Speeches
July 10, 2019
Marijuana decriminalization may be one of the few issues upon which bipartisan agreement can still be reached in this session. It doesn’t require endorsing cannabis – on the contrary. There is clear evidence that marijuana use can cause long-term neurological problems in children and adolescents, and no one should approach the use of any drug without caution and moderation. I believe we should do everything we can to prevent its use by children and warn of its use by adults. But it should be crystal clear that our laws have not accomplished their goals...
June 11, 2019
There’s a reason for the abusive rhetoric from the left. For two and a half years they pedaled a monstrous lie that Donald Trump is a traitor colluding with a hostile foreign government. They concocted it with a phony dossier commissioned by the Clinton campaign and promoted by the highest officials in the FBI, our Intelligence agencies and the Justice Department -- first, in a failed attempt to interfere with the 2016 Presidential election and then, to undermine the constitutionally elected President of the United States.
June 4, 2019
Instead of taking the simple measures necessary to secure our borders and reserve our asylum laws for the truly persecuted, the House meets today to grant blanket amnesty to roughly 2 ½ million illegal aliens, encouraging millions more that they, too, can violate our borders with impunity.
May 22, 2019
In 1970, S. Dillon Ripley of the Smithsonian Institution predicted that by 1995, between 75 and 80 percent of all species of living animals on our planet would be extinct. In 1979, Oxford University biologist Norman Myers predicted that one million species would go extinct by the year 2000. In 1989, Noel Brown, a senior U.N. Environmental Official, warned that by the year 2000, entire nations would be wiped off the face of the earth as oceans would rise by up to three feet. Now along comes the latest contribution to apocalyptic predictions...
Issues:Natural Resources Committee
May 17, 2019
There are some fundamental principles we should all be able to agree on. Don’t hurt other people; respect the right of doctors to do no harm; respect the right of parents to protect their children. The bill before us today could have affirmed the right of every adult to declare their own gender consistent with these principles. Unfortunately, it violates these principles in the most fundamental ways.
May 15, 2019
The Subcommittee meets today to consider H.R. 2532 by Congressman Grijalva. The bill would over-ride the provisions of the Endangered Species Act and apply permanent regulatory restrictions to the management of grizzly bear populations -- perpetuating federal control of wildlife management decisions traditionally and effectively managed by state authorities -- even after a listed species has recovered its population to sustainable levels.
Issues:Natural Resources Committee
May 8, 2019
The subpoena issued by this committee puts the Attorney General in a legal Catch-22: To comply with the subpoena, he must break the law. If he obeys the law, he must disobey the subpoena.
Issues:Government Regulation
May 8, 2019
The subcommittee meets today to consider nine bills dealing with various aspects of ocean resource management.
Issues:Natural Resources Committee
April 9, 2019
I am afraid that both sides are losing sight of why we have a First Amendment? It is because the freedom to speak your mind is absolutely essential in a free society. Jefferson said, “Error of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it.” Speech can be ugly, disgusting, hateful, prejudiced and alarming. But it can never be dangerous to a free society as long as men and women of good will have the freedom of speech to dispute it, challenge it and reject it.
April 3, 2019
I called for the appointment of a special counsel to investigate charges of collusion before Mr. Mueller was appointed. I believed the President was completely innocent of these outlandish charges and that a full and independent investigation would show that. Now it has.
And I, too, want to see as much of the report made public as quickly as possible to put the lie to those politicians who have been telling us for more than two years that they held in their hands irrefutable evidence of coordination between the Russian government and the Trump campaign...