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The Leader’s Floor Lookout: Week of December 11, 2023

Washington, December 10, 2023
Here’s what to watch for on the House Floor this week:

Providing Responsibly for Our National Defense

As the United States faces unprecedented threats from adversaries like China and Russia, it is vital Congress performs one of its most important constitutional duties: to provide for our national defense and support the men and women who serve in the United States military, while also making sure taxpayer dollars are used responsibly.

The Biden Administration has incorporated radical leftist programs such as diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and critical race theory (CRT) into our military, pushed a military Green New Deal, and promoted drag shows on bases to further their agenda – wasting taxpayer dollars and focusing our military on being woke instead of being effective. 

House Republicans are bringing forward a plan that guts Biden’s wasteful initiatives, bans drag shows and critical race theory in the military, gives our troops a much needed pay raise of 5.2% (the largest in 20 years), supports military families by improving housing and healthcare policies, increases oversight and accountability of defense spending, and provides unprecedented support for the security of Israel.


With the FY24 National Defense Authorization Act, House Republicans are fighting to refocus the military on its core purpose – defending our national security – and ensure our military and their families have everything they need to stay the strongest force in the world. 

H.R. 2670, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2024, introduced by Chairman Mike Rogers, counters the Chinese Communist Party’s aggression, boosts oversight of the Biden Administration’s Department of Defense, supports members of our military and their families, and saves taxpayers billions of dollars by cutting wasteful programs while still investing in a secure defense industrial base and innovative technologies to support our national defense.

It’s time for smarter investments in defense that support America’s position as the strongest nation in the world – House Republicans are here to deliver and ensure the brave men and women defending our nation’s freedom have access to the weapons and resources they need to keep our country safe from threats.


Delivering the Answers the American People Deserve

For several months, the House committees on the Judiciary, Ways and Means, and Oversight and Accountability have been working tirelessly to uncover the truth about President Biden’s involvement in his family’s shady business dealings with foreign governments and the Biden Administration’s efforts to impede the criminal investigation into Hunter Biden.

In that short time, the committees have exposed that the Biden family and their business associates have received over $24 million from foreign sources over five years, the president was personally involved – even using aliases – in his family’s dealings with foreign entities including China, and President Biden lied over and over about his involvement in these shady business dealings. 

Additionally, through the testimony of whistleblowers, the committees revealed substantial evidence that the Biden Administration obstructed the Hunter Biden criminal investigation.

But at every turn, the Biden Administration has tried to hinder the House’s lawful investigation into the president’s shady business dealings and influence peddling schemes with his family members, refusing to allow attorneys to testify and fighting deposition subpoenas that would reveal key facts. 

By formalizing the impeachment inquiry, the three investigating committees will gain stronger subpoena enforcement power necessary to uncover all of the facts and ensure the House has the best possible legal standing as we move forward in our mission to deliver answers to the American people. 

H. Res. 918, introduced by Rep. Kelly Armstrong, reaffirms the ongoing impeachment inquiry and establishes a framework for the committees to continue their impeachment inquiry investigations and refer the matter to the Committee on the Judiciary, ensuring the American people receive the full truth through a transparent process.

The American people deserve the truth about President Biden’s involvement in his family’s foreign business dealings and an open and transparent investigative process – House Republicans are here to deliver.
 
 
Expanding Milk Choice in Schools For Healthier Kids

Under current requirements, only fat-free and low-fat milks are allowed in school meals due to concerns surrounding obesity and high cholesterol; however, recent studies have shown school children are not consuming the recommended amount of dairy and whole milk can have essential health benefits.

Full-fat milk has been linked to lower risk for heart disease, type 2 diabetes, high blood sugar, and obesity, and can help with better sleep. 


Despite these health benefits and the many essential nutrients in milk, the Biden Administration wants to continue to limit milk options to only fat-free and low-fat, as well as ban flavored milk until high school.

When schools aren’t allowed to offer a variety of milk options to school children because of burdensome government regulations, many kids will choose sugary caffeinated sodas and beverages with no nutritional value over a milk type they don’t like. 

Kids should be able to drink the milk they enjoy – not just the milk the government tells them they can drink – and receive the nutrients they need.

Rep. Glenn Thompson’s legislation, H.R. 1147, the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act of 2023, modifies requirements for milk provided by the National School Lunch Program of the Department of Agriculture (USDA) to permit schools to offer students whole, reduced-fat, low-fat, and fat-free flavored and unflavored milk.

House Republicans are fighting to expand nutritional milk options for children in schools and cut unnecessary government regulations from kids’ diets. 

 
Limiting Executive Overreach and Providing Accountability in Rulemaking

Too often under the Biden Administration, unelected bureaucrats in federal agencies pass rules that, when enacted, act as laws – allowing federal agencies to essentially force whatever regulations they want on the American people with no oversight or accountability.

This overstepping of the executive branch into the role of Congress as described in Article 1 of the Constitution not only threatens the checks and balances designed by our Founders for the three branches of government, but also burdens American families and businesses with invasive and unnecessary regulations.

We’ve seen it with the Department of Energy and the Consumer Product Safety Commission attempting to pass rules to ban gas stoves, with the Environmental Protection Agency trying to regulate emissions so that Americans are forced to switch to electric vehicles, with the Department of Education trying to force American taxpayers to repay student loan debt that doesn't belong to them, and many other examples.

All of these decisions skyrocket costs for the American people to appease unelected, radical bureaucrats in the Biden Administration and further their agendas. American families are sick and tired of having to pay for the extremist ideas of federal agencies that are trying to tell hardworking Americans how they should live their lives at a higher price. 

As unelected bureaucrats in Washington continue to push costly and burdensome regulatory agendas, House Republicans are bringing forward an important measure to limit executive agency overreach and provide accountability for the American people.

Rep. Ben Cline’s legislation, H.R. 357, the Ensuring Accountability in Agency Rulemaking Act, requires that rules from federal agencies be issued and signed by the head of the agency, who is appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate, to keep federal rulemaking in check and constitutional.

House Republicans won’t stop fighting for the hardworking families across this country who are struggling under the weight of the extremist regulations coming from the Biden Administration.

 
Reforming and Reauthorizing FISA Section 702

In response to widespread Intelligence Community misconduct revealed by the Church Committee and others, Congress passed the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) of 1978 to create a process allowing the government to collect foreign intelligence on US soil with court approval and congressional oversight. 

In 2008, Congress added Section 702 to FISA to enable the targeting of foreigners outside the US who use US-based services – for example, American telephone companies and email providers – to communicate. This helps us eavesdrop on foreign spies, break up WMD proliferation rings, and ensures we don’t re-live the pre-9/11 failures to ‘connect the dots’ between terrorists plotting overseas and threats here at home.
 
FISA Section 702 is vital to our national security amid the rising threats we’re seeing from foreign adversaries like Hamas, China, Russia, and fentanyl-trafficking cartels – however, due to numerous abuses of FISA, the entire program is also in desperate need of reforms before reauthorization. 

In an outrageous abuse of trust, senior FBI agents misled the courts and relied on political opposition research to conduct surveillance on a Trump campaign official. Additionally, the FBI in particular has repeatedly failed to follow their own procedures for when they can appropriately search these sensitive foreign intelligence databases using the names or other personal information of Americans. 

To address these egregious problems while preserving this important national security tool, House Republicans organized a working group consisting of Judiciary and Intelligence Committee Members that identified a number of reforms included in the bills we will consider this week.

H.R. 6570, the Protect Liberty and End Warrantless Surveillance Act, sponsored by Rep. Andy Biggs), reforms the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to ensure Americans are not subjected to unchecked surveillance by the Intelligence Community and increase transparency and oversight.

H.R. 6611, the FISA Reform and Reauthorization Act of 2023, sponsored by Rep. Michael Turner, reauthorizes the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and reforms Section 702 to maintain national security while preventing abuses.

House Republicans are working to ensure that our Intelligence Community has the tools they need to protect our nation from foreign threats while also reigning in abuses of FISA against American citizens.  

For more information on H.R. 6570, click here.
For more information on H.R. 6611, click here.