The Leader’s Floor Lookout: Wednesday, September 18, 2024
Time and time again, shocking headlines flash across our screens and in the papers about illegal immigrants committing atrocious crimes against American citizens. In particular, many of these headlines reference rape and sexual assault against women and girls at the hands of these criminal illegal immigrants – illegal immigrants who should never have been allowed into this country in the first place.
In Houston, 12-year-old Jocelyn Nungaray was tied up, assaulted, strangled to death, and left under a bridge by two illegal immigrants from Venezuela. In Martha’s Vineyard, an illegal immigrant from Brazil was recently charged with five counts of rape of a child – after he was already found guilty of strangulation, assault and battery on a family or household member and threat to commit a crime last year. In Florida, a Guatemalan illegal immigrant sexually assaulted an 11-year-old girl in his van. And in South Louisiana, an illegal was arrested for raping a 14-year-old girl at knifepoint and brutally stabbing a man multiple times. These are just a few of the stories of the victims of the Biden-Harris border crisis.
The Biden-Harris Administration has consistently failed to enforce the United States’ border laws and remove illegal aliens from our country, even if they have committed crimes, and even made it harder to arrest and deport those immigrants who commit crimes in our communities. In fiscal year 2023, 41 percent fewer criminal illegal immigrants were deported than in fiscal year 2020, and around 60 percent fewer were removed than in fiscal year 2019.
Under President Biden and “Border Czar” Vice President Harris, over 8.2 million illegal immigrants have come across our southern border, including more than 378 people on the terrorist watchlist. Meanwhile, there are over 617,607 illegal immigrants on the ICE non-detained docket who have been convicted of a crime or have pending criminal charges, meaning criminal aliens are roaming freely in our communities.
Communities across America are suffering the tragic consequences of President Biden and Vice President Harris’ open border policies daily. We must take a stand against these life-destroying policies that continue to allow criminal illegal immigrants to enter and remain in our country.
H.R. 7909, the Violence Against Women by Illegal Aliens Act, introduced by Rep. Nancy Mace, amends the Immigration and Nationality Act to make illegal immigrants who are convicted of, who admit having committed, or who admit committing sex offenses or domestic violence inadmissible and deportable from the United States.
While President Biden and “Border Czar” Vice President Harris refuse to stand up for the safety of Americans over illegal immigrant criminals, House Republicans won’t stop fighting to protect our communities and secure the border.
Defending American Retirement Funds from Risky ESG Factors
On November 22, 2022, the Biden-Harris Administration's Department of Labor released a final rule to expand and facilitate the practice of retirement plans using workers’ invested funds to pursue environmental and social causes. The rule gives retirement plan managers the green light to factor ESG into investment decisions for the retirement funds of more than 152 million Americans. It even allows plan managers to automatically enroll retirement savers into ESG investments.
Under President Trump, retirees were protected from their funds being abused in this way by a rule that made clear retirement fund managers could not engage in ESG investment if it would hurt or risk a retiree’s savings; however, the Biden-Harris Administration chose to undermine that rule and put their political agenda before American retirees.
At a time when Americans are seeing their retirement nest egg fail to keep up with soaring inflation, the last thing that the Biden-Harris Administration should do is encourage financial managers to make decisions that put left-wing environmental and social issues ahead of retirees’ financial security, especially since ESG funds are high-risk and well known underperformers.
Americans invest and depend on their retirements for their future and their family’s future – not so radical Democrats can push their political Green New Deal ideology on the American people. Let’s be clear: Retirement plans should be solely focused on delivering maximum returns for the men and women who rely on them, not advancing a political agenda.
House Republicans are bringing legislation to protect Americans’ retirement funds from being jeopardized by politically motivated ESG considerations. This legislation includes Rep. Allen’s Roll back ESG To Increase Retirement Earnings (RETIRE) Act, Rep. Houchin’s Retirement Proxy Protection Act, Rep. Good’s No Discrimination in My Benefits Act, and Rep. Banks’ Providing Complete Information to Retirement Investors Act.
H.R. 5339, the Protecting Americans’ Investments from Woke Policies Act, introduced by Rep. Rick Allen, forces financial institutions to focus on maximizing returns in retirement plans instead of woke ESG factors by ensuring financial institutions base investment decisions solely on economic factors and complete information is provided to retirement investors.
House Republicans will continue to stand up against Democrats’ woke ESG agenda for the millions of Americans who depend on their 401(k)s for their retirement.
Supporting Israel’s Economy and Standing Against BDS Movement
Israel is a longtime ally and friend to the United States, and we continue to stand with the nation and its people as they defend their right to exist and fight to free the remaining hostages taken in the atrocious October 7th attacks perpetrated by Hamas.
Disturbingly, some radical pro-Palestine activists and members of the disgusting and antisemitic BDS movement continue to look for ways to target our great friend Israel and work to cripple its economy, such as by promoting boycotts, divestments, and economic sanctions against Israel.
U.S. law requires imported goods to be labeled with their country of origin. In 1997, the Palestinian Authority asked if goods from Gaza could be labeled “West Bank/Gaza” or “West Bank/Gaza Strip,” which the U.S. ultimately agreed to. In 2020, however, under the Trump Administration, the State Department revised the labeling to distinguish between goods coming from areas of the West Bank controlled by our ally, Israel, and goods coming from Gaza or other areas of the West Bank.
Under this guidance, goods from Israel and areas of the West Bank controlled by Israel are marked “Israel,” “Product of Israel,” or “Made in Israel.” Meanwhile, other goods must be marked “Product of West Bank,” “Product of Gaza,” or similar labels – not “West Bank/Gaza.” This gives Americans the power to support the economy of our ally and know where their goods are coming from.
Recently, however, it has been reported that the Biden-Harris Administration is considering reversing the 2020 guidance, once again caving to the radical Left instead of standing with our allies against evil.
H.R. 5179, the Anti-BDS Labeling Act, sponsored by Rep. Claudia Tenney, would codify the Trump Administration’s "Country of Origin Marking of Products from the West Bank and Gaza" guidance requiring imported products from Israel and Israeli-controlled parts of the West Bank to be labeled “Israel,” and imported products from Gaza or Palestinian-controlled areas to be labeled as “Gaza” or “West Bank,” and would prevent federal funds from being used to reverse or alter this guidance.
House Republicans will always support Israel, and we won’t stop standing against radical pro-Hamas activists and antisemitic movements.
Keeping the Government Open and Defending American Election Integrity
Since assuming the majority, House Republicans have been fighting to rein in out-of-control Washington spending and responsibly fund the federal government. House Republicans passed funding bill after funding bill to address our energy crisis, strengthen our national security, protect Americans’ rights, and more, while cutting unnecessary radical leftist agenda items from the paycheck.
Meanwhile, the Democrat-led Senate continues to refuse to take any action to ensure the government remains open and working for the people, having yet to pass even a single FY25 appropriations bill.
In order to ensure the government stays open and accessible to Americans while we fight to save our economy from more reckless spending, House Republicans are bringing forward a resolution to extend government funding at the FY24 level.
At the same time, our plan would defend American election integrity by including the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act. The SAVE Act requires proof of citizenship when registering to vote and allows states to remove noncitizens from voter rolls, keeping foreign interference out of our elections, maintaining election integrity, and increasing American citizens’ trust in our federal elections.
With the over 8.2 million illegal immigrants that have come across our southern border thanks to President Biden and Vice President Harris’ open border policies, including more than 378 people on the terrorist watchlist, it is vital we shore up our election security and ensure that only American citizens are voting in American elections, while we also avert a government shutdown.
H.R. 9494, the Continuing Appropriations and Other Matters Act, 2025, introduced by Rep. Clay Higgins, provides for continuing appropriations through March of 2025 while also ensuring American election integrity by amending the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 to require individuals to provide proof of United States citizenship in order to register to vote in federal elections.
House Republicans will never stop working to ensure that our government stays open and serving the American people, hard-earned taxpayer dollars are spent responsibly on issues affecting Americans’ daily lives, and the integrity of one of American citizens’ most fundamental rights, the right to vote, is upheld.
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