Press Releases

WASHINGTON — This morning, at the weekly House Republican Leadership press conference, Speaker Johnson discussed the House rules package and Republicans’ early work to deliver on the Trump agenda, urged Congressional Democrats to support the Laken Riley Act on the floor today, and discussed the House’s efforts to sanction the illegitimate International Criminal Court.

“When we brought this bill forward last Congress, shockingly, amazingly to me, 170 House Democrats voted against that legislation,” Speaker Johnson said. “But as Democrats struggle with their identity now as a party post-election, we'll find out if they're still clinging into that open border policy and that mantra, despite the American people roundly rejecting all that in November. We'll see. This will be a telling vote.”

Watch Speaker Johnson’s remarks here

On the early Republican agenda:

On Friday, we passed our rules package, as you all know, and that included 12 policy measures that proved to the people that House Republicans are serious about delivering on our promises. You'll see instant measures right out of the gates here to secure the border, unleash American energy, protect American elections, and return to common sense, which will be a primary theme of the new year for all of us. On Saturday and Sunday, we took all the House Republicans for workshops and lengthy retreats. We spent all day, both of those days, meeting and having important discussions about our policy agenda and what will happen over the next several months.

On the Laken Riley Act:

As promised, we're starting today with border security. If you polled the populace and the voters, they would tell you that that was the top of the list, and we have a lot to do there to fix it. It's an absolute disaster because of what has happened over the last four years, and the Laken Riley Act is a big part of that.

The only thing President Biden did after Laken’s tragic death was apologize for calling her murderer an illegal. That's outrageous, we all know the real victim here was young Laken. There are real consequences to policy decisions. This one was deadly.

On the ICC Sanctions legislation:

This week, the House will vote to impose sanctions on ICC officials and put the ICC prosecutor Karim Khan, back in his place. He does not have jurisdiction over Israel or the United States, and it is outrageous that they're issuing arrest warrants for Prime Minister Netanyahu and Israel's defense minister Gallant. The ICC is actually equating Israel and Hamas, even as Hamas still holds Israelis and American hostage.

The House will not tolerate rogue actors who circumvent international law to attack Israel and threaten America. We won't do it. This bill passed the House on a bipartisan basis last Congress, and after we vote on it again, with Leader Thune in now in leadership in the Senate, and Chuck Schumer out, I expect that will be brought to the Senate floor for a vote.

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