the majority of the people in country say they -- in this country say they are willing to have reasonable gun background checks to make sure criminals or people with mental illness do not have these weapons. because we're finding many times those are the people that are having these issues. so why can't we deal with that? it's not unreasonable. every american every american has a 2nd amendment right to own a gun, but we make sure we keep guns out of certain people's hands. and with that, i yield back. mrs. cherfilus-mccormick: i would like to yield to the honorable joyce beatty from ohio's 3rd district. mrs. beatty: first let me say thank you to my colleagues, my

friends, for chairing tonight's special order hour, to the gentlelady from florida and the gentleman from illinois, thank you for speaking truth to power. thank you for reminding us of our history. thank you for reminding us why we are here tonight as we speak to the nation. and mr. speaker, i rise this evening to stand in solidarity with my members of the congressional black caucus and with the tennessee three. i have this raised fist saying i stand with the #tennessee 3. you see as we speak truth to power tonight in the face of an unspeakable tragedy, three

educators and three babies, nine years old, were murdered senselessly due to gun violence. the move by the tennessee legislature to expel these lawmakers for using their voice to speak truth to power is unjust, undemocratic and unamerican. you will hear those words riddled through our chambers throughout the night. to silence lawmakers for standing up for the will of the people. that's not democracy. i am glad that my classmate, my colleague and my friend, congressman donald payne reminded us of april, seven years ago in this very chamber, where in a full house, we had a sit-in and stopped the congress

in an effort to get laws passed on gun violence, gun reform because of the number of times we come to this chamber, we come to the floor's microphone and we say one minute of silence. we did it today, mr. speaker. and if democrats and republicans can come and stand in this chamber in a solemn, hollow voice beg us to pray for another mass the shooting and stand for one minute, 60 seconds in it, because lives have been lost to gun violence with assault weapons. i respect the 2nd amendment, but i don't respect coming to this

floor and don't respect the individuals that will not bring gun reform to this floor in legislation that will help us eradicate what we are living through. it's not just fair. i would have a piece of legislation that says we can't come to the floor and do a one-minute when we are losing lives because we can put something in place to make a difference. the expulsion of the justin jones and justin pearson, two black dually members makes it that racism is still alive and well. what happens in tennessee to a blow to our democracy. if this can happen in nashville, it can happen in this count thri

we call america. republicans numb tennessee's legislature shut down the members for standing up for our children. mr. speaker, gun violence is the leading cause of death. mr. speaker, gun violence is an epidemic in our country. inaction, mr. speaker, should not be an option. we need more leaders and officials standing in the front lines with the american people that we are fighting to ban assault weapons and fighting to protect our children, fighting to protect our communities and yes, fighting to protect our democracy. and that is exactly what the tennessee three did, two black men and a white woman stood together for justice.

they fought to defend our democracy. and we will hear it repeated again, just yesterday, another tragedy in this nation, taking the lives of four alabama young people. 16 years old going to a birthday party. and i imagine we will come to this floor again, democrats and republicans and acknowledge that this should not have happened and acknowledge that we should bow our heads for one minute, 60 seconds. as a grandmother, as someone who has grandchildren who i hope can look to the future, i would hope we would stand here for our children, if not for us as republicans and democrats, that

we stand together and come up with some type of legislation for gun reform. let me end here by saying, yes, we should put gun violence at the forefront of our agenda. mr. speaker, it's simple. we should put people over politics, because not bringing gun reform to this floor is simply a political maneuver. we stand here together as members of the powerful congressional black caucus and remind you that you cannot expel justice and cannot expel our voices. i yield back and yield back. mrs. cherfilus-mccormick: how much time is remaining, mr. speaker?

the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman has 33 minutes remaining. mrs. cherfilus-mccormick: i would like to yield to the the gentlewoman from texas. ms. jackson lee: i'm rising and encouraged and yet ready to fight this evening and i thank the gentlelady from florida for her distinguished leadership and friendship. i'm delighted from well as the gentleman from illinois for his shining leadership and transformational changes that are happening in and around his district in chicago. i'm honored with my other colleagues and i thank chairman horsford and chairman beatty of the congressional black caucus and i'm honored to call the

congressional black caucus the conscience of the congress and the conscience of the nation. we can say that because in our midst, we have had the honorable john lewis. mr. speaker, i want to go memory lane just a bit but before i do so and the connection of the tennessee three to the historical record, does anyone remember the georgia 33 as we have been brought to highlight. 33 black legislators 1868, proud and standing tall because of some way gaining the right to vote and the people there, the freed slaved and ending slavery in the united states, our freed slaves could vote. property owners is, as i believe and they elected 33 black

legislators and they were proud. you could see them with their buttoned-downed suits and fighting for their constituents. we have to do it here. having the ear of their and great victory of election to the georgia assembly, they were expelled. thrown out because of the color of their skin. which begins the demise of reconstruction and the horrors of the rage of the klan and others leading into the 19000 and george white who was a member of congress and said the negro will rise like the phoenix and then in 1966, i'm still

stunned, brilliant, young man by julian bond was duly elected, he had their ear and he had their ear and young man and he had all the willingness to do what was right as a member of the legislature and he was expelled for his supporting of the fact of the organization that he previously led indicating that the vietnam war violated international law. he didn't speak of the soldiers which i have repeatedly said, there are soldiers put on uniforms. they fight and they die. and they died in vietnam from all communities from the south to the north from the east to the west.

and yet because he expressed a democratic belief that might have been different and he had the right to speak, he was expelled. we come to the absolute outrage of lack of understanding, i'm baffled by the expulsion of representative pearson, representative jones and representative johnson. and all they did was come to hear the ear of america's best, the youth, the children, crying out again, how much more bloodshed can we take, it has been a leaning force and let me say this tonight, we come from the same state. let me say this.

we all tend to oratory and we are pay-goes nature and emotional and after all these years, can we find a sense of congress that will lead us to be able to condemn gun violence as being the number one killer of children through homicide and the very fact that four children died and other persons in nashville, i want you to know i feel personal pain when the news rises up of what happened the night before or the weekend before, i have a personal pain, my tenure was here but in the midst, there was columbine. and the assault weapons went down. i'm living with sandy hook, parkland, virginia tech, texas

tech, i'm living with any number of those in texas from the wal-mart to the church to uvalde and i went to funerals and wondered why 19 children are dead. these young men in tennessee were walking the pathway and julian bond, as history reflects, they did nothing wrong. and these three individuals, one who was not expelled did nothing wrong. they were representing their constituents and nonviolent and could not be heard and were on the floor and one could do a lot of things. and so i come today to be able to join my colleagues and to again ask for a question of justice, democracy and freedom and to be able to salute these three and to say that in their

name from tennessee, now from alabama, where teenagers were murdered, can we not do our work on the floor of the house from banning assault weapons from passing a sensible storage are bill to getting making red flag law permanent and not voluntary because that happened in louisville, mental health concerns and a number of other places, can we not do this? i close with the respect to the late john lewis. i close and pay tribute to him for it was before your tenure, mr. speaker, that we did take to the floor of the house to sit because leadership and the pain of another shooting of children.

way back during i wonder if this is not the moment where we can find common ground. i'm going to look for my friends on both sides of the aisle to see whether we can find common ground on some form of gun safety legislation. and then i will say, to those tennessee three, john lewis said, never give in, never give out, never give up. i pay tribute to them and all others who have never given up, never given out, and never given in. god bless all of you and i thank you and yield back. god plels the united states of america -- bless the united states of america. thank you. mrs. cherfilus-mccormick: i would like to yield to my colleague, the honorable lucy mcbath, from georgia's seventh district. mrs. mcbath: well, first i want to thank the honorable sheila cherfilus-mccormick and also jonathan jackson on behalf of the c.b.c., thank you so, so very much for standing on the

front lines tonight for this very special hour. i rise this evening to address the frightening assault on democracy which took place in the tennessee legislature. in the days following the tragic shooting at the covenant school, representatives justin jones and justin pearson demanded action to keep their communities safe from gun violence. in the spirit of our dear departed friend and as we've talked about him a great deal tonight, john lewis, these lawmakers were doing nothing more than making good trouble. and in response the republican party majority in tennessee took measures to expel representatives jones and pearson from their positions. undermining the will of the

voters who sent them to nashville. this is simply unconscionable. this is not how it works. this is not how democracy works. this is an attack on the very principle of representative democracy on which our nation was founded. our children are being murdered in their classrooms and rather than work on solutions to prevent these senseless tragedies from happening again and again and again, republican leaders in tennessee opted to expel the lawmakers who are simply fighting for change. fighting to save lives. fighting to save lives of everyone in this country. our children are being murdered in their classrooms.

we watch it day in and day out. we watch it at birthday parties, on our front doorsteps, in their friend's cars as my son jordan was murdered. we cannot look away from the tragedies that are devastating families all across this country. shame on us. shame on this body to turn a blind eye to the massacre of human life. who have we become in this body? that we have no thought for preservation of human life and we cannot seek to silence the voices that are crying out for change. because we are not powerless. we have the power. we are the body.

we have solutions to put an end to gun violence that claims over 100 americans in this country every single day. solutions that the majority of americans support. that are crying out for. what happened in nashville sets a very disturbing precedent. efforts to silence duly elected representatives can happen in states all across this country. it happened right here in this very chamber. but the will of the american people will not be overturned. the efforts of those who would rather betray trust in our democratic institutions than fight to keep kids safe in our schools, those efforts will fail. and we will continue our efforts to make good on the promise that

we must fulfill for america's children. a better and safer america is what they deserve. it's truly possible if we have the will and the courage to do it. representative jones and pearson are disrupters. and, yes, for cultural change to make this community, our community, safer, it means disruption. that's how change happens. and as we talked about earlier, mentioning the sit-in with representative john lewis on the floor, when that happened i was leading a rally outside the capitol, disrupting. to make sure that people's voices were heard, to make sure that survivors and victims like me have the ability to express and ask this body to do what's

right. the time has passed. it's long overdue. and over and over and over and over again we come before this house and this body and ask people to stand up with courage and do the right thing. when will it happen? do we have the courage to act? and i yield back the balance of my time. mrs. cherfilus-mccormick: thank you, mr. speaker. i'd like to yield to my colleague, the honorable troy carter, from louisiana's second district. mr. carter: mr. speaker, thank you very much. to my esteemed colleagues, congresswoman mccormick of florida, and my esteemed colleague, representative jackson from illinois, i thank

you for your leadership. i thank you for your commitment. i thank you for allowing us to have this opportunity to speak on such an important, important measure. i was outraged by what we all witnessed in tennessee at the beginning of april. following the tragic mass shooting at the covenant school, the republican majority and the state legislature chose to avoid passing any meaningful gun reform or even having any meaningful discussion about gun reform. instead, sought to thwart democracy. to silence the critics who stood with the community, who demanded action. prayers are wonderful. i subscribe to them daily. well wishing is a wonderful thing and they make you feel

good. but that alone without action is not enough. we as elected officials are sworn to a task, to a duty, to serve, to provide. in tennessee that day, we failed the people of tennessee. we failed the people of america. instead of action, they expelled two black americans, members of the democratic caucus who stood with parents, teachers and students to demand action and to speak truth to power. about the reality of gun violence. this was an attack on our democracy. and all of us, republican, democrat and other, should be outraged with such an attack on

democracy. because this issue today may have been an issue that the majority ruling party didn't like. what happens tomorrow when we unilaterally seek to silence the voices of duly elected people in a democratic society? stop and think about that for a second, viewers. stop and think about that, my friends. stop and think about the threat to our democracy. the cornerstone, the pillar of our society is freedom of speech. freedom of expression. the ability to disagree and to have meaningingful discourse. that's what we all ran on. that's what the mighty constitution protects. yet in tennessee that was ignored. it was ignored, it was defiled.

and everyone of every race and party should find disdain and pain with that kind of treatment in a democratic process. in the post-civil war reconstruction era, four members of the house, james lewis, john willis menard, p.b.s. pinchback and josiah thomas walls, were wrongly denied the right to take their seats. these egregious actions in tennessee show us that the fight for black representation in the united states is still an ongoing battle. our democracy is built on the freedom of speech and freedom to protest. to expel elected representatives from -- for standing with their neighbors after an horrific act of gun violence against children

is appalling. i'm enraged that it was two black lawmakers who were expelled. black people in the united states have historically been vilified for speaking up. we've been beaten. we've been attacked by dogs. we've been hosed with powerful water hoses. we've been hanged from trees. and yet in 2023 two duly elected members of a state legislature were unilaterally dismissed and removed from service for standing up with the people. there were no guns. there were no spears. there were no chokeholds. there were no fighting, there was no profanity, there was no broken windows or broken arms. it was mere words.

mere words that defended the constitution of our land, that defended the people to protest against something as egregious as the death of children. and we say we don't need to do anything with gun control? you can't find one thing, my dear friends, on the other side? can we find any one thing that we can come together on? that would suggest that we hear the pain, we hear the cries, we see the eyes of black and white, mothers and fathers who will never see their children again. yet we continue to find a comfortable place in the shade and hide behind rhetoric. the time has come for us to do something, to act, to move, to

show the american people that we will not continue to sit back and watch senseless killings on our streets. look at the statistics. we have more mass murders in the year than we have days in this year. doesn't that mean anything? doesn't that cause you to cringe and say, no more? black, white, republican, democrat, there are lots of things that we can agree to disagree on. public safety should never be one. particularly when it comes to standing up for our young people. today we send a promise of action. and we ask you to join us in delivering on that promise of action. today i stand for justice. today i stand with the justins.

today i stand with the tennessee three. today and every day i invite you to join me and others in supporting the bare principle of democracy and protecting its people. i yield back. mrs. cherfilus-mccormick: mr. speaker, may i inquire how much time is remaining? i'd like to yield to my colleague, the honorable maxwell frost, from florida's 10th district. mr. frost: thank you. i'm here today like i like the rest of our nation. six innocent people died as a result of senseless gun violence in nashville, a school shooting and where we lost children and instead of banning together to honor with action, real action

that would save lives, republicans in the tennessee took the racist step of expelling two black lawmakers who stood with the teachers and parents. the only thing that representative jones and pearson are guilty of are doing the right thing standing with their constituents who sent them to the state lemghts tour to fight for their lives and they have been reappointed to their positions by their people and local governments. i can pray and act and children who were murdered in a pool of their own blood at school than we are having black folks who have the audacity to take up space in the halls of power. representatives jones and pearson will continue to take up that space. black lawmakers like myself will continue to pick up that space,

the people, children, will continue to take up that space and as long as there is gin justice we will not be silenced. i commend representative jones and pearson, they are american heroes. and i yield back. mrs. cherfilus-mccormick: i yield to the gentlelady from california. >> i would like to thank the gentlelady from florida and the gentleman from illinois for managing this very important very special important hour. mr. speaker, i rise today to discuss the blatantly anti-democratic and racist expulsion of tennessee representatives justin jones and justin pearson.

in response to the covenant school shooting that claimed the lives of three innocent school children and three employees, they were calling for long overdue commonsense gun reform that would save lives of children. they engaged in good trouble, similar to what congressman john lewis did when he sat on this very floor to demand action to end gun violence, what the tennessee three did was righteous. instead of joining the calls to keep our communities safe, they expelled representatives jones and pearson, two young black lawmakers. actions of civil disobedience from boycotts to peaceful

protests to sit-ness. we would like to row mant size. dogs were put on young people for wanting the right to vote and their disobedience was nonviolently persisting. their only disobedience quote unquote wasn't being vocal and unapologetic about gun violence in this nation and about being black. throughout our history, plaque people fighting for a democracy have been silenced and shut down by white supreme shy and asked to make a choice, those in the tennessee legislature chose whielt supremes shy and presuming. but they were wrong. there is a long history of

attacks to the case against julian bond and congressman adam clayton pol. -- powell. the vote against representative johnson failed. we cannot ignore the efforts to temporarily disenfranchise black voters. whether the color of these young men skin, their hair. as a blag legislator i know what it feels like to explain my presence in these spaces and sadly my story is not unique but the story of black and brown communities. that is why i introduced a resolution to condemn the

actions of the tennessee legislature. i thank steve cohen for joining the resolution he is a true advocate for the people of tennessee and i work with my colleagues in the congressional black caucus who reached out to the representatives to ensure them they have. my colleagues stand by me as we stand on the liberty and justice for all because it is clear we live in a nation that liberty and justice are granted for some. i am glad that representatives jones and pearson have been reinstated so they can serve their constituents. this they saw the importance of getting them back to work. they have it right. but the fact that it took national outrage and the shaming

of the legislature of tennessee is absurd. i will continue to work with my c.b.c. colleagues as we work to advance racial equity and address the needs of black americans because these young men were fighting to end gun violence. as you have heard guns are the leading cause of death with children and teens and black men are 10 times likely to be killed by gun violence. they were speaking truth to reality and were silenced. i don't know why the truth is so scary and i'm proud to be part of the c.b.c. to make sure we are reminding people of the truth every single day. and i yield back. mrs. cherfilus-mccormick: how much time is remaining?

the speaker pro tempore: two minutes. mrs. cherfilus-mccormick: i yield the gentlelady one minute. >> thank you, mr. speaker and thank mr. horsford for convening this. i rise in solidarity with my colleagues in support of the tennessee three and staunch opposition to the dangerous precedent. three children and three a dolts were murdered rather than working to prevent that tragedy from happening again, the tennessee republicans expelled representatives justin jones and justin pearson in a gross abuse of power, infringement of free speech and disenfranchisement.

attempts to compare those of january 6 to justify the ex plings trivializees the events that occurred. nobody tied in the tennessee house. a bullhorn is not a pipe bomb. nobody called for anybody to be harmed. they have set a dangerous precedent that sets the principles of american democracy by attempting to silence calls for gun reform. this should. a controlling party invalidate the will of the people simply because they don't agree with their peaceful exercise of their free speech and i stand with my colleagues in denouncing this overreach and we will not stand by on threats to democracy.

i yield back. mrs. cherfilus-mccormick: i yield to our chairman. mr. horsford: i thank our co-anchors and send one clear message. the actions of the tennessee legislature led by the g.o.p. was a direct assault on our democracy. it smacks of overt racism that they would expel two of the youngest black men in their body for speaking on behalf of their constituents. this is still an ongoing threat that we should be concerned about because what happened in the tennessee legislature was a blow to our democracy and if it can happen in nashville, it can happen in communities all our community. this should concern every americans and my republican colleagues because a hallmark of the democracy is the very thing

that the tennessee legislature shut down, freedom of speech. the congressional black caucus won't stand by and allow jim crow era while they abuse their power. we stand with the tennessee three. we stand with the parents calling for gun violence to end in their communities and stand for free speech and we stand for our democracy. i yield back. mrs. cherfilus-mccormick: i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: under the speaker's announced policy of january #, 2023, the gentleman from florida, mr. bean, is recognized as the designee of the majority leader. ms. bean: good evening and what an honor it is to stand before you and lead special orders on this night. i ask unanimous consent that all

members have up to five legislative days to revise and extend remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. ms. bean: i have a message, our nation's higher education system is being manipulated by the chinese communist party. america needs a wakeup call. i thought it would come up in the wake of a chinese spinal balloon and it america has hit the snooze button. members of several members of the education and work force committee were briefed on the scheme, the manipulation of the communist chinese party on higher ed in the u.s.a. we were shoblgd. and we wanted to share the truth of how far china and what

they're doing to infiltrate and take control over higher education in the united states. since 2013, $12 billion have powered in from foreign sources. china is the highest in donations and between 2013 and 20, universities accepted nearly a billion dollars from chinese donations, the tuition paid is over $12 billion. it's time to look at this influence and take it seriously. it started over 20 years ago, mr. speaker, that china has been playing this game of infiltrating and manipulation and trying to and this game they played confusius and avoid

discussing human rights abuse and taiwan as undisputed territory. they are funded and directed by the chinese government and we haven't gotten what they are stealing from us. so tonight, members of the education and work force committee and other invited members are going to tell the story of just how far china has been infiltrating our university systems. you are going to hear how top colleges and universities that have not fully reported donations from foreign sources. you are going to hear the administration not enforcing existing laws requiring full reporting of these foreign sources. universities in their desire to

seek donations from the public, sometimes unexpect he hadly or take money from foreign sources and many times from the chinese government. you are going to hear how the united states is losing the technology edge that we have long enjoyed for many years in computing, science and engineering. all kinds of energy sources. but now, because of theft and china's influence in our university system is now those edges in technology are now leaning china's way. you shall going to hear about that. mr. speaker, as we begin tonight, i want to say it is long due we hear the truth and fully aware how bad china is. i would like to yield a few i would laker to yield a few minutes -- i would like to yield a few minutes to the chairmaned of education and work force

committee, dr. virginia foxx. ms. foxx: chair, mr. speaker. and i want to thank mr. bean, congressman bean, for his leadership on the education and work force committee. and also his leadership in leading this special order tonight. it is a very important issue to the people of the united states and i'm very proud of him for taking the leadership in putting this special order together. mr. speaker, we are engaged in a new era of warfare with our foreigned a never tears -- foreign adversaries who are vying for influence and control not only over america, but especially over america's postsecondary education system.

losing on this 21st century battleground have serious consequences for free thought, economic competitiveness and national security. foreigned adversaries like the chinese communist party have used power and monetary influence to infiltrate colleges and universities to grow their sphere of influence in american society. and, mr. speaker, make no mistake, when we talk about china and its exertion of force and its exertion of power, we're not talking about the chinese people. we're talking about the chinese communist party, the c.c.p. so let us be clear on that tonight. so that nobody mistakes who we

see as the enemy. it's the chinese communist party. as face value -- at face value, foreign contributions coming into universities might seem harmless, but the reality is foreign money often comes with strings attached. and we know with the c.c.p., there are always strings attached. every dollar that institutions accept from undisclosed foreign entities that do not share our nation's values sends them deeper into a dangerous entanglement that undermines our republic. for years this influence scheme has been going on. yet neither the chinese communist party nor institutions of higher education have faced

repercussions for their actions. indeed, during the trump administration it discovered $6.5 billion in previously unreported foreign money to universities from adversarial countries. and for the first time real progress was being made to hold institutions accountable for undisclosed contributions. but mysteriously when the biden administration came into office, all progress toward discovering these contributions stopped. the department of education is shirking its duty to enforce the law and has abandoned robust

scrutiny of undisclosed foreign gifts and contracts that violate section 117 of the higher education act of 1965. mr. speaker, we have known since 1965 that the potential for damage done to our institutions through foreign contributions was possible. section 117 is the single most important enforcement tool at the biden administration's disposal to protect against the threats posed by our foreign adversaries attempting to steal research and buy off students and faculty on our nation's campuses. republicans have sent multiple letters to secretary car doana demanding -- cardona demanding answers about this foreign

money. coyet this administration continues its pattern of stonewalling congress with limited and woefully insufficient responses. this is a part of congress' oversight responsibility, mr. speaker, and is not being done on a whim. it's unacceptable that the biden administration has exercised minimal effort to expose the lack of integrity happening at so-called elite institutions. the possible consequences of the department's limited engagement are dire. section 117 is effective only if it is enforced. that's why congressional oversight is necessary to hold the department of education

accountable to enforce the law. we must fight money and coercion beginning with accountability and transparency. without accountability and transparency the chinese communist party could win this new-age battle. because america has been fighting with one hand tied helped its back. mr. speaker, i say no more. my republican colleagues and i will not stop until we see rigorous enforcement of section 117, hold universities responsible and hold the chinese communist party responsible for what it may be trying to do. with that, i yield back to my

colleague from florida, the chair of the elementary and secondary education subcommittee, mr. bean. ms. bean: dr. foxx, thank you so much. you are doing such a great job as chairman of education and work force. thank you for the opportunity to serve on that committee. and thank you for highlighting the decades' long campaign that has manifested into bigger problems for america by the communist chinese party. america's education system is being purchased and manipulated by china. since 2013 $12 billion has flooded in from foreign sources to u.s. colleges and universities, including more than $1 billion from communist china. rather than forcing colleges and universities to comply with reporting requirements under section 117 of the higher education act, this administration is playing into the hands of the communist chinese party by refusing to pursue enforcement. the past two years, mr. speaker,

this administration has been trying to distract the american people from the very real threat china poses with its far-left policies. that ends tonight. and up next to help spread the word of exactly how bad an actor china is is my friend and colleague, the gentleman from california, he's the chairman of the subcommittee on work force protections, mr. kevin kiley. mr. speaker, i yield eight minutes to mr. kiley from california. mr. kiley: thank you very much to my colleague from florida. i appreciate you identifying this very important issue of the attempt of the chinese communist party to gain influence at american universities in very concerning ways. because it so clearly highlights the mentality and strategy of the c.c.p. that they understand where the battle lines are being drawn in the 21st century.

and the truly concerning thing is that increasingly china is beating the united states at its own game, outpacing us and the rest of the world in key areas of technological advancement. through their actions, the c.c.p. has shown an understanding that the 21st century will belong to the most innovative nation, the one that's able to harness the full power of new technologies. and so china knows that for decades that nation was unquestionably the united states. but here's what we've seen over the last two decades. china has dramatically ramped up its own investment in research and development, cutting into america's traditional dominance. from 2000 to 2019, china's share of global r&d quadrupled to nearly a quarter while our share slid from 37% to just 27%. china has increased its r&d spending by nearly 16 times over the same period and plans to compound its investments by an

additional $7 billion annually -- 7% annually. by contrast, our federal spendle spending is losing the talent battle and the trend lines are getting worse. china has consistently graduated more stem ph.d.'s than the united states and of course many are getting educated right here in the united states. looking at the publication of peer reviewed articles and journals, chinese scholars surpassed the united states in the last decade. in 2020 china published 38% more peer reviewed articles than the united states and is on track to extend this gap even further over the next five years. so this all puts in perspective the pervasive attempts by the chinese communist party to gain leverage over american universities. even though colleges and universities are required to report foreign gifts and contracts under section 117 of the higher education act, over

$6.35 billion in unreported federal money received by colleges has already been uncovered. the biden administration has done little to enforce this reporting requirement or open new investigations into how china is influencing our higher education system, even though china wields the spending to he could opt innovative -- coopt innovative research. that's the key. china has signaled that intellectual property is absolutely key to its long-term goals. and for years the c.c.p. has sought to acquire i.p. through outright theft from u.s. companies, or by getting -- gaining influence in our universities. but we also have to acknowledge in this discussion that their strategy has gotten much more sophisticated. that in addition to outright theft, china has signaled its plans to in fact elevate the status of the china national intellectual property administration to make it a top-level independent agency.

and while president biden didn't mention i.p. at all in his most recent state of the union address, chinese president jinping speaks about i.p. frequently. we will increase investment in science and technology through diverse channels and strengthen local protection of intellectual property right, he said, in his speech at the opening of the 20th national congress of the chinese communist party of china last year. so clearly the united states is at risk of forfeiting our technological edge, at a time when it is more important than ever to protecting our national interests. to outcompete china, we need to outinnovate china. and that requires policymakers to act with urgency, not only to protect our companies and universities from chinese influence, but also to change the policy environment in ways that promote and protect american innovation. but unfortunately recent policy changes have done just the opposite. for example, f.t.c. chair has

proposed sweeping new rules to unilaterally ban employers from using noncompete agreements. something california, by the way, has already done. this will hamspring employers in the most competitive trade secret-rich sectors, article intelligence, -- artificial intelligence, biotechnology and provision manufacturing and render the united states less competitive than china. meanwhile, administrative processes at the u.s. patent and trademark office are creating headaches and worse for innovators seeking to defend their patents. a quasi-judicial administrative body within the patent trial and appeal board or ptab has become the favored forum for companies to challenge the validity of patents they're accused of infringing this. works to the disadvantage of innovators and small businesses who must defend their i.p. in court and the ptab simultaneously, reducing the incentive to invent in the first place. here's the good news. the united states has a proven track record of beetling authorize tative governments in

strategic technological competitions but we didn't beat the soviet union to the moon by chance. it required a generational investment in cutting edge reserve and development which was enabled by american citizens solving the toughest technological problems of their day. and we have that same capacity in the challenges we now face in the 21st century. but that requires a change in how we approach intellectual property and innovation in this country. and i think that the issue that is being highlighted today, the outright attempts by the c.c.p. to go to our centers of research, of higher learning, our centers of intellectual life in this country, shows that they understand the stakes. and it's time that we here in congress and throughout our government understand that as well. so i want to thank my fellow subcommittee chair for bringing this issue to our attention and i yield back. mr. bean: thank you very much,

mr. kiley. ladies and gentlemen, mr. speaker, if you're just tuning, in china is trying to peddle influence among our higher universities and members are standing up and saying enough. a few weeks ago we saw and to great amazement this chinese spy balloon that cruised over our most sensitive sites in our country. we were told at the time, we were told we're looking it -- we're blocking it from transmitting any data, at the time. now we have found that that spy balloon was transmitting pictures an information of our most sensitive military and nuclear sites in real time. who knows, i don't know if we'll ever find out the true damage of that espionage break, why on effort it wasn't shut down, i don't know. i don't know. but what ability -- about the things we can't see. we can't see what china is going

to buy influence and infiltrate our university systems. but somebody that will tell us his angle from it is a gentleman who was part of a delegation that just last week went to taiwan. went to an asia tour to meet with leaders of just exactly what's going on over there. mr. speaker, i'm pleased to yield to the gentleman from texas for five minutes, mr. moran. mr. moran: thank you, mr. speaker. thank you to my friend and colleague, mr. bean of florida, for gathering us here this evening to raise awareness about the rise -- the rising influence of foreign adversaries in our institutions of higher education, namely china and the chinese communist party. as you mentioned, i just returned on a foreign affairs congressional delegation trip to the indo-pacific region where we met with leaders of japan, south korea and taiwan to talk about the aggression of china. not just from a military standpoint but from a tip

lomatic and economic standpoint. here tonight we're talking about the aggression of china, to take over america through its educational institutions. universities across the nation are being exploited by the chinese communist party and other foreign adversaries. with the c.c.p. leading efforts to infiltrate college campuses, to steal our intellectual property, spread propaganda and collect information to send back to china. our institutions of higher learns play a vital role for prepairing work force for not only the next step in their career but evolving as contributing members of our society. on college campuses across the united states china has sponsored ambassadors to enroll in american institutions called confucius institutes. to take advantage of domestic resources while influencing public perception that china is somehow compassionate and does not pose an economic or security threat to this nation. and they're doing it all within our borders. and it's simply false.

the confucius institute's aim to expand the chinese footprint on universities around the world. influencing our students, and threatening academic freedom. and the united states alone -- in the united states alone china has spent other $150 million developing these programs by planting over 100 of the institutions. today there are 13 confucius institutes in the united states. with over 100 of the previously established institutes having closed or being in the process of closing, thankfully. these so-called culture centers have given universities a direct line of communication with foreign adversaries, in addition to a direct source of foreign funding. by law, universities receiving gifts from foreign countries with a value over $250,000 are required to report these donations to the department of education. several prestigious universities, however, across the united states, including universities such as university of pennsylvania, m.i.t.,

harvard, yale, and georgetown received funding, lots of funding, millions and millions of dollars of fund, from foreign adversaries between 2014 and 2017, yet they failed to disclose any of these donations to the department of education. i wonder why? during the jump administration they enforced the law and investigated these reports and donations ensuring that universities were compliant in this reporting. as we all know, transparency is the key of accountability in this country. yet here we see lack of transparency on the part of these universities. unsurprisingly, the biden administration who has been weak on foreign policy and the promotion of american interests has not yet investigated the nearly $6.5 billion in unreported foreign money reintiefd colleges and universities during the biden administration. i'll repeat that again. $6.5 billion. and you ask, what is that money

buying the chinese communist party? the administration's failure to ennorse law and ensure transparency and accountability of foreign money funnel -- funneled into the united states institutions is dangerous. it reveals a lack of desire to protect american national security and our values from bad actors. the stake the chinese government has in universities has given the people's republic of china and the chinese communist party a seat at the table of our educational institutions, a seat they should not have. they are strong arming free speech and academic freedom. they're rewriting history, the history of the chinese communist parties, and they're doing it all through the dissolution of our free speech and academic freedom, those pillars of our society. as members of congress it is of the utmost important that we have accountability over the foreign dollars entering our college campuses and universities and ensure that dangerous ideals are not being propoeted -- promoted across the country through chinese

communist parties and other foreign adversaries that would use these against our national security efforts. american universities and colleges are esteamed for brilliant research and academia. we must not tolerate foreign governments stealing critical information in these premier research programs for the pup of using it against the united states and weakening our national security. i can tell you again from experience these past couple of weeks have opened my eyes to the reality of the threat that is the chinese communist party. again, it's not just our diplomatic status, it's not just our economic war that we're engaging in, it's not just what we're seeing from a military presence that they have around the island of taiwan. no, it is now, indeed, in our educational institutions. we must push back on every front. it is a multifront fight we cannot lose or we will lose this nation. with that i yield back. mr. bean: thank you, mr. moran.

mr. speaker, our nation's higher education system is being purchased and manipulated by the communist chinese party. you heard about it. and we keep hearing about it you see chierk in a can't keep up with our nation's unrelenting free market system that is constantly innovating. so the only way they see to catch up with this us is to cheat and steal our intellectual property and infiltrate our university systems and steal our discoveries. it's got to end. let's hear more of what china is doing to manipulate our university systems and i'm pleased, mr. speaker, to recognize the distinguished chair of the higher education and work force development subcommittee, mr. burgess owens of utah. i recognize him for five minutes. mr. owens: thank you, mr. speaker. thank you, my esteemed colleague from florida. here's some facts you need to

know about the abysmal record of the chinese communist party on human rights and against our american way of freedom. chinese carried out torture, forced sterilization and sexual abuse of over one million uighurs. china is ranked 175th out of 180 countries that lack freedom of the press. they've been in toirs for jailing journalists for dissenting voices. chinese officials have detained, tortured and execute prod testers with impunity. since 2013, u.s. colleges and universities have received more than $1 billion in gifts and contracts from the chinese communist party and affiliated sources. as a result, professors, student groups and guest speakers critical of the communist party's human right abuses have been silenced and deplat formd. the chinese regime is spreading anti-democratic, anti-american prop gandy by funding large sums of money into higher education.

sadly we have americans who think, and continue to think that turning our back on our nation for self-aggrandizement is ok. the profit over patriotism is a thought that has infested our country and it's infested our higher education and it must end. the chinese government buys into a platform to ma nip mate -- manipulate our children. we have athroid chinese communist party so find home in our high schools and colleges with their confucius institutes. ethey indoctrinate our children into their form of government that can only survive through tyranny that is good, and that our form of government that survives on freedom is bad. it is on these college campuses they're stealing our intlek -- intellectual property is not looked upon as betrayal but as a

necessity to build bigger, more patience buildings and hire more bureaucrats to teach our impressionable, trusting children that marxism is ok after all. the manipulation of children on american soil paid for by the american taxpayer is unacceptable. the profit over patriotism culture that's infested too many of our higher education institutions must stop now. as we watch a slow-moving communist spy balloon that took a week to go other our nation, doing figure eights over our military base, and then we learn of the chinese police spying on americans in new york city. we have to wonder what's being taught or not taught in our school system. it is indeed broken if they can see the blatant attacks on our american culture and think there's nothing wrong. that the present of misery and

divisiveness is normal and acceptable. from establishing a bipartisan select committee on china, to reducing reliance on foreign adversaries for our american energy needs, the house g.o.p. has delivered on its promise outlining our commitment to america. that is to counter the malignant influence of china in corporate boardrooms, social media and on college and high school campuses. we have done so in our first 100 days. as chairman of the higher education and work force subcommittee i'm proud to lead the charge in assuring freedom of speech of every american on every college campus and to preserve the integrity of america's higher education. i am committed to champion the freedom and liberty we enjoy as americans. as with the statement made by a japanese admiral after the attack on pearl harbor, and the deaths of close to 3,000 americans, i fear we have awakened a sleeping giant.

to the biden administration that has for two years been asleep as our nation faces threats from within and without, the american people will not stand by and let our chirp be indocksry nateed out of our beliefs and freedom, our american way and our history of proud americans who sacrificed blood, sweat and tears to give us this great gift. we have awakened a sleeping giant, a freedom-loving we the people. i thank you and i yield back. mr. bean: thank you, mr. burgess. mr. speaker our nation's higher education system is being purchased and manipulated by the chinese communist party. you've heard from various members who have given you details of how it's done but we need somebody who can give us the big picture. we need somebody who can give us big ideas. we need somebody who can -- who can give us big solutions. there's only one guy who can do that, mr. speaker. i yield five minutes to the

gentleman from -- the gentleman from arizona, mr. biggs. mr. biggs: mr. speaker, i thank the gentleman for yielding time to me. there was a great chinese scholar who wrote a book called "china disintegration." he analyzed the fall of china's government in the early 1900's. before you move to an an, a call situation, versus ultimately postworld war ii mao zedong and the chinese communist long march as they marched around and eventually the u.s. wavered and china's -- china fell to communism under chairman mao. what was the premise of china in disintegration? it was an analysis of why great powers, great nations, great

empires fail. they fail because of the loss of geographical integrity. they fail for -- that's the first thing. the second thing is they fail because the currency loses value and trust. once that goes, and the culture begins to change, they're either overextended or they allow individuals with malevolent contentions to come into their country and influence the population. so what do we have? we have a wide open border. so we've lost our geographical integrity. we have $31.4 trillion in national we have nations like india moving to the chinese wan for their currency instead of the

dollar. we have lost economic integrity. china views as they have meaning the center. they view them as the center of the universe. they have viewed westerners as barbarians. and mao and his ambitions were superseded by ping who said we are going to put a economy and it's going to have some elements of capitalism but it's going to be communist overall. why did he do that? because they were failing as a communist state. and we built the chinese middle

class and deepwater navy. we gave china superior. ladies and gentlemen. we have basically given china our technology, what we haven't given them, they have stolen. you reach a point like a company like nike, we are not an american country anymore, we are a chinese company. now, how have they done that? there are literally tens of thousands of chinese students in our universities. so when we talk about the billions of dollars that have come in, the more insidious

thing is the out of state tuition that funds these state of universities and they come in and pay that tuition. and these are not -- it's not a normalized situation to come over here as a student, you have to be a member of the c.c.p. 330 million people in the c.c.p. as many has we have living in the united states today and send their students here today and exit, they leave, and they go home, with what? our technology and experience that we have given them to defeat ourselves. we can continue to put our head in the sand. and hope that it isn't true.

there are those who it is xenophobic to talk about this but i appreciate the gentleman from florida being here toabt because americans need to know because china coast nt view us as an economic competitor. they view us as an adversary, a geo political at veer scary and for them, they want to be the world dominant. that isn't many me saying it. look at any modern writing in the top leadership. it's pretty clear. and i would suggest that we need to take back our educational institutions and coupled that with the integration, we need to

they know we are dependent and exploit that and exploited it in the covid-19 epidemic. let's be wise. we have to take action. with that, i yield back. ms. bean: thank you, mr. biggs. our education system is being manipulated by the chinese communist party and you heard members from the committee and other members led by dr. foxx shining the light of just how bad it is and blinded eye eye we have turned to it and last 20 years we have realized through donations and influence and sending their kids here to school as well as something called the conf ump sious in a

way to manipulate. where do we go from here? we have work to do including alerting america, but alerting our higher ed, our leadership and universities and colleges to be weary of any foreign donations coming into their institutions. anything coming from china. the department of education should enforce existing laws. how about enforcing the laws that are on the books requiring their institutions to report the foreign gifts and grants? the biden administration should ban all collaborations between u.s. institutions and chinese entities affiliated with ministry state security immediately. congress should also consider to

withhold state and federal fund from state and universities to eliminate c.c.p. influence. mr. biggs said it, the state department must review these applications including from research plan for a student visa. we need to say no to the c.c.p. coming in and getting our information and then going back home. it starts with alerting the american. and the rest of the work is up to the administration to enforce our laws and hold these universities and china accountable for what they are doing, which is manipulating and using undue influence in our higher education. it stops now going forward. mr. speaker, thank you very much

for the time. and i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time under the speaker's announced policy of january 9, 2023, the chair recognizes the gentleman from arizona, mr. biggs. mr. biggs: pleasure to be here tonight. and i would ask that any of us wish to revise and extend their remarks have five days to do

so. thank you. mr. speaker. we are going to talk tonight about this debt ceiling, this m mysterious debt ceiling that we hear so much about and i am joined by two of my colleagues that strong ideas but i want to relate something to america so you can hear this. we had a meeting several weeks back talking about the debt ceiling and i don't think anybody ever asked this question and i started asking, how much does the biden administration want to raise the debt? 31.4 trillion. we spend $4.9 trial -- 6.9 trillion. every month we fall short by $100 billion. i said how much do they want? well, when we first started

asking, we don't know. but it's now $4 trillion. $4 trillion. tonight we heard $3.5 trillion. i asked the next question, look, i want to know what happens if we don't lift the debt ceilings. the fellow is nonplus. this former deputy at the o.m.b., this office at office of management and budget economist, he stood there for probably two minutes. no one asked him that question before. and he says, nothing, nothing will happen. i said how can that be? tell me, how can that be? he said all the bills go to

o.m.b. and get forwarded onto the fed and they just keep paying. i'm here to tell you that the debt ceiling is mysterious, it's a plaque box, wizard of os behind the curtain and time for us to face the facts if they are going to try to leveraging us we have to do something to make this more responsible, the i'm going to yield to the gentleman from, my friend from montana, mr. rosendale. mr. rose: -- >> president biden wants to raise it over 3 trillion. washington is pleading american taxpayers dry with their

addition to spend. the u.s. has 31.6 trillion in debt with no concrete plan to pay it back. the congress can avoid raising the debt ceiling by returning spending to precovid levels and practicing fiscal responsibility. we proposed to nondefense discretionary spending that would reduce the deficit by $100 million and $1 trillion over the next decade. i have have co-sponsored bills to achieve this. these are concrete common accepts to eliminate wasteful

spending. we must rescind and stop funding the wish list like the i.s. and student loan bailouts. congress can pass a strong budget which protects social security and medicare benefits without having to raise the debt ceiling at all. democrat leaders have yet to respond and the president has made it clear he is unwilling. the budget of $6.8 trillion represents a 32% increase in spending since the covid-19 pandemic began. mr. speaker, mr. president, my fellow colleagues, the pandemic is over. the federal government was big enough in 2019.

the american people were taxed enough in 2019. when the tax cuts and job acts passed it lowered federal taxes for all americans. that's right. for all americans and led to the lowest unemployment rate in 50 years and $1 trillion in federal revenue. it is inappropriate for the president to ask for more when there is still $100 billion in unspent covid-relief money lying on the table. there are too many programs that do almost nothing for the american people while costing them billions each year in increased spend and senator inhofe: creased regulatory burden. there is a long list of programs

and agencies that are no longer authorized but many of these programs receive funding. this is one example of the countless ways that congress could address this. our deficit is getting worst every year. congress has failed to provide sound stewardship of the american financees and facing the consequences. worst yet, the consequences of our decisions will fall on the future generations of americans. we need to find a solution and shrink washington and grow america. i yield back. mr. biggs: i h. mr. biggs: there are more than 1200 federal programs unauthorized right now. $500 billion, that's what we

spend every year for those 1,200 unauthorized programs. congress hasn't authorized them. they've expired. we haven't re-authorized it but we're still spending $500 billion a year. people wonder what's crazy about d.c. let me give you one more data point. that same meeting we were talking about. the gentleman was getting ready to leave this economist, then we had another former -- we had a former head of o.m.b. there with us. i asked them, can you tell me how many agencies there are in the federal government? the answer was no. i said what? he said nobody knows. that's hard to believe. i couldn't believe it. soy did some more digging. nobody can tell me. nobody can tell me. how many federal agencies there are. but we can tell you how much we're spending. we're spending over $100 billion every month more than we bring in. with that, i'm pleased to yield

such time hays may consume to my friend, the gentleman from virginia, mr. bob good. mr. good: thank you, chairman biggs, my good friend from arizona, for your leadership on this all-important issue. i thank you also to my friend from montana and his remarks a moment ago. the founders gave in the constitution the authority for spending to the house of representatives. it's the house of representatives that most directly reflects where the american people are, what the american people's wishes are on a federal level. it's not the white house. it's not the senate, it's not the supreme court. this is the people's house. the house of representatives which proportionally represents everyone across the country. equally with some 800,000 citizens per representative. it's the house of representatives that has the responsibility, we have the responsibility to ensure our ability to pay our nation's

debts and to protect the credit or the borrowing capacity for when it's necessary of the united states federal government. we talk often about what are the threat, the greatest threats to the country. there are numerous existential threats to our country right now. i would submit like never before in the history of the united states, brought on by the policies of this administration, mr. speaker, and those who had the majority of both houses for the previous two years. whether it's the open border, where some six knoll seven million illegals have swarmed into our country. facilitated, helped, by this administration's policies. whether it's our broken education system, our indocksry nation on college campuses, our k-12. whether it's the weakening of our military, failures on the national stage, whether it's the threat of china or whether it's our national debt and our

spending. and as we address tonight and discuss the national debt and spending, and the debt ceiling issue, the spending piece of this, the responsibility of the house, is not just addressing that issue but how we manage united states spending, the federal spend, addresses all of the other issues. to utilize the pow of the purse. to stop funding the harmful policies not just the wasteful reckless spend bug the literal harmful spending that's making our country less safe, less secure,less prosperous, and less free. and as we talked specifically about the national debt, it's been said already tonight, over $31 trillion, i happen to sthoarch budget committee. a couple of weeks ago we brought before our committee once again o.m.b. director young.

shalonda young, the biden administration's budget director. funny term to apply, budget director, to anybody in this administration, mr. speaker. but as we were having a chance to question the budget director for the biden administration, i asked ms. young, what is the national debt? and she could not tell me. she said it was somewhere around maybe $24 trillion. i corrected her that it was over $31 trillion. i asked her how much does that equate to per american citizen? she did not know. i helped her with the fact that it's nearly $100,000 for 330 million american citizens, $100,000 per citizen. about $300,000 per taxpayer or per family. i asked what's the percentage of debt-to-g.d.p.? she did not know, mr. speaker. she thought it might be something like 90-something

percent. i helped her with the information that it's about 125% debt-to-g.d.p. ratio. i asked her when it was that high last time in the history of the country. she did not know, i helped her to realize it was world war ii. to follow up on what you were saying a moment ago, my friend from arizona, mr. biggs, we also had before another committee i serve on our federal reserve chairman powell. another caucus i'm a part of. republican study committee. and he spoke to us about interest rates and about trying to bring down inflation. shared his remarks. and once again did not deal with the issue of the national debt. didn't even bring it up. department even bring up the federal spending. and i said to him, what's the number one cause of the inflation? and historically when we raise interest rates we're trying to, what, cool a hot economy to ward off a recession.

instead we have caused the inflation with the spending and now we're making it worse on the american people by raising the interest rates in a futile attempt to reduce inflation in a weak economy and making things worse for the american people. mr. biggs, mr. speaker, with respect to the remarks a few moments ago from my colleague from arizona, mr. biggs, i led a letter to treasury secretary janet yellen asking her about what mr. biggs was speaking about a moment ago. what is her planto ensure we do not have a default when we reach the debt ceiling limit? how will she prioritize spending to ensure we don't reach that -- we don't result in a default when we reach the debt limit? we have not gotten satisfactory answers to that. mr. biggs is exactly right, mr. speaker. when we exhaust these so-called extraordinary measures, and part of my letter asks, when will we

exhaust that? how is that determined? have not gotten satisfactory answers to that either. when we reach the debt limit and can no longer utilize gimmicks and clever tactics to extend that we will simply have to prioritize our spending. we've got a record $5 trillion come to the treasury, never happened before in the history of the country. frankly because of the trump tax cuts and jobs act which has done what always happens in history, when you cut taxes you get more income, more revenue. don't let the democrats or the -- and the majority or the administration lie to us and tell us we have a deficit because of the tax cuts. that's not true with $5 trillion coming into the treasury for the first time in history. however, because as mr. biggs said we're spending over $6 trillion, if we reach the debt limit, then we can no longer delay through these extraordinary measure we will simply have to prioritize spending. it will force -- that's why they don't want to do it.

that's why they don't want to reach it. that's why they want your $3 trillion or $4 trillion mr. roadsendale and mr. biggs stated, because they don't want to is have to prioritize spending. there's more than enough revenue coming in to pay social security and medicare. there's more than enough to pay the interest on the debt. we'd simply have to cut discretionary spending. we have a plan that the freedom caucus put forward to cut $1.5 trillion immediately out of the gate and mr. biggs led the way on this with 500 bill with 500 specific targeted cuts toward those 1,200 unauthorized but still appropriated previous congresses programs that would save us another $500 billion so we'd never have to raise the debt ceiling again if we have the immediate $1.5 trillion cuts now and use the appropriations process this fall to cut even further. again, i yield back to mr. biggs and thank him for his leadership on this issue. mr. biggs: i thank the

gentleman. i inquire of the speaker how much time we have left. 14 minutes, great. thank you. let's see how much i can consume of that, mr. speaker. i would have to say i commend you on your endurance, you've stood the whole time, i watched you now going for two-plus hours. well done. i'd be sitting down right now. so h.f.c. proposal we put in just recently, i think this is really important. the idea is to shrink washington and grow the country again. we proposed it in early march. the first thing is you cancel student loan forgiveness plan which totals $609 billion. you cut the wasteful woke rep ides spending programs, get the nation back on track. you eliminate green new deal tax credits and subsidies. i recently scored at 350, i'm told now it's $4500 billion. between those two items alone

you're moving toward $1 trillion. you cut the i.r.s. expansion, we already passed out of the house. that's $80 billion. you take into account the 500 targeted reductions we have made. maybe you don't do all of them. maybe you only do half of them. maybe you do $50 billion, $75 billion, $80 billion dollars worth. then i'll tell you something else you've got to do. you take back the covid money that we sent out, about $80 billion of that. that hasn't been spent. bring that back. all of that is in the first year. and i haven't even talked about reductions. that's the rescissions. then you start -- you start reducing. and you can make it targeted. you can do the discretionary. and guess what. you start getting to a place where you are not blowing, you're not in the hole $100

billion a month. how about doing that for a year. how about doing that for a year. well, i'm told that -- that a lot of these folks don't really want to do that. i find that hard to believe. so in fiscal year 2024 alone, if you add to what i just outlined, what we proposed what we co-sponsored, those 500 bills, we want you to look at them for mercy's sakes. if you took all of them, you'd be late bit over $100 billion in savings in fiscal year 2024 alone. wow. there are ways out of. this aren't there. but it's going to take some courage, some discipline, and quite frankly part of the reason i wanted to do this tonight is i'm hearing all the time that we don't know where you guys are. i'm like -- how can you not know where i am?

i've been so explicit, i'm transparent, everybody knows where biggs is because biggs doesn't keep his mouth shut. this is where we need to be. we need to be telling the truth. the american people need to understand clearly what's about to happen to them. what's about to happen to them is they're going to raise that debt ceiling. somebody is going to raise the debt ceiling. the idea that they're talking about now, just so people know, is anywhere from $1.5 trillion to $4 there will. that's what they're talking about. and they're going to trade it for 10 years with maybe $3.5 trillion to $4 trillion in reduction in savings. net savings. not even net savings, i'm sorry to say that. gross savings. so over here on that ledger got to get $4 trillion over 10 years. if you raise the debt ceiling by $1.5 trillion to $4 trillion over those 18 to 24 months, now extend that out for the rest of that 10-year cycle.

yeah. you're not raiding the national debt by $24 trillion. you're raising it by $19 trillion. so you still hitting $50 trillion-plus. because didn't have the courage to make the reductions and the hard choices this year. my favorite, my favorite thing to hear around around here is, we're going to have a 10-year plan to balance the budget. i can go back and show you people from 15 years ago. they still relive that first year over and over again. because it is like deja vu. so this year they're telling everybody, we're going to do a 10-year plan. it's going to be great. we think we can get balanced in 10 years. going to have to make some tough decisions. but next year they'll come back and say, we got a 10-year plan. going to have to make some tough decisions. two years from now they'll come back and say, we got a 10-year

plan. do it now. do it now. and people tell me, well, you're conflating the budget with the debt ceiling. you know why? because i can tell you, if we don't do it now in the debt ceiling, when that budget comes around you're going to have an omnibus bill. you're going to have an omnibus bill. that's what's going to happen. that may not work. so you get a c.r. part of the package h.f.c. put out was you have a -- if you end up with a mandatory c.r., you start reduetsing funding on that. so you never have government shut down which is in some ways too bad quite we have proposed adding the reins act. before the bureaucratic agency can impose rules on anything

that will impact, $1 hundred million. they are telling me it's 100 million. they have you have to bring it to congress. it's a great place to start. we have delegated our authority to the bureaucracy. you get the bureaucracy and making rules. and they are enforcing the rules. that is the executive branch power and gentlemen indicated if you are fined. and most of the 40,000 crimes that are federally in nature were created under the rule-making process. our government is out of control and our spending is out of control. if we went back to 2019 levels, which is we proposed and no one will say, we had too little

government. if you go back to those levels, guess what? we were spending about $# trillion and bringing in $# thillion. and let's dot rescissions to boot and stop this seeming mily endless cycle and if we do that, we stop the eminent bankruptcy of this country. we stop the devaluation of our currency around the world and stop the inflationary pressures and reduce some more taxes and regulations and more energy production and we will be the world's economic leader. i'm just to tell you, we presented our plan.

i don't think anyone should say and the half dozens en or so that they don't know. i never voted to raise the debt ceiling. that isp nt what i was sent here to dovment and if there nice anything to raising, i encourage everyone to understand that we can put an end to this cycle of self ememu layings. and with that, i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time for what purpose does the gentleman from arizona seek recognition? mr. biggs: move that the house do now 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 is adjourned until >> intelligence agencies were up fr additional spy balloon's to the one that flew over the u.s. this year. later this week of 02 ovri president bids -- to veto president bidens rule. watch live coverage here on c-span. >> the very first president to attend the white house correspondents dinner was calvin coolidge. i've just been elected to the united states senate. >> the white house response dinner, washington's premier black tie event, saturday, april

29, watch live coverage from the washington hilton hotel, including red carpet arrivals of journalists and celebrities. this year's headliner is the daily show. president biden is expected to speak. the correspondce dinner, live a saturday, april 29 -- live saturday, april 29. >> c-span is your unfiltered view of government, we are funded by these television companies and more including buckeye broadband. ♪ >> buckeye broadband support c-span as a public service, along with these other television providers, giving you a front row seat to