Speaker 1 (00:00):
Choose your fighter video, we all catch that? Well, I'm here to tell you that America and Americans chose their fighter last November. They chose to send President Trump and Vice President JD Vance to the White House, and Americans chose Republicans to lead the US House and Senate. The American people chose us to fight for lower taxes, energy dominance and a secure border. Americans also chose us to fight for common sense, not for hatred and lies like the Democrats are spreading.
(00:43)
On top of spreading lies and hatred, since President Trump's return to the White House, Democrats have repeatedly embarrassed themselves and their party. Look no further than last week's joint address. Their derangement was on full display for all Americans to see. Rep. Al Green was removed from the chamber for his outlandish behavior. Multiple Democrats walked out. Now, the ones that stayed, they held up cute little signs though. And the minority leader, he couldn't find one thing that he could support. Seriously, he couldn't find one thing that he could support, a speech that honored America and its people? Sadly, they refuse to stand for a child battling cancer, a future cadets' appointment, returning the hostages home. Those are horrible things to stand for, right? I would never applaud those. Democrats don't. We're talking about patriotism, we're talking about pride in our country. They can't stand for that? They're the party of hate, and they hate little kids, they hate America? Maybe Democrats should just join us in building a more prosperous nation.
(02:12)
And then, on Thursday, nearly 200 Democrats endorsed Rep. Al Green's behavior and his disruption. Then they disrupted proceedings by singing songs on the House floor. Let's be honest, things just aren't going real well for the Democrats right now. And what do they stand or fight for? No one really knows. And don't take my word for it, one progressive Democrat said, and I quote, "There was definitely frustration about the lack of guidance or plan." Another one said, and I quote, "People are super pissed that we didn't get more direction from leadership." Well, be careful what you wish for. According to reports, Democratic leadership held a closed-door meeting to berate them for their behavior. We'll see if berating the members is a useful strategy, because deranged Democrats, they have no vision, they have no plan, and they still have no leader, they need something. And since their leadership has given them no guidance, as a member of House Republican leadership, I encourage Democrats to stay the course, keep hating, keep doing what you are doing.
(03:35)
Democrats hate so much of what President Trump stands for and what the American people stand for that they are willing to shut our government down. They want service members and border patrol agents to work without pay, small businesses not to be able to obtain SBA loans. The Democrats want relief projects to be delayed, national parks to be closed, they want WIC to run out of funding. This is what the Democrats want. What Democrats actually want is nothing more than disruption. Democrats have become chaos agents. Democrats are deranged. Their disarray is on display for all of the American people to witness, and Americans will witness them attempt to shut the government down. And if a shutdown happens, the Democrats will own it.
(04:33)
Just listen to what some of their members have said. One said, and I quote, "I'm not voting for a CR of any length." Now, they might want to read the text before they say that, because the text wasn't even out when they said that. Another said, "We'd rather close down the government." And look at the House Democratic leadership letter from Friday, just filled with lies, nothing but lies. It says that this, "Clean CR is filled with cuts." The American people are smarter than that. A clean CR, listen to it, continues to fund the government. They might need to go back and take a high school civics course, or perhaps they're just intentionally lying or fearmongering. I'll presume that it's the latter.
(05:29)
But despite this, House Republicans will remain focused. We will continue to focus on fighting for common sense. We will not be distracted from delivering on the mandate for the American people. We will pass this clean CR, which freezes spending, to keep the government open. It protects Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, and allows ICE to continue deporting illegals. It will give the Trump administration time to secure our border, and it will give Congress time to focus on delivering on the mandate in our one big beautiful bill. President Trump supports it, and we just heard the same from Vice President JD Vance this morning. I look forward to seeing Democrats explain to their constituents why they collectively want to shut the government down. It'll be an interesting week. So now, I'd like to turn it over to Representative Celeste Maloy, a member of the House Committee on Appropriations. Celeste?
Representative Celeste Maloy (06:50):
I'm here to tell you why I plan on supporting the CR. As a brand new member of the Appropriations Committee and a fairly new member of Congress, I ran on right-sizing our government, cutting back government overreach and eliminating waste, fraud and abuse. Usually, we don't think of a CR as the way to do that, but we have an administration, I think, that has demonstrated a commitment to finding waste, fraud and abuse, and making sure we're not paying for more government than we need. And in that context, I feel good about continuing to fund the government so that Congress and the administration has time to go find the places that we need to cut back and where we need to increase spending, like the biggest raise for junior enlisted officers in the military that we've given them in a generation.
(07:40)
This allows us to focus on tackling the waste, fraud and abuse without any poison pills, and I think that's what's best for the American people, I think that's what's best for my constituents. So I'm going to support the CR, and then get to work as a new appropriator. I'm making sure we're doing our constitutional duty of controlling the purse strings and appropriating
Representative Celeste Maloy (08:00):
… waiting for next year.
Speaker 3 (08:06):
Thanks. Andy Harris.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
Thank you very much everybody for being here. Look, the first question I always get asked is, you know, first of all, what's the chairman of the House Freedom Caucus doing at a press conference about continuing resolutions? Well, I'll tell you the bottom line is that a continuing resolution is usually the first step to an omnibus bill. That's why traditionally the House Freedom Caucus has opposed continuing resolutions. This clearly is not. This is a continuing resolution that goes to the end of the fiscal year, and therefore negates the need for any consideration of any omnibus bill.
(08:37)
Second of all, this is the first continuing resolution in my 14 years here that actually reduces the amount of spending from the previous year while funding the military, funding veterans, funding the Women and Infant, Children programs for hurt, and importantly, funding the deportation of criminal illegal aliens that are threatening our communities.
(08:56)
So, I'm a hundred percent behind this continuing resolution. This is not your grandfather's continuing resolution. This is a different type of spending bill that I think is the way that we need to do it in order to keep the Trump administration, Elon Musk and DOGE to continue its promise to the American people to fight fraud, waste, and abuse in the federal government and increase its efficiency.
(09:17)
Again, hundred percent support, the Freedom Caucus has issued its support of the… yesterday issued its support of the continuing resolution. Thank you. Thanks, Andy.
Speaker 4 (09:30):
Last week, we celebrated President Trump's countless victories for the American people during his joint address to Congress. This week, Congress must pass a continuing resolution so the American people can continue to enjoy win after win after win. This is the way forward. But unfortunately, Democrats in Congress would rather throw temper tantrums fueled by their hatred for President Trump than keep the government open and working for all Americans. Minority Leader, Hakeem Jeffries, came out against RCR, as our conference chair mentioned, before the text was even released. And now the only way to defend his nonsensical position is to fearmonger and spread outright lies about the bill's contents.
(10:20)
Jeffries says RCR cuts nutritional assistance and veterans benefits. In fact, RCR increases spending in those areas. He also said it does nothing to protect Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. In fact, RCR does protect Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, and it does all of this while keeping overall spending below current levels. His lies are shameful.
(10:50)
Congressional Democrats have made it clear where they stand, and it is not with the American people. Remember, a vote against RCR is a vote to shut down the government and strip resources from service members, veterans, vulnerable children, the elderly, and many, many more Americans. But don't just take my word for it. It's the same message Democrats have preached for years.
(11:16)
Today, House Republicans will pass a responsible CR to keep the government open and to ensure American communities are taken care of. Will any Democrats join us, or will they continue to put their hypocrisy on full display? We're going to see. With that, I turn it over to our leader, Steve Scalise.
Steve Scalise (11:36):
Thank you, Whip. Last week, all Americans who watched the State of the Union saw a very triumphant President Trump, who's returned to the White House with even more energy, more vigor, and more focus to work for the American people than ever before. Laying out in just six short weeks, how much he's already done to fulfill the promises of the campaign, to deliver on the mandate that 77 million Americans came to the polls and said, "We want to change the way Washington works." And they sent President Trump and JD Vance as the vice President to go and accomplish those things. And in six short weeks, so many of those things have already been accomplished, or the work and the foundation has been laid to get that done.
(12:22)
And what did we see from the Democrats? As Lisa McClain talked about, sitting down, not even celebrating a 13-year-old boy who just beat his battle with cancer and was made an honorary member of the Secret Service. One of the most touching moments I've seen in lot of State of the Unions, and they couldn't even stand up for that.
(12:44)
My friends, the Democrat Party of today is a leaderless, rudderless ship. They have no direction. They have no ideas. They have no concern about the successes of the American people. They can't applaud victories for the American people. They couldn't even applaud paying tribute to the widow of a woman whose husband, as a police officer, was slain in the line of duty. That's who the Democrat party in Washington is.
(13:13)
So many Americans who consider themselves Democrats have left that party because the Democrat Party has left them behind. A lot of those Democrats voted for Donald Trump and voted to put us in the majority, both in the House and Senate, because they're tired of the hatred and the anger that fuels today's Democrat Party. They want to see people that are going to go to work fighting for them, and that's what we're doing. Today's another example of the House doing its job. We have a responsibility to deliver for the American people, and we're going to do it with or without the Democrat Party.
(13:47)
A lot of Democrats brought, we all get to bring a guest to the State of the Union. A lot of them brought federal workers as their guests to the State of the Union. They seem to act like they care about federal workers. You saw a lot of Democrats over the last few weeks show up at federal buildings with some federal employees who haven't been able to find their federal headquarters to go to work for the last three years, using COVID as an excuse, but they showed up to protest, to rally against rooting out waste, fraud, and abuse in government.
(14:23)
But ironically, those same Democrats who claim to care about federal workers, today almost all of them will vote to furlough those federal workers that they claim to care about. How's that for showing appreciation for the people who work for this federal government? You know, and all of them have said quotes, and the speakers laid out a great video that lays out a lot of the quotes that Democrats have made over the years about shutting down government. Yet today, many of them will vote to shut down the government. And for what reason? As it's been pointed out, Hakeem Jeffries came out against the bill before the text was even filed. And still to this day, if you watched in rules committee last night, you heard lie after lie by Democrats who were saying things that aren't even in the bill.
(15:10)
You know, maybe 99 pages is too long for some of them to read. We gave them the whole weekend to read the bill. They can still read it through today. The vote's going to be this afternoon. But they don't want to read the bill. They don't want to know what's really in the bill. They're just fueled by anger. Anger that Donald Trump won the election. Anger that 77 million people went to the polls and demanded a change in the way Washington works.
(15:34)
Well, I've got a message for my Democratic friends out there. Whether you like it or not, the American people demanded change, and we're going to deliver that change for them with or without this wild, reckless, far-left progressive Democrat Party of today. They don't represent the American people. They're fighting against the will of the American people. But we, as the Republican majority, are going to deliver for those families who are struggling, who want relief,
Steve Scalise (16:00):
… who want help, who want to get Washington off of their back and want lower costs. We're going to do that. We passed a bill over to the Senate, we're going to urge our Senate once we finish this bill. The Senate's got to start moving on the house budget that we sent to them weeks ago. Everybody's got a job to do around here. We're going to do ours today, and the leader who's heading that effort up is our speaker, Mike Johnson.
Mike Johnson (16:24):
Thanks so much, Mr. Leader. Thanks for these extraordinary members who are behind us and participating this morning. I think the leaders stated it well and others have said it well this morning. This is a moment of great change in Washington. It's also a moment of clarity and real contrast. The contrast was on display last week on the house floor. It was a shameful display by the Democrats, they are flailing, as is noted. They have no leader, no vision, no plan, no platform they can run on because that was repudiated in the election, and they're in a panic mode right now. And so you see them lashing out, you see increasing profanity. There are many stories, many of you have written about this new track they've taken, the new strategy where they just scream and shout and curse at everyone.
(17:09)
I don't think that's going to be very productive either. And you also see the contrast going on this morning. They either have an issue with reading comprehension or they are attempting to run one of the most shameful misinformation campaigns that we've ever seen in our lives. We filed that CR, the continued resolution on Saturday, and as was noted, they had already come out panning the bill that literally had not yet been seen. This is the House Democrat leadership team's statement on Friday. Remember, the bill was filed on Saturday afternoon. On Friday they said, "Republicans have decided to introduce a partisan continuing resolution that threatens to cut funding for healthcare, nutritional assistance and veterans benefits through the end of the year."
(17:55)
Every single word of that is a lie. They just made it up. They didn't read the bill, it's nonsense. People are not buying this. And you see the contrast between one party, which is leading, moving the ball forward for the American people, and the other that is just screaming. Then the Democrats start parroting this talking point in interviews all weekend on CNN. They said, quote, "It's so harmful to the American people. You know, cutting Medicaid, cutting Medicare, threatening social security, cutting veteran benefits." It's all a lie. You can all read the bill, it's 99 pages.
(18:26)
This clean CR contains no poison pill riders, no policy riders there at all, no cuts to Medicare, Medicaid or social security, zero, no cuts to veterans benefits, zero. In fact, as was noted, we plus up the accounts for veterans. And respectfully, I'm just going to say this to every reporter in the room, that if you're allowing Democrats to make these intentionally false, scurrilous claims without pushback, then you're aiding and abetting the spreading this misinformation. I would just ask you to call them. The American people deserve that, they deserve that clarity from our press corps. Make them point it out to you. They can't, of course. And now after weeks of trotting federal workers up to Capitol Hill and onto cable news shows to protest President Trump's efforts to make the government more efficient, now they're planning to vote down this simple bill. They are going to try to shut the government down.
(19:18)
Every house Democrat will participate in this, it looks like. That would be a shame if it's true. I hope some of them will have a moment of clarity themselves and do the right thing, but it looks like they're going to try to shut down the government. It's a striking new posture for Democrats, who have always said they've just been apoplectic about the prospect of government shutdowns. I put a video out about an hour ago on social media, I encourage you to go see that. This is them in their own words, you don't need to trust us on this. But Catherine Clarke, here's one little zinger from her.
(19:47)
Quote, "Not only is it irresponsible and purposefully misleading, but it's also a dangerous precedent to be threatening a shutdown," unquote. Now remember, this is in last year, year's past. Pramila Jayapal, quote, "The tragedy here is all the civilian employees. It's the employees who are going to suffer," unquote. AOC, quote, "It is not normal to hold 100,000 workers' paychecks hostage. It is not normal to shut down the government when we don't get what we want," unquote. I don't think I've ever agreed with her before, she's exactly right. Jerry Nadler said, quote, "Shutdown is really an extremist policy designed to appeal to an extremist base and hold the whole country hostage." Yeah, we agree, so they and all their colleagues need who do the right thing.
(20:28)
Democrats have been insisting they're fighting for federal workers. You're about to see again on vivid display, very clear, the contrast. You will see one team that is working to fund the government and make sure we do the responsible thing, and you're going to see another opposing the CR because they've now exposed the truth. They're not for federal workers, they're not for anyone. All the people they've said in the past that are going to be harmed, would be by their votes. They're using federal employees as props, they're using Medicaid benefits and social security checks as cudgels in this thing. The threat of government shutdown, they're using as some sort of attempt to wrestle power away from the President of the United States, who overwhelmingly won the popular vote, the Electoral college in every single swing state.
(21:09)
Here's the bottom line. If congressional Democrats refuse to support this clean CR, they will be responsible for every troop who misses a paycheck, for every flight delay from reduced staffing at TSA, for every negative consequence that comes from shutting down the government. I understand they have an important retreat this week. Boy, I'd love to be a fly on the wall at that party. Comes at a critical time since they don't have a leader or a messenger or a platform. And I'm just going to say this, if our Democrat colleagues want to increase their 21% approval rating with the American public, they ought to start by doing the right thing and keeping the government open. I think that'd be a great first step. I'll take the questions, Chad.
Chad (21:49):
Mr. Speaker, good morning. You continually criticize the Democrats here. Doesn't that imply that you don't have the votes on your side because you wouldn't need democratic assistance to keep the government open?
Mike Johnson (22:00):
No, we will have votes. We're going to pass the CR, we can do it on our own. But what I'm saying is Democrats ought to do the responsible thing, follow their own advice in every previous scenario and keep the government open, it's their choice. I wish it could be a unanimous vote in the house Chamber today, that would be a great thing for America. But they're not going to do it, Chad, because they're on this lost, they're wandering in the wilderness and they're cursing the sky at the same time and you're going to see that today. They're going to vote no and they're going to come out and try to pan it, they're going to lie about it. And we're calling on you guys to call into account, make can tell you the truth about the bill. They didn't read it before they said all that nonsense, so ask him them.
Speaker 5 (22:40):
Mr. Speaker, the President went after one of your own colleagues yesterday, Thomas Massey does plan to vote against this. He says he should be primary. Do you agree with the President? Should Thomas Massey be primary for his vote against this?
Mike Johnson (22:55):
Look, I'm in the incumbent protection program here, that's what I do, Speaker of the House. You know me and my style and the way I do this job. I bless those who persecute me, so Thomas and I have had disagreements, but I consider Thomas Massey a friend. He's a thoughtful guy. I guess I'll tell you he's doing what he thinks is right on this, I just vehemently disagree with his position, but I'll leave it at that.
Speaker 6 (23:21):
Mr. Speaker, you in the past did not vote for CRs when you were a rank and file member. You have said in the past that you were done with short-term CRs. By my count, my math might be a little off, this will be the fifth continuing resolution that you're presiding over as Speaker of the House.
Mike Johnson (23:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (23:36):
What do you say to your conservative colleagues who have heard you in the past promise that you were going to start to go through a regular appropriations process, but yet again find themselves in a position where they have to take a difficult vote on a CR?
Mike Johnson (23:48):
Yeah, it's a great question. Now rewind and replay the Chairman of the House Freedom Caucus here, Dr. Andy Harris, who said it so well. This is a different CR than anything we've seen in our careers in Congress. I've been here eight years, he been here a bit longer.
Speaker Mike Johnson (24:00):
It normally is something that's a patchwork to give us more time to try to get to the appropriation process. This is totally different, a year-long CR, which is the first that I think we've had. I don't know that there is a precedent for an actual year-long CR. It solves the problem, because it freezes federal spending, it takes care of these immediate priorities that have been articulated here. And it allows us to move forward with changing the size and scope of the federal government. There is a seismic shift going on in Washington right now. This is a different moment than we have ever been in. The DOGE work is finding massive amounts of fraud, waste and abuse. We have a White House that is actually dedicated to getting us back onto a fiscally responsible track. We're going to scale down the size of the bureaucracy of the agencies, which has become the fourth branch of government. None of that was present or true before.
(24:53)
When I became speaker, I inherited a real mess. We had Joe Biden in the White House, we had a divided government and it was a very difficult thing for us to navigate through. I didn't get to do anything I wanted or thought was really important for the country. I did what we had to do, what was necessary, what we did get 218 votes for. This is a totally different scenario. By doing the CR this time, it actually is the responsible play and the conservative play, because we are conserving the resources of the American people. And this is something that all of us have wanted to do our whole careers, and we now have the opportunity.
Speaker 7 (25:24):
So will this be your last CR, sir? Will you support a CR in the future?
Speaker Mike Johnson (25:27):
Yeah. This is what I expect is that this White House is going to actually do its job. What a concept. This White House is going to send us a budget. This hasn't been done in a while. This White House is going to send us a budget that's going to request funding for a smaller, leaner, more efficient, effective, accountable federal government. That is a new paradigm for us. We're excited about that. That's what we'll be working on as soon as we get FY25 off the table, from FY25 we turn to FY26, and that's when we have all the cuts and the savings that will be actualized at that point. There's a process, as I explained, in that we have to qualify those savings, you've got to quantify them and then you quantify it. Well, the quantification process comes from FY26. You're going to see the administration and Congress working in tandem to provide and present a better government for the people. And that is something many of us ran for Congress to do. That day is now upon us that we're talking about.
Speaker 8 (26:21):
Mr. Speaker.
Speaker 9 (26:22):
Mr. Speaker the stock market plunged yesterday. It's going down again today. Part of the reason is because of President Trump's policies on tariffs, including the ones that were just introduced this morning. Can you comment here? Does Trump need to rethink what he's doing given the chaos that we're seeing in the stock market?
Speaker Mike Johnson (26:40):
This is how I feel about it, many of us feel about it. The president has already proven what he can do on the economy. This is not theoretical. Look at the first term of the Trump administration prior to COVID. We've talked about this many times in here. At the first two years of the Trump administration, we had the greatest economy in the history of the world, not just the U.S. go check. Every demographic was doing better. All votes were rising. We had a thriving U.S. economy. We were booming. And that's because of the policies and the strategy that President Trump led. And we cut taxes, we cut regulations. We let people keep more money in their pockets. And we made America the first priority. That is what he's doing again.
(27:20)
Now he's got to reshape and shape things, because it's in a real mess. The last four years was a disaster in economic policy and every other measurement of public policy. So what President Trump is doing, I think of it like when you're playing billiards, you're playing pool. You go on the table and the balls are wrecked, right? And you hit it as hard as you can. This is many people's strategy in the game. You hit it as hard as you can to break up the balls on the table and send them to spread. Then you play the strategy of sinking them in the holes.
(27:48)
That's what we're doing right now. It is a shake-up and he said there's going to be a shake-up right now. But this is what's required in my mind, to start the process of repairing and restoring the American economy. I believe that the strategy is going to work. I believe that sometimes when you shake up that, it's a violent thing on the table, in the game metaphor. But it always works out well in the end. And I think you've got to give him time. He's been in office for just over what, 50 days? This is the 51st day of office. Give the president a chance to have these policies pulled out. That's where we were are on.
Speaker 8 (28:20):
Mr. Speaker, sir.
Speaker 10 (28:21):
Mr. Speaker in your estimation, what crime did Mahmoud Khalil commit to warrant his arrest, detention and the potential revocation of the Supreme Court?
Speaker Mike Johnson (28:28):
Let me tell you something. I went to face-down the angry mob at Columbia at the height of that stuff when the pro-Palestinian, pro-Hamas protests were there. I'm telling you, this is my own observation, not something I read in the newspaper, it was dangerous. I met with Jewish students before he went to campus who were hauled away off campus, because they were instructed by the administration not to come to class, which they paid for, for fear of their physical safety. The administrators there refused to take control of that campus. They refused to allow the police department to come in and take control, and it turned into a chaos. The president has since been removed.
(29:03)
And now they've got the same problem again, Columbia and other universities. They have to keep control of there. The first responsibility of an administration is ensuring the safety of the students who are paying tuition to be there. For crying out loud, this madness has to stop. We have to get control of it. This guy apparently was a mastermind of those very things. With the gnashing of teeth and the ripping and clothes and the people screaming at me wanting to rip me limb from limb, because I was there talking about moral clarity and how there's a right or wrong, they were doing that. They disrupted the campus. They were threatening physical violence of the fellow students.
(29:37)
If you're on a student visa, I'm going to say this clearly, if you were on a student visa and you're in America, and you're an aspiring young terrorist who wants to prey upon your Jewish classmates, you're going home. We're going to arrest your tail and we're going to send you home where you belong. And this is just getting started. So look, I appreciate free speech, I used to defend it in court, but this is far beyond the paywall of that. When you are threatening your classmates and spewing anti-Semitism and all this hatred, it's enough. And I think the American people understand that, they're supporting it. And I'm glad we have a president who's strong enough to lay down the law. Thanks a lot.
Speaker 11 (30:13):
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Speaker Mike Johnson (30:21):
You too.