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Floor Speech
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Mr. BUDD. Madam President, the forces of evil and instability are on the march around the globe. In the Middle East, Hamas massacred more than 1,200 Israelis and 33 Americans. Iran, the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism, continues to finance, provide training for, and authorize attacks against U.S. forces in the region. In Europe, Russia continues its brutality against Ukraine and is fomenting conflict in the Balkans, further threatening peace and stability in Europe. Meanwhile, China is rapidly expanding its military, threatening our allies and partners, and stealing billions in Americans' intellectual property.
All this chaos is the result of weakness from the Biden administration. Starting in Afghanistan, continuing to this day, this administration has put American weakness on full display. As we confront a dangerous global situation, we cannot ignore the fact that for America to be a strong nation, we must first be strong at home. Before we can help countries protect their borders thousands of miles away, we must first protect our own borders.
The biggest threat to our national security right now is the wide- open southern border. For 3 years, the border has been in a state of crisis. We have grown familiar with these numbers, sadly, but they remain historic and staggering. Under President Biden, over 8 million illegal immigrants have crossed the border. Under President Biden, 279--I just heard my colleague speak, and she gave an even higher number, an accurate number perhaps, an even higher number than 279-- folks on the Terrorist Watchlist have illegally entered our Nation.
Under President Biden, nearly 50,000 pounds of fentanyl have been seized at the southern border. That is nearly enough to kill every man, woman, and child in the United States. Given the fact that we are only able to interdict 5 to 10 percent of the illegal drugs that cross, our country is being overwhelmed with drugs that can kill with just a 2- milligram dose.
Under President Biden, there have been 1.8 million known--known-- ``got-aways,'' and that is not counting all of the unknown ``got- aways,'' including terrorists, human traffickers, and other bad actors.
This crisis has got to be dealt with, and we have got to deal with it now. That is why Senate Republicans have offered the Biden White House a deal. Here it is: Include proven border policies in the House-passed H.R. 2 in the national security spending package, and you will have our support.
It is a clear pathway, but, so far, this White House is more interested in playing politics and continuing to ignore the border crisis altogether.
But you know who can't ignore it? The Border Patrol agents, who are under siege right now.
In the times that I have been down there--multiple times--they have told me that, yes, we need a wall. We need border enforcement. We need funding. But what we really need--in their own words--is policy, policy changes that would empower them to stop the illegal flow of people, crime, drugs.
You know who can't ignore this crisis? The sheriffs from all 100 North Carolina counties. Many of them have come up to me saying the same thing: Every single county in North Carolina is now a border county because of Joe Biden's policies.
The bottom line here is that, in order to be a strong nation, we have to have strong borders, and, right now, we don't have that. So I am going to call on President Biden to change course, to work with us so that we can solve this crisis together. We know what to do. All we need is a President who takes this seriously and fulfills his oath to protect and defend this country.
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