China is A Significant Threat
Floor Speech
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Mr. ALFORD. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak about the most pressing national security threat to our Nation right now: the Chinese Communist Party.
The CCP is engaged in a full-scale influence and espionage operation right here in the United States of America.
From Confucius Institutes to TikTok, and from spy balloons to intellectual property theft, the CCP's mission is quite clear: to collect our data, to infiltrate our country from within, and to become the world's sole superpower.
Mr. Speaker, plain and simple, we need to make a change.
We must recognize the significant threat that Communist China poses. We must decouple ourselves from our dependence on China. We must restore strong American leadership around the globe. We must ban our adversaries like China from buying U.S. farmland. We must put an end to their data collection schemes.
Mr. Speaker, we must stand behind our ally Taiwan. The path forward is clear: peace through strength and a resolute leader in the White House. Gold Star Ceremony
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Mr. ALFORD. Mr. Speaker, I want to speak from my heart right now on a subject matter that we dealt with yesterday in the rotunda not too many feet from this House floor.
I was honored to be at the ceremony yesterday for the 13 Gold Star families, the 13 servicemembers who bravely gave their lives 3 years ago on the wall at Abbey Gate due to a decision made by a failed administration to get all American troops out of Afghanistan, to leave them there--our allies--clinging to the wheels of aircraft as they tried to escape the grip of the Taliban. It was a flawed decision.
This administration never apologized to those 13 families for that critical mistake in our world history. Yesterday, someone finally had the guts to apologize to those families: our Speaker, Mike Johnson. I applaud him for that.
The highest honor that Congress can bestow, the Congressional Gold Medal, was given posthumously to those 13 brave individuals, including Lance Corporal Jared Schmitz from Missouri.
I realize that that apology and that acknowledgment and those Congressional Gold Medals will never completely heal those families, but I do think it was a step in the right direction.
I was honored to have dinner with some of those families last night along with Darrell Issa, Ken Calvert, and Brian Mast, sitting down with those families and just hearing their stories and how much it meant to be in that rotunda yesterday, and for our Nation to finally acknowledge that it was a mistake. This administration has never done that, and I think they will have to live with that.
I am glad that our Speaker awarded those Gold Star medals, and I am glad we came together. It was bipartisan yesterday in that rotunda, make no mistake. I think we all felt the pain of those family members.
I just left the rotunda and came back over here. I love going to the rotunda every morning when I can and seeing people come in for the very first time. They look up, and they see the pictures painted by people, like Trumbull and others, who have painted representations of our heroes. To have those 13 heroes with their pictures in that rotunda yesterday was very fitting.
Mr. Speaker, I just want those families to know that we stand with them. We will never forget them. We have their backs. I hope someday we can regain their respect.
Life is precious, but those willing to give the ultimate sacrifice to our Nation deserve our complete respect. I thank the families and their servicemembers for giving it all for our great Nation. A Day of Remembrance
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Mr. ALFORD. Mr. Speaker, lastly, I want to reflect on today, 9/11, as a day of remembrance. This is now the 23rd anniversary of the fateful date in U.S. history when Islamic terrorists on planes loaded with people crashed into the World Trade Center.
Let's keep that memory alive.
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