted energy prices.
We know energy is tied to just about every aspect of our lives, from growing crops to delivering them to the store, from the mined products that turn into materials that we use every day, whether it is metals, electronics, what have you, batteries for the pie-in-the-sky idea that we are going to have to convert everything to electric, and on and on.
Electricity and fuel are extremely important to our economy, yet they are doing everything they can to squash American-produced energy. Do we want to import all that, too?
The pain of the gas prices have hit transportation, food production, and, as we know, the grocery stores. With record partisan spending bills like the failed American Rescue Act and the Build Back Better effort, inflation is crushing the American Dream for many.
We must address the root cause of Biden inflation, and, indeed, it is his policies. We must produce ample domestic oil to bring down the prices and help our economy be sustained by our own energy. We are self-sustainable.
We can also be helping our European allies instead of having them be dependent upon Russian natural gas. How crazy is that? We see what the effects are for Poland, and we will see it for Germany if we don't turn the tide.
We can do that. We can be there for them. We actually produce cleaner natural gas, by far, than what Russia does.
The evidence is all around us: expensive food, fuel, electricity, housing, and even bare shelves in our stores in the land of plenty. We see our small towns, their economies being devastated because the water is being taken away from farms, and the high cost of doing business for driving tractors, combines, trucks, mining equipment.
Our forests, we should be producing forests. Our wood and paper products, instead, are getting burned down due to the policies of inaction by the Forest Service and others.
We need to take the initiative, and we need to turn back the Biden plan, which has been failing America, and put an American plan forward that puts us first, that puts the people first and production here for our own economy first.
Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. I think we are going to get that opportunity after this next election cycle, and we cannot wait. It cannot get here soon enough.
Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman, my dear friend from Illinois (Mrs. Miller).
Mrs. MILLER of Illinois. Thank you, Congressman Johnson, for hosting tonight's Special Order.
This week marks National Police Week, where we honor the heroes who put their lives on the line every day to keep us safe and remember those who, sadly, have been lost in the line of duty.
This National Police Week, my Republican colleagues and I are standing with all of law enforcement, including our U.S. Border Patrol. A country without a border is not a country at all, and we will not stop fighting until our border is secure.
To all of our law enforcement officers, thank you for the sacrifices you make to protect our communities. Americans appreciate you.
Unfortunately, over the past couple of years, we have seen some Democrats support the defund the police movement and policies that are soft on crime. As a result, crime across the Nation is on the rise, and nine U.S. cities had a record-breaking number of homicides in 2021.
I thank, and encourage others to thank, all the police officers who protect and defend our communities every day.
Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. It has been amazing to see the turnabout in those who are advocating for us to defund the police. They recognize the great results of that, and now they are on our side, aren't they?
They are proclaiming that we need to fund more police, and they are certainly right now. Unfortunately, we have to live with the results of those policy choices, as with all of these.
Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Keller).
Mr. KELLER. I thank the gentleman from Louisiana for having this time.
Madam Speaker, the Biden administration spent the better part of last year trying to convince American families facing higher prices that inflation was transitory. Yet, new inflation numbers show that the cost of everything is still on the rise, including gas, which just hit record highs this week.
Prices are increasing rapidly at an unsustainable pace, but President Biden isn't changing course. In fact, he said that his administration's policies help, not hurt, inflation.
That is a bold statement for an individual that came to Washington, D.C., when I was 8 years old, almost 50 years ago. That is a bold statement from a President that perpetrates Big Government spending and has done everything in his power to destroy American energy.
To President Biden, inflation is just a number. But for working American families, it is the crushing result of this administration's failed policies--failed policies that must be overturned to get our Nation back on the right track.
That is why, this week, along with 22 of my Republican colleagues, we introduced a resolution calling for greater American oil and natural gas production. Our resolution reaffirms that American energy is the answer to lowering energy costs, curbing inflation, and putting America first once again.
During his State of the Union, President Biden stood right in this room and said that we need to buy American and build American. Well, I will tell you what, I have news for the President. It takes American energy. It takes American energy because we do it better than anybody on the face of this Earth.
The American people, not President Biden, have the capability and resolve to rebuild our economic engine. President Biden must get on board with the American people. He must put the American people first or get out of the way.
Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. From one energy State resident to another, we know and can say clearly that energy security is national security.
Mr. KELLER. Absolutely.
Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. This White House just doesn't get it. Thank you so much for reminding us of that.
Madam Speaker, I am truly grateful again to my many colleagues who were here tonight from all across the country to join us as we discuss the importance of the battle for the sanctity of every single human life and the myriad number of crises facing our country because of these Democrat policies that are plaguing every arena, every area of the economy, every part of the country, and every single policy issue.
Madam Speaker, we cannot wait for an end to this and a change in the levers of power in Washington, and we do expect that that will happen in a big red wave in November. Hopefully, the country can survive until then.
Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Members are reminded to refrain from engaging in personalities toward the President.
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