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The Leader’s Floor Lookout: Week of March 4, 2024

Washington, March 3, 2024
Here’s what to watch for on the House Floor this week:

Protecting Our Communities from Biden’s Border Crisis

On Thursday, February 22, Laken Riley, a Georgia college nursing student with a promising future and loving family, was brutally murdered by a Venezuelan illegal immigrant while she was on a jog. 

The suspect, Jose Ibarra, had been paroled and released into the United States after crossing the border illegally in August 2022 – one example of how the Biden Administration is abusing “humanitarian parole” to allow the mass release of illegals into our country with tragic consequences. Then, a year later, Ibarra was arrested in New York for “acting in a manner to injure a child less than 17.” Again, he was released. And in October 2023, Ibarra and his brother were arrested for shoplifting – only to be released yet again on citation.




Unfortunately, this isn’t an isolated incident. In just the past few days, we’ve seen several new stories come out about the victims of Biden’s open border. In South Louisiana, an illegal immigrant was arrested for raping a 14-year-old girl at knifepoint and brutally stabbing a man multiple times. Additionally, in Maryland, a Salvadoran illegal immigrant was just arrested in connection to the murder of a 2-year-old. He’d been released from custody after multiple arrests in 2023 when local jurisdiction decided to ignore the ICE detainer. 

These are just a few tragic examples of how communities across the country are suffering because Biden refuses to close the border. Between Feb. 5 and Feb. 16, Enforcement and Removal Operations officers arrested 275 illegal immigrant sex offenders nationwide. This is unacceptable. These criminals should not be allowed to enter our country, and especially should not be released from custody after committing horrific crimes here. 

Under the Biden Administration, 7.2 million illegal immigrants have entered the United States – more than the population of 36 states – and yet the president continues to do nothing to secure the border. As our communities continue to suffer under the weight of Biden’s dangerous open border policies, it is more critical than ever that we stop allowing criminals to flood into our country and put American lives at stake.

H.R. 7511, the Laken Riley Act, sponsored by Rep. Mike Collins, holds the Biden Administration accountable for their role in these tragedies through their open border policies, requires detention of illegal aliens who commit theft and mandates ICE take them into custody, and allows a state to sue the Federal government on behalf of their citizens for not enforcing the border laws, particularly in the case of parole.

House Republicans won’t stop fighting to secure the border and protect American communities. When will Democrats and the White House finally decide enough is enough?
 

Expanding Access to Capital and Strengthening Public Markets

Under Biden’s SEC Chair Gary Gensler, the Commission has put in place costly disclosure mandates and ignored capital formation – something that is vital for sustainable economic growth – discouraging companies from going public and burdening small businesses. 

As President Biden’s regulators continue imposing burdensome regulations and increasing costs for small businesses and public companies, House Republicans are fighting back with legislation that makes it easier for companies to go and stay public and allows small businesses to succeed.

Our legislation reduces regulatory hurdles and expands opportunities for small businesses to raise capital, building on reforms in the bipartisan JOBS Act of 2012, improving the flow of capital to small businesses and ensuring they have access to resources they need. 

For example, our bill reduces regulations by creating an exemption to specific securities regulations for small offerings of securities and raises the limit of total annual gross revenues under which issuers can qualify as emerging growth companies to $1.5 billion. Additionally, the bill raises the caps on the allowed capital and number of investors under which a fund can qualify as a venture capital fund, providing more opportunity for investment.

We must guarantee everyday American citizens have access to wealth creating opportunities and the ability to play a role in strengthening our public markets and growing our economy. 

H.R. 2799, the Expanding Access to Capital Act of 2023, introduced by Rep. Patrick McHenry, cuts burdensome red tape by reducing securities regulations, increases access to capital, creates more investment opportunities, helps small businesses, and strengthens our public markets. 

House Republicans will continue slashing through crushing regulations and lifting up small businesses and entrepreneurs to grow our economy and strengthen our markets. 
 
 
Responsibly Funding the Government 

Since assuming the majority in 2023, House Republicans have been fighting to rein in out-of-control Washington spending and responsibly fund the federal government. While the Senate did not take up a single appropriations bill individually, House Republicans passed over 70 percent of government funding to address our energy crisis, strengthen our national security, protect Americans’ rights, and more, while cutting unnecessary radical leftist agenda items from the paycheck. After fighting hard against President Biden and Senate Democrats, House Republicans secured a topline spending agreement that cuts non-defense, non-veterans spending for the first time in nearly a decade

This week, we’re bringing six of the appropriations bills to the floor in a package to ensure that vital programs are funded and remain available to hardworking Americans while prioritizing responsible spending and issues affecting our country every day: Agriculture; Military Construction and Veterans Affairs; Energy and Water Development; Transportation, Housing and Urban Development; Interior and Environment; and Commerce, Justice and Science.

The Agriculture bill rejects President Biden's effort to hire thousands more DC-based bureaucrats and instead encourages hiring at local offices that understand farmers' needs. It fights China by including the Agriculture secretary on CFIUS for agriculture-related issues and requiring the Secretary to report foreign purchases of farmland to CFIUS when there could be a national security impact. It directs funding towards established programs that directly help farmers and other Americans and rejects funding for new programs proposed by President Biden. 

The Commerce, Justice, and Science bill uses the power of the purse to rein in abusive agencies. It responds to FBI overreach by cutting their operations budget by $654 million (6%) and their construction budget by $622 million (95%). It reduces the ATF’s budget by $122 million (7%). Meanwhile, the bill provides critical resources for state and local law enforcement through grant programs and increases funding for DEA to combat fentanyl. It also includes conservative policy riders blocking DOJ from targeting parents who exercise their first amendment rights at school board meetings or churches exercising their freedom of religious belief.

The Energy and Water bill funds infrastructure projects across the country through the Army Corps of Engineers, boosts the development of technologies for critical mineral extraction and processing, and modernizes our nuclear weapons complex to ensure we can deter threats from China and other adversaries. It also blocks the Department of Energy from selling oil to China from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, giving money to China or other entities of concern, and limits access for Chinese and Russians to sensitive nuclear weapons facilities. 

The Interior bill shrinks the regulatory state and prevents anti-energy policies. It cuts the EPA’s budget by $977 million (nearly 10%) and reduces the Fish and Wildlife Service budget by $51 million while limiting new hiring and pay raises. It maintains legacy policy riders and rejects Democrat proposals to increase inspection fees on offshore oil and gas production and create new fees for onshore production.

The Military Construction and Veterans Affairs bill preserves veterans’ second amendment rights by blocking the VA from sending their names to NICS without due process, and funds military infrastructure including new facilities in the Indo-Pacific to enhance our posture against China and family housing for our servicemembers and their loved ones. 

The Transportation, Housing, and Urban Development bill cuts funding for Department of Transportation (DOT) and Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) grant programs overfunded by Democrats last Congress, targets increases for transportation safety including air travel, prevents the DOT from imposing COVID-19 mask mandates, and reinforces the ban on illegal immigrants receiving housing subsidies. 

H.Res. __, the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2024, introduced by Rep. Kay Granger, responsibly funds the government by cutting wasteful non-defense programs while ensuring our national security remains strong with strategic increases in defense spending, and makes the first overall cut to non-defense, non-VA spending in about a decade –  building on House Republicans promise to rein in out-of-control government spending.

House Republicans will never stop working to ensure that our government stays open and serving the American people while also spending hard-earned taxpayer dollars responsibly and on issues affecting Americans’ daily lives.