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THREE IMPORTANT ISSUES
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of January 4, 2021, the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Grothman) is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.
Mr. GROTHMAN. Madam Speaker, we are back from our August break, and there are three issues of tremendous importance that Congress ought to deal with and the press corps ought to be dealing with.
I can understand, by the way, why President Biden wants to change his view over a few months ago and go for mandates on the vaccine, because these other issues are issues that I am sure would be uncomfortable for him to address, but they are important for the press corps and important for the American people to address.
The first issue is: the Del Rio sector of the Mexican border is out of control. We all see the 15,000 people under the bridge, but what is the consequence of that?
What is the consequence of having 2 months in a row of over 200,000 people show up at the border? The Border Patrol has to get off the border, they have to shuffle people around from the Del Rio section to the El Paso section or to the Laredo section. They have to take care of all of the unaccompanied minors coming in here, and when they do that, they cannot guard the border. Things are out of control.
Not only are the agents in that area not able to focus on the area, but things are such a disaster, we are having to bring agents off the northern border to make up for the huge problems on the southern border.
What happens? We wind up in a situation which not only are there more got-aways, people aren't even being processed crossing the border, but we also have a situation in which more drugs are coming off the border. The American public still hasn't been told enough that in the last year we have had over 90,000 people die of drug overdoses, largely from fentanyl coming across the Mexican border, and that is what happens when you have 224 miles barely monitored.
The Haitians are being brought here or encouraged to come here by the drug gangs. Why are they able to do this? It didn't happen by coincidence that you saw all these people under the bridge last week and they weren't over there a month ago.
The Biden administration has extended the Temporary Protected Status for people coming here from Haiti. When they changed this process, it was a recruiting tool for the gangs who want more people to come here.
I am going to emphasize, Haiti is not a very nice country, but these people are not coming from Haiti. They are coming here from Chile, they are coming here from Brazil, they are coming from Venezuela. Why are they coming from these other countries? It is not because they are in danger in Chile and Brazil. They are coming here because they can make more money here, and the drug cartel gangs are explaining that to them.
These gangs are charging these Haitians at least $50,000 a person to come here, which is the reason why they are so involved in this.
Meanwhile, where is the President? Where is our moderate Joe Biden? Where is Kamala Harris, the expert on the border, as we have this disaster going on at the southern border, out of control, people going from the United States to Mexico, back Mexico to the United States?
Wake up, press corps, and find out how much money the gangs are making on this. Why are we processing over 200,000 people at the southern border for 2 months in a row? Things we haven't seen for over 20 years.
No wonder some of the press corps, the irresponsible press corps--and no wonder Joe Biden wants to focus on vaccine mandates. Because focusing on vaccine mandates takes our eyes off the border that is out of control.
It is up to Congress to step forward, have some more committee hearings on this, do something, bring some bills to the floor. I know there is going to be a CR coming through, there is going to be a bill to break the debt ceiling coming through.
I would ask the President, the Speaker, give us some more Border Patrol agents to deal with our empty border. That is the first thing all Americans should be concerned about. They should be asking their Congressmen, they should be asking their Senators, what is being done to prevent 200,000 people from showing up at the border? What is being done when over 200 miles of the Mexican border is left, to a degree, unguarded? Are they at all concerned about the 90,000 people who died in the last year of illegal drug use, primarily fentanyl flowing across the southern border? What is being done about all the people coming from the other countries?
Remember, you did not see all these people under the bridge 2 or 3 months ago. Why? Again, it is not just a random thing. It is because of a change in the Temporary Protected Status extended by President Biden, which results in the huge mess that we have.
But that is not the only thing that hasn't been covered anywhere near enough. There is an issue that the press should be focusing on more with regard to the COVID situation. I know a lot of the focus is on the vaccine, but we have to realize that many people have gotten the vaccine over the last 6 months.
We also have a situation in which people have been working on cures for the disease. Right now, most days over 1,000--kind of averaging about 1,500--people die every day from COVID. So is there any cure for COVID that the CDC is letting sit on the table?
Over a year ago scientists in Israel announced hope for a generic drug called fenofibrate, or Tricor, which has been used safely to treat people for high cholesterol for years. Recently, these Israeli scientists have revealed that they took 15 people, all of which had severe COVID, all of which needed oxygen, and in 4 days, 4 to 6 days, 14 of the 15 were out of the hospital after they were given fenofibrate, which cost a grand total of $1.50 a day. The other patient got out of the hospital within 2 weeks.
You would think this is good news for the CDC, particularly given the billions of dollars that we have given them. Unfortunately, they are not getting enough assistance to do further trials in this country. Think if this 15-patient outfit were typical of the population as a whole. 15 for 15 cured. And not only cured. A lot of people today with COVID, even when they are cured, have permanent or almost permanent side effects. But here the side effects are a fraction of what they were on people who didn't take fenofibrate.
So I beg the CDC or anybody in the administration who is listening, we brought this to their attention before, see what you can do to have the vast sum of money and the U.S. Government weigh in to see if we can have stronger trials with more people on the fenofibrate, and we can get ourselves in a position in which soon if someone does wind up going to the hospital, if someone does wind up needing oxygen, they are given the fenofibrate, and they can wind up like the 15 patients they have already tried this on, all of which are apparently doing very well and are even getting rid of the symptoms that people who have had COVID sometimes hang onto for months and months and months.
If we have anybody out there listening from the CDC, listening from the NIH, I would ask them to familiarize themselves with the study. It is fenofibrate. It has been well covered in The Jerusalem Post.
Why, in a time when we have 1,200 to 1,500 Americans dying every day of COVID, is this not something that is being pushed? I strongly encourage our health establishment to familiarize themselves with what right now looks like a miracle drug.
My final comment is with regard to the pro-life issue. When you consider the hundreds of thousands of people who would have been born every day in this country but who have their lives cut short before they are born, you can see why this is another issue that our press corps should be talking about, our churches should be talking about.
Already there have been big changes of policy under the new administration. First of all, in the past, under the Mexico City policy, if money was going to an international organization, if that international organization was performing abortions, they could not have the money. We changed that, President Biden changed it, saying: You can't use that money directly for an abortion, but since money is fungible, your organization can take the good name of the United States and use it to proselytize, use it after switching money around to have the U.S. assist in performing abortions around the world.
The second thing they did is under Title X, money going out, again to nonprofit organizations, in the past if these organizations referred for abortion, they couldn't get the money. Change that policy, so the type of organizations who work towards legalizing or work towards normalizing abortion got more money.
They wouldn't get the money in the past because it was too much a part of their mission to perform abortions. But one more time, they are going to be getting money.
But now we have a new bill coming up, and I think all Americans have to stop and think what is happening when it has come to this in America.
This bill will legalize abortion nationwide almost or perhaps all the way to birth. Now, throughout most of our country's history, abortion was illegal. It is kind of amazing, abortion was illegal before they had ultrasounds, before people could see actually what was going on.
I had felt when I began to get involved in public life that when ultrasounds become available, the number of abortions would drop. But despite the ultrasounds, things continue on ahead, in part because powerful organizations continue to hold abortion as a way out of a pregnancy.
But it is truly shocking that I believe a majority of people in this Chamber are going to vote to say that we have abortions right up to birth and get rid of even minor laws that are postponing the abortions otherwise.
{time} 2015
When I was in the State of Wisconsin, I authored a bill putting in a 24-hour waiting period for abortion. I talked to the women who were bullied by their boyfriends or cajoled by their parents into having abortions, and they felt it was very important that there be some sort of waiting period after you went to the office of the abortionist one time that you got a chance to stop, step back, and think.
I think there are a lot of other places in our society where doctors or other people put a waiting period out there knowing that it is a very important decision, and you are never going to be able to change your mind once you make that decision. But under the extreme bill that we are going to be voting on later this week, they are going to say, no, we can't have that. Once they get you in that clinic on day one they can perform that abortion right away, and we are not going to give you 24 hours or 40 hours or whatever it is around the country to stop and maybe change your mind.
That is the type of thing that is going to be passed in the U.S. House of Representatives.
It doesn't take many people to change their mind and say, you know, I may consider myself so-called pro-choice, but the idea of saying that it is legal to perform an abortion a few hours after you walk in the abortion clinic, I just can't go that far. And I hope some of my colleagues who think they are going to vote for the bill later this week change their mind.
I hope they change their mind on things like sex selective abortion. We know in other cultures, and I happen to think we have a better culture by a mile, but in other cultures it is apparently not unusual to do, see whether they are going to have a boy or girl and if it is not what you want, we are going to end the life of that child before it is born.
Some States have made that illegal. Well, some people in Congress apparently feel they know better. We are going get rid of that law, and we are going to cut that life short just because maybe let's say it is a girl, and we were hoping for a boy.
I can see why certain members of the press wouldn't want to talk about this, and I can see why certain members of the administration wouldn't talk about this. I don't know what I would do, how I would explain such a radical bill.
So, in any event, I will leave the public with those three things to think about. Think about over 200,000 people a month at the border. Think about the Border Patrol stuck processing people, not able to monitor the border. Think of all the drugs coming across. Think of the 5,000 and up that the people coming across are having to give these drug gangs in Mexico further strengthening their power.
I ask you to think about like they have covered in the Jerusalem Post what is going on with the fenofibrate and the fact you can think how many lives we would save of the approximately 1,500 people a day that are still dying of COVID. And I want you to think about that bill being passed on Friday and whether it is right for the heavy hand of Congress to say not only can you have an abortion up to birth, but we are even going to get rid of laws like a waiting period law or get rid of laws like a sex selective law.
Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Members are reminded to address their remarks to the Chair and not to a perceived viewing audience.
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SOURCE: Congressional Record Vol. 167, No. 162
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