Press Releases

WASHINGTON, April 22, 2021 — United States Representative Mike Johnson (LA-04) led a series of Republican speeches yesterday evening on the House floor on Biden’s Border Crisis and the partisan Democrat “infrastructure” proposal.

“When President Biden was inaugurated, the American people will remember, he called for unity,” Johnson said. “He promised to work across the aisle, to work with Republicans in Congress. But so far, those words have been completely empty promises.”

Below is the video and a transcript of Johnson’s remarks:

“During our time tonight, my colleagues and I will address the inaction by the Biden Administration and House Democrats to address this major crisis that we see on our southern border. This humanitarian crisis. And yes, that's the right word. It's a crisis by any objective measure. We're also going to address tonight, the President's so-called ‘infrastructure’ plan. That's a lot for us to talk about. And so, we'll squeeze it into this hour.

“When President Biden was inaugurated, the American people will remember, he called for unity. He promised to work across the aisle, to work with Republicans in Congress. But so far, those words have been completely empty promises.

“As we say, everyone can acknowledge it, everyone can see on television, there is a real crisis at the southern border, and it's a crisis of the Biden Administration's creation. President Biden has stopped construction of the border wall; he re-implemented the ‘Catch and Release’ policy of the Obama Administration; he reversed the ‘Remain in Mexico’ policy of the Trump Administration; and he is selectively enforcing immigration laws.

“The results are not surprising. Our Border Patrol is now completely overwhelmed. And southwest border encounters have reached a 15-year high. I want you to look at these numbers. In January of this year, we had 78,323 southwest border encounters; the next month in February it goes up to 100,441; last month in March it was 171,700. This is a crisis. We all know the numbers for April are going to be staggering. I know that there are Members on both sides of the aisle here. I know there are Democratic colleagues that want to join us to take action to fix this. But we can't do it without the Administration.

“Look, here's five simple steps that we can take that would help end the border crisis: finish the wall; reinstate the ‘Remain in Mexico’ policy; turn away high-risk individuals at our border; require negative COVID tests before releasing migrants into the U.S. and five; let's send a clear message to the whole world to discourage illegal immigration. What a concept. These aren't difficult things. The Trump Administration had it figured out. But now politics have gotten in the way of good policy.

“In addition to finally solving the border crisis, there's another item in the news that Americans desperately want us to address. And that is the need for an infrastructure package. Hey, that could be a bipartisan solution that we could all work on together. It should be non-partisan, because it impacts every single congressional district in every state. All of us, every American, wants this to happen.

“But the plan that the White House introduced isn't really about infrastructure at all. In fact, only 6% of the $2.5 trillion proposal would go towards bridges, highways, and roads. The rest goes to fund Democrat, big government priorities like the Green New Deal, and payoffs to liberal special interest groups. What an outrage.

“The facts are that the House majority is the slimmest of any House majority since World War II, and the Senate is divided 50-50. Given these facts, we just want our Democratic colleagues and President Biden to end this partisan agenda for the sake of the American people.”

Representatives Debbie Lesko (AZ-08), Glenn Grothman (WI-06), Pat Fallon (TX-04), Troy Nehls (TX-22), Van Taylor (TX-03), Buddy Carter (GA-01), Mike Garcia (CA-25), Virginia Foxx (NC-05), Bob Latta (OH-05), G.T. Thompson (PA-15), Madison Cawthorn (NC-11), Jerry Carl (AL-01), Fred Keller (PA-12), Tim Burchett (TN-02), Dan Meuser (PA-09), John Rose (TN-06), Jack Bergman (MI-01), Jay Obernolte (CA-08), Jim Baird (IN-04), and Carlos Gimenez (FL-26) also delivered remarks on the House floor last evening regarding Biden’s Border Crisis and the partisan Democrat “infrastructure” proposal.

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