|
Congress is now in a state of suspended animation.
In January, Matt Gaetz and his followers threatened Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s leadership by raising the ominous possibility of triggering the motion to vacate the chair, or oust him from his role as Speaker, at any moment.
For background, the motion to vacate the chair is a parliamentary procedure that was created for severe situations to remove the Speaker of the House.
When Matt Gaetz filed the motion to vacate the chair this week, he single-handedly stopped the regular order of the House and the 11 Republicans that declined to table the motion, essentially voted to stop our progress as a governing body led by Republicans.
Under Speaker McCarthy’s leadership, House Republicans re-opened the people’s House after nearly three years. Speaker McCarthy passed appropriations bills covering over 70% of discretionary spending and two trillion in spending cuts, passed legislation to give the largest pay raise to service members in two decades and clawed back billions from the Biden Administration’s woke agenda.
House Republicans passed energy legislation, HR 1, to lower food and fuel costs for average Americans, passed the strongest border security, HR 2, to secure our border, stop fentanyl and human trafficking. We passed the Parents Bill of Rights, ended the pause in repayment of college loans and passed legislation prohibiting biological boys from participating in girls’ sports.
But now we are essentially at a standstill. We cannot hold committee hearings, investigate the Biden family corruption, issue subpoenas or work to secure the border and reduce crime.
And no one, not even the President, can continue to ignore the chaos and crisis happening at our southern border. There have been OVER 6 MILLION illegal crossings of our southern border and in FY23, fentanyl seizures exceeded the FY22 seizure total by over 10,000 pounds.
It is maddening.
Since our work in the House is now paused, we are not only putting our government in a precarious position, but we are also reversing the progress that we made to secure our porous borders.
We have to get the People’s House running again, if not for our regular order, then for the security of our nation.
As a governing body, we must unite the Conference and work to select a new Speaker. In the coming days, as Members jockey to become Speaker, rest assured that I am going to keep our District and state in mind.
Specifically, I am going to see where the candidates for Speaker stand on biofuels, energy issues, conservation efforts and the environment. I am also going to ask their opinions on healthcare and reducing prices at the pharmacy counter.
We need to get back to the business of fighting for the American people, so while I am profoundly disappointed in the filing of the motion to vacate the chair and I believe it was completely irresponsible and immature, I realize that we must move forward and get the People’s House working again.
| 
