Homeowner Energy Freedom Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to this bill, and I adopt the comments of my distinguished colleague from Florida.

I also wish to speak on behalf of the unanimous consent that we will request.

The President last night spoke to the Nation. One of the things he said was that TSA, the Coast Guard, and FEMA are not operating. That is accurate. They are not operating because we have a disagreement in this House between Republicans and Democrats on whether those agencies ought to be funded. We do have a deep and severe disagreement with the administration with respect to how ICE and CBP are operating, contrary to the Constitution, contrary to the laws of our country, and contrary to the norms of police departments all over this country, which have resulted in the deaths of a number of American citizens egregiously and, in my view, illegally.

That unanimous consent request will simply say that we will fund all of those agencies that are within the Department of Homeland Security that are not controversial, not because we absolutely agree with every expenditure, but we have come together on a consensus. The American people, Mr. Speaker, ought to know that Democrats are prepared to vote for the funding of TSA, of FEMA, of the Secret Service, of the Coast Guard, and every other agency that is acting within the bounds of the Constitution and acting legally within the bounds of the Constitution.

I ask my colleagues on both sides of the aisle, this hand-wringing about TSA perhaps shutting down or employees of TSA working without pay, they should not be doing that. We ought to open up TSA. We ought to open up the Coast Guard. They are critical employees, so they are working but without pay. We ought to pay them. We ought to have FEMA open, as the President said last night, so that it can serve the American people, particularly at a time when we just had a gargantuan storm in the northeast.

I rise in strong support of a unanimous consent that the ranking member of the Committee on Appropriations (Ms. DeLauro) will be asking for. This is a unanimous consent that makes sense. It makes common sense and on which we have agreement.

What we disagree with is the unconstitutional, illegal, unlawful, and death-causing activities of an out-of-control agency at the instance of the President of the United States.

I ask my colleagues on both sides of the aisle, let's make sense. Let's say yes to what we agree on.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from Connecticut (Ms. DeLauro), the leader on our side of the aisle on the Committee on Appropriations, for initiating this effort. I took this time because I am not sure we are going to have time on the other bill. I urge Members on the Republican side of the aisle, do not object to this unanimous consent because it does what Republicans say we ought to be doing: Funding those agencies, those operations, those very critical activities for the American people on which we agree.

What the American people are so frustrated about is we seem to not even be able to move on that on which we agree. Let's show them that yes, we can agree. And let's also recognize and admit that we have a difference of opinion on a very critical issue, an issue at the heart of our Constitution of how we treat individuals in this country: that we don't go around arresting people with masks on and putting them in unmarked cars and disappearing them, that we don't have heavily armed troops coming out of cars into the streets of our cities to confront a woman who is driving her car alongside and heckling the police. We may not agree with that, but it is certainly within the bounds of our Constitution.

Mr. Speaker, there is no reason that we ought to have TSA shut down, FEMA shut down, the Coast Guard shut down, and the Secret Service shut down. They are really not shut down because we are making them work, but we are saying, by the way, we can't pay you.

If Republicans get up and say Democrats are shutting down those agencies, they are not telling the truth because Democrats are prepared right now to pass legislation which will be offered by the gentlewoman from Connecticut (Ms. DeLauro) to fund everything but that on which we disagree. Isn't that reasonable? Isn't that what we ought to be doing as legislators, as Americans, as people who have sworn an oath to uphold the Constitution and laws of this country?

I urge my colleagues, particularly my Republican colleagues, do not object because your objection will be to continue to hamper the agencies on which we agree that are serving the American people.

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