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Speeches

March 18, 2021
Speeches
We seem to be confusing opposition to the Chinese Government – including its actions during the coronavirus pandemic -- with hostility toward Americans of Asian descent. I find that very confusing, since many Asian Americans fled abusive governments, including and especially the Chinese Communist regime. Hostility to that government is not hostility to its victims – quite the contrary. Yet that is the connection the Democrats appear to be making.
Issues:ConstitutionJudiciary Committee
March 17, 2021
Speeches
Nearly a half century ago, Congress passed the Equal Rights Amendment and sent it to the states with a seven-year deadline for ratification. When that deadline expired in 1979, it was three states short of passage. Many states rejected it because it was duplicative of the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution. Our Constitution already guarantees that all Americans receive equal protection under the law, and indeed these provisions have driven our progress as a society. More importantly, many felt that the ERA would unleash a crippling avalanche of activist legislation that could have unforeseen and unintended implications to issues ranging from abortion to freedom of conscience and freedom of speech.
March 10, 2021
Speeches
HR 8 is brought to us by the same organizations and politicians who have made no secret of their intention ultimately to strip law-abiding citizens of their right to defend themselves. They know they can’t do it outright, so they do it through cynical measures like this, which weave a web of laws so intricate that sooner or later everyone can be caught up in them. This law affects not only sales – but any transfer of a weapon for any period of time.
Issues:Self-Defense
March 10, 2021
Speeches
One thing all sides agree on: this is the most liberal bill ever passed by Congress. But beware: there’s no such thing as free money. ALL OF IT must be borrowed from the same capital pool that would otherwise be available as loans to consumers, homebuyers, and small businesses. And it will be repaid entirely from YOUR future earnings in the years ahead.
Issues:Fiscal and Economic
March 10, 2021
Speeches
What is the so-called Charleston Loophole? It is a provision that gives the FBI three days to provide a background check for a citizen to buy a gun. Three days for a background check doesn’t seem unreasonable since a credit check takes about three seconds. If the FBI fails to give a clear YES or NO in three days, the sale can proceed. That protects our second amendment right from arbitrary denial by inaction. That clearance is good for 30 calendar days from when you began the transaction. This bill replaces this 3-day limit with a multi-stage bureaucratic review process that can span up to 20 BUSINESS Days. It’s really quite clever. Your clearance is good for 30 CALENDAR days from the day you began the transaction, but clearance can be delayed for 20 BUSINESS Days.
Issues:Self-DefenseGovernment Regulation
March 3, 2021
Speeches
Whenever the left has taken control of local law enforcement, the result is predictable and catastrophic. They act to defund the police, deliberately withhold police protection from honest shopkeepers and citizens, declare sanctuaries for criminal illegal aliens, decline to charge criminals and prevent law-abiding citizens from protecting themselves. We now see the result: sky-rocketing homicides and other violent crimes – preying most of all upon the decent citizens of our inner cities.
Issues:Local Issues
March 2, 2021
Speeches
Democracies die when one party seizes control of the elections process, eliminates the safeguards that have protected the integrity of the ballot, places restrictions on free speech, and seizes the earnings of others to promote candidates they may abhor. That’s the bill before us today.
Issues:Government Regulation
February 25, 2021
Speeches
This law could not be plainer: It says, gender is NOT a question of genetics; but of personal choice. Leftist dogma now calls for this doctrine to be imposed under force of law, and its effect is frightening. States that have adopted similar laws have threatened safe spaces for women and intimidated the free exercise of conscience. But let me focus on just two aspects: how they destroy women’s sports and render parents powerless to protect their own children.
Issues:Government Regulation
February 25, 2021
Speeches
Everything that we touch in our daily lives; everything that makes our lives possible; everything that makes us more comfortable and more prosperous; comes to us in only two ways. It is either grown or it is mined. That is a universal truth. Everything is either grown or mined. Fortunately, nature has given us a superabundance of resources and left it to us to responsibly reap and manage this bounty. But it is precisely these resources that the left has waged war against for a full generation. The very things that make us prosperous and comfortable are the things the left attempts to put off limits. Is it any wonder that the more they extend their domain, the worse the human conditions that they produce?
Issues:EnergyNatural Resources CommitteeCalifornia Water CrisisGovernment Regulation
February 25, 2021
Speeches
Before the lockdown left took a wrecking ball to our economy last year, we were enjoying one of the greatest expansions of economic opportunity in our lifetimes. Unemployment was at its lowest rate in 50 years, the poverty rate was at its lowest rate in 60 years. Wage growth was the strongest in 40 years. The wage gap was narrowing for the first time in many years, as blue-collar wages increased dramatically. The unemployment rate for women was the lowest in 70 years. For African Americans, Hispanic Americans and Asian Americans, veterans and disabled Americans, and those without a high school diploma, unemployment was the lowest ever recorded.
Issues:Illegal Immigration - Border Crisis