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Floor Speech

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Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. President, I think the esteemed chairman of the Judiciary Committee is misreading the bill because this would apply to people who are entering the United States. It would apply to those who are coming to the southern border.

This is a process that had been in place. The Biden administration chose to stop this process. What we understand is that they chose to stop this because the test takes 45 minutes--45 minutes to determine if that child is or is not related, 45 minutes to determine if that child should be left with those adults. Thirty percent of the children that are DNA-tested at that southern border are found to not be related to the adult who is holding them by the hand, who is bringing them into the country.

So I would ask my colleagues, is 45 minutes too much time to take to be sure that a child is secure?

We have had 10 million people come to that border. We have had 400,000 of those children. Don't we want to provide the best for these children and separate them from traffickers?

By the way, HHS has lost track of 85,000 of these children. They can't tell the Presiding Officer's committee where those children are. They can't tell the Judiciary Committee where those children are-- 85,000 children. We do not know if they are dead or alive. We do not know if they are being labor trafficked, sex trafficked. We do not know what is happening.

DNA testing is a way to help save some of these children. We should return to this policy.

By the way, again I will mention that H.R. 2 has been in here. The Homeland Security Committee has had 374 days to have a markup on a border security bill. They chose not to. The Judiciary Committee could have had a markup on a border security bill. They did not do it. But they are bringing a political stunt bill to the floor today to try to push it through to give cover to vulnerable Members of your party.

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