Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Act, 2024
Floor Speech
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Mr. ROY. Mr. Chair, the amendment that I am offering would prohibit the District of Columbia from using Federal funding to require that elementary or secondary school students take the COVID-19 vaccine and all the boosters to attend school.
In 2021, the D.C. City Council voted to create an unscientific mandate that D.C. students be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 including boosters. It was repeatedly delayed, as the parents of more than 40 percent of children over 12 in D.C. decided the COVID-19 vaccine was not worth the risks and declined to get vaccinated.
Today, the mandate would keep 73 percent of all D.C. students between the ages of 12 and 17 out of classrooms.
Now, the issue here, obviously, is twofold. One is whether Congress should have a role in impacting policy choices in the District of Columbia, which the Constitution clearly contemplates.
In fact, the District of Columbia is not a State. It was not designed to be a State. It is not going to be a State because the District of Columbia was set up in our Constitution to be our National Capital, by design, very specifically.
One of the things that we are able to do as a Congress is effect policy in the District of Columbia, whereas we are not supposed to intervene for the most part in the laboratories of democracy among the States. My colleagues on the other side of the aisle never find any limit to their ability to want to interject into the States.
One of the things we can do in D.C. is try to impact policy here. Now, the fact is, these vaccine mandates were completely ineffective; and, in fact, they were destructive. The CDC's own website states that when cases have occurred, they have most frequently been seen in adolescent and young adult males.
The Pfizer website states myocarditis and pericarditis have occurred in some people who have received the vaccine, more commonly in adolescent males.
The FDA has placed a warning label on both the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines. I could go on and on with the evidence and the indication of the concerns these mandates have on freedom and, importantly, our children.
Now, obviously, the rule for this was passed before yesterday when the D.C. City Council unanimously voted to repeal this unscientific mandate.
There is not some vast Republican conspiracy afoot in D.C. The Department of Health, Office of State Superintendent of Education, and the Deputy Mayor of Education each testified in favor of repealing the vaccine mandate.
What we are doing here in offering this is making clear that it is the position of the United States Congress who is constitutionally charged with ensuring that the District of Columbia is managed appropriately is no longer foisting upon the children who live in the Nation's Capital a, frankly, intrusive and harmful vaccine mandate, and it should not continue.
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Mr. ROY. Mr. Chairman, in March of this year President Biden signed legislation that we moved through this body overturning the criminal code revisions of the D.C. City Council that reduced the maximum penalties for burglary, carjacking, and robbery.
Our own colleague, the gentleman from Texas, was carjacked at gunpoint nine blocks from where we are right here.
The fact of the matter is D.C. needs continued oversight from this body. I am glad that we acted and passed that legislation and forced change to the code, and I am glad that President Biden signed it.
What we are doing here is not just academic. I understand the D.C. City Council acted yesterday, but it is important for this body, for the House of Representatives, to make clear that the students in this country should not be subjected to mandatory vaccine mandates that undermine their health through pseudoscience.
We have an obligation to ensure that we are ensuring that Nation's Capital is doing the right thing, and, frankly, we have the ability to influence that in ways we should not when interfering directly with the laboratories of democracy.
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Mr. ROY. Mr. Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.
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Mr. ROY. Mr. Chair, the amendment that I am offering here prohibits any of the funding in the Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Act from being used to carry out President Biden's executive orders on climate change.
This is something I have been offering in each of the appropriations bills because I believe that the implications of the President's executive orders on climate change are significant.
They are undermining our well-being. They are undermining the prosperity of American citizens. They are harming the economy. They are driving up inflation. They are minimizing options for the people of this country to go about doing their jobs. They are driving up the price of energy. They are making cars more expensive. They are making homes more expensive.
You wonder why we have high inflation? Look no further than the radical environmental policies of my Democratic colleagues.
In September, the Department of the Treasury issued its ``Principles for Net-Zero Financing & Investment,'' which highlighted best practices for net-zero commitments and approaches to implementing them.
The SEC has proposed rules to force all public companies to report on their emissions and all the emissions in their value chains. The bill defunds that.
The IRS is implementing the vast majority of $1.2 trillion in climate subsidies included in the IRA--again, $1.2 trillion in climate subsidies included in the IRA.
The goal is clear: Force divestment from oil and gas--one of our largest geopolitical assets, one of our strongest blessings from the good Lord that this country has to be able to stand independently, energy independent, and to be able to have a significant force in the world.
These orders have directed the General Services Administration to overhaul the Federal building portfolio and vehicle fleet.
Each agency's light-duty vehicle acquisitions shall be zero-emission vehicles by the end of fiscal year 2027. Each agency shall achieve net- zero emissions across its portfolio of buildings, campuses, and installations by 2045 and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 50 percent.
This rapid overhaul of the Federal footprint should concern everyone. We are going to make our Federal vehicle fleet dependent on an EV supply chain that is 90 percent dominated by China.
Eight of the ten largest solar equipment makers are headquartered in China, and 10 of the 15 largest wind equipment makers are Chinese.
The fact of the matter is the implementation of the President's executive orders undermines our national security, empowers our enemies, and undermines our ability to have a prosperous economy.
For that reason, I am glad it has been adopted in virtually every one of the appropriations bills that we have moved forward, and I hope that it will be here.
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Mr. ROY. Mr. Chairman, the gentleman says ``come on'' to my assertions about the damage that this causes, but I would just say come on with respect to the family that has to choose between fuel and food this month because that is what is happening.
It was the Secretary of Transportation who literally said earlier this year: The American people need to feel pain.
Now, imagine if the Secretary of Transportation, allegedly in charge of making sure we have roads and the ability for people to move around this country, engage in commerce, take care of their families, have a strong economy for our national security, for our well-being, our prosperity, imagine if that Secretary says to all of the families out there: Oh, I am sorry. Come on. Looks at them and says: Well, too bad. You have got to experience some pain, don't you understand.
Never mind the 1,100 coal-fired plants in China compared to our 250. Never mind they have two a week they keep adding.
Never mind that if you eliminate the internal combustion engine, you are not going to dent CO
We are pursuing a radical agenda to the detriment of the American people, and they know it. They feel it. They see it every single day with the high price of gas, the high price of electricity, the increase in the cost of their homes, and the inability to buy goods and services that rely on that energy.
They see it every day in a world destabilized around the globe because we are not pushing out American energy, liquefied natural gas. We are not building nuclear power.
We are not doing all the things we could do to be significantly energy independent here using our resources to make sure that we are not buying into unicorn energy, undermining our national security and our prosperity.
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Mr. ROY. Mr. Chair, I yield the balance of my time.
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