House Passes Arrington Budget Resolution to Support our Troops and Secure our Elections

Washington, D.C. - Today, the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.Con.Res.113, advancing the reconciliation process to support our troops, secure our elections, and strengthen our food supply. House Budget Chairman Jodey Arrington (TX-19) issued the following statement:

"I am humbled by the steadfast unity and unwavering determination from House Republicans to break the Democrat obstruction so we can provide emergency support for our troops, safeguard the integrity of our elections, and continue delivering on the priorities of the American people," said Chairman Arrington. "I urge the Senate to seize this fateful moment to SAVE and Protect America."

Prior to the vote, Arrington led Republicans in debate on the House floor in support of the budget resolution.

Opening Remarks as Delivered:

Mr. Speaker, the American people suffered for four years of lawlessness, incompetence, and habitual failure under Joe Biden and Democrat leadership. One self-inflicted disaster after another: border chaos, rampant crime, feckless foreign policy, and spending-induced inflation we haven't seen in half a century-a crushing cost-of-living crisis and the worst regressive tax on working families in this country.

In the historic election of 2024, our citizens gave us unified Republican leadership and an unambiguous, unequivocal message. They said, "We want strong, competent leaders, common-sense policies, and a commitment to America and Americans first."

For our part, Mr. Speaker, from day one, Republicans have united and relentlessly delivered by reversing those failed Democrat policies, delivering on the American people's priorities, and restoring America's greatness and the American spirit along with it.

And we've been doing this, Mr. Speaker, in the face of unprecedented Democrat obstruction. They either didn't listen to the American people in the election of 2024, or worse, they didn't care. Instead of humble self-reflection and change, the Democrat Party has doubled down on their radical agenda and hastened their march to Democrat socialism.

Their entire strategy has been to resist Republicans and obstruct the President at all fronts, at all costs, even if it hurts our great nation, its success, and the safety and security of the American people.

Exhibit A: The Democrats shut the government down for the first time in history when we presented a clean CR to continue funding at last year's levels until we could work out an appropriations deal. They rejected it, and their demand was to repeal the safeguards we put in place to prevent illegals and ineligible people from draining the safety net that is there for vulnerable Americans.

Then they shut Homeland Security down, and they held not only TSA agents and Coast Guardsmen hostage-they held the American people and our security hostage for absurd and dangerous demands that would have returned our country to the Biden border nightmare while endangering our hardworking and brave Border Patrol and ICE agents.

The Democrats have engaged in this unprecedented obstruction time and time again. Recently, they blocked the National Defense Authorization Act to protest President Trump and our troops' efforts to stop this radical terrorist regime from obtaining nuclear weapons. They blocked FISA, which is a critical tool for our intelligence agencies to thwart terrorist attacks and Chinese espionage and hacking into our critical infrastructure.

Mr. Speaker, I could go on and on. Let me tell you what we've done as Republicans, relentlessly, every day, with a commitment to the people who sent us up here.

In Reconciliation 1.0, we prevented the largest tax hike in our nation's history-22%-which would have been on top of the 21% increase in prices Americans experienced from Biden inflation. We gave permanent tax relief to working families and small businesses.

We made the largest investment in rebuilding our military, restoring peace through strength for the USA, and saved a record $1.6 trillion by rooting out waste, fraud, and abuse that was robbing taxpayers and weakening the safety net for our most vulnerable.

With Reconciliation 2.0, unfortunately, we had to use reconciliation again, unilaterally, as Republicans, to stop the defunding of ICE and CBP.

That's right. We didn't get a single Democrat vote to fund ICE and CBP, and the only way we turned Homeland Security back on was by rejecting their effort to cut ICE and CBP out of the equation. And that's what we did with the second reconciliation.

Here we are with Reconciliation 3.0, supporting our troops in their time of need. Just baseline battlefield readiness, Mr. Speaker: bullets and bombs to finish the job and come home safely and victoriously, strengthen our food supply, and ultimately safeguard the integrity of our elections.

We want to restore the American people's confidence because, as the Founders said in the Declaration of Independence, there is no just government without the consent of the governed. There is no legitimate consent, and there is no functioning democracy if the American people have no confidence in this election.

And by the way, it's not just the President. It's not just MAGA Republicans. Nancy Pelosi said this in 2017: "Our election was hijacked. There is no question. Congress has a duty to protect our democracy."

Well, you know what, Mr. Speaker? I agree with Nancy Pelosi. We have a duty. We have a duty to safeguard our elections.

We have a duty to restore confidence in what underpins the will of the people, their freedoms, our common defense, and the general welfare of every American in this country.

So I encourage not just Republicans, but my Democrat colleagues: join us in supporting our troops, safeguarding our elections, and saving America.

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