Providing for Consideration of H.R. Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2025 and Providing for Consideration of H.R. Illegitimate Court Counteraction Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. RESCHENTHALER. Mr. Speaker, by direction of the Committee on Rules, I call up House Resolution 1269 and ask for its immediate consideration.

The Clerk read the resolution, as follows: H. Res. 1269

Resolved, That at any time after adoption of this resolution the Speaker may, pursuant to clause 2(b) of rule XVIII, declare the House resolved into the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union for consideration of the bill (H.R. 8580) making appropriations for military construction, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and related agencies for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2025, and for other purposes. The first reading of the bill shall be dispensed with. All points of order against consideration of the bill are waived. General debate shall be confined to the bill and shall not exceed one hour equally divided and controlled by the chair and ranking minority member of the Committee on Appropriations or their respective designees. After general debate the bill shall be considered for amendment under the five-minute rule. An amendment in the nature of a substitute consisting of the text of Rules Committee Print 118-35, modified by the amendment printed in part A of the report of the Committee on Rules accompanying this resolution, shall be considered as adopted in the House and in the Committee of the Whole. The bill, as amended, shall be considered as the original bill for the purpose of further amendment under the five-minute rule and shall be considered as read. All points of order against provisions in the bill, as amended, are waived.

Sec. 2. (a) No further amendment to H.R. 8580, as amended, shall be in order except those printed in part B of the report of the Committee on Rules accompanying this resolution, amendments en bloc described in section 3 of this resolution, and pro forma amendments described in section 4 of this resolution.

(b) Each further amendment printed in part B of the report of the Committee on Rules shall be considered only in the order printed in the report, may be offered only by a Member designated in the report, shall be considered as read, shall be debatable for the time specified in the report equally divided and controlled by the proponent and an opponent, shall not be subject to amendment except as provided by section 4 of this resolution, and shall not be subject to a demand for division of the question in the House or in the Committee of the Whole.

(c) All points of order against further amendments printed in part B of the report of the Committee on Rules or against amendments en bloc described in section 3 of this resolution are waived.

Sec. 3. It shall be in order at any time for the chair of the Committee on Appropriations or his designee to offer amendments en bloc consisting of further amendments printed in part B of the report of the Committee on Rules accompanying this resolution not earlier disposed of. Amendments en bloc offered pursuant to this section shall be considered as read, shall be debatable for 20 minutes equally divided and controlled by the chair and ranking minority member of the Committee on Appropriations or their respective designees, shall not be subject to amendment except as provided by section 4 of this resolution, and shall not be subject to a demand for division of the question in the House or in the Committee of the Whole.

Sec. 4. During consideration of H.R. 8580 for amendment, the chair and ranking minority member of the Committee on Appropriations or their respective designees may offer up to 10 pro forma amendments each at any point for the purpose of debate.

Sec. 5. At the conclusion of consideration of H.R. 8580 for amendment the Committee shall rise and report the bill, as amended, to the House with such further amendments as may have been adopted. The previous question shall be considered as ordered on the bill, as amended, and on any further amendment thereto to final passage without intervening motion except one motion to recommit.

Sec. 6. Upon adoption of this resolution it shall be in order to consider in the House the bill (H.R. 8282) to impose sanctions with respect to the International Criminal Court engaged in any effort to investigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute any protected person of the United States and its allies. All points of order against consideration of the bill are waived. An amendment in the nature of a substitute consisting of the text of Rules Committee Print 118-37 shall be considered as adopted. The bill, as amended, shall be considered as read. All points of order against provisions in the bill, as amended, are waived. The previous question shall be considered as ordered on the bill, as amended, and on any further amendment thereto, to final passage without intervening motion except: (1) one hour of debate equally divided and controlled by the chair and ranking minority member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs or their respective designees; and (2) one motion to recommit.

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Mr. RESCHENTHALER. Mr. Speaker, for the purpose of debate only, I yield the customary 30 minutes to the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. McGovern), pending which I yield myself such time as I may consume. During consideration of this resolution, all time yielded is for the purpose of debate only. General Leave

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of this rule and in support of the underlying legislation. Before I talk about the rule, I want to recognize our staff director, Kelly Dixon.

I recognize the staff director of the House Rules Committee, Kelly Dixon Chambers.

I first met Kelly as a freshman Member of Congress. She has been a mentor of mine and, most importantly, she has been a friend. This is before I even joined the Rules Committee. Kelly has been a vital member of the House of Representatives for over 25 years.

From Congressman Ken Calvert's office, to the House Judiciary Committee, to the New York delegation, to the former offices of Speaker Kevin McCarthy when he was whip and leader, to today where she is a staff director of the Rules Committee majority staff under Chairman Cole and Dr. Burgess, Kelly has always been a leader in the House during some of the most consequential decisions over the past two decades.

Mr. Speaker, the House owes Kelly a debt of gratitude, and I look forward to working with her in the years to come.

Now back to the rule.

Mr. Speaker, House Resolution 1269 provides for consideration of H.R. 8580, the Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act of 2025.

This is under a structured rule with 1 hour of debate equally divided and controlled by the chair and ranking minority member of the Committee on Appropriations or their respective designees, and it provides for one motion to recommit.

The rule makes 47 amendments in order.

Additionally, the rule provides for consideration of H.R. 8282, the Illegitimate Court Counteraction Act, under a closed rule, with 1 hour of debate equally divided and controlled by the chair and ranking minority member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs or their respective designees, and provides for one motion to recommit.

Mr. Speaker, on October 7, 2023, Hamas launched the largest mass killing of Jews that we have seen since the Holocaust. This horrific assault attacked Israel by land, sea, and air, killing over 1,200 innocent civilians, including dozens of Americans. For perspective, this would be the equivalent of over 40,000 American dead and nearly 9,000 Americans being taken hostage.

In the aftermath of that atrocious attack, we have learned that families were burned alive, infants were decapitated, women were sexually assaulted, and other unthinkable acts of violence were committed.

To date, Hamas continues to hold as many as 130 hostages. Since those attacks, we have seen a clear divide in the United States and around the globe between those who stand with our ally, Israel, and those who stand with Hamas.

One of the organizations that stands with Hamas is the international kangaroo court, also known as the ICC. This court is anti-American, anti-Israel, and anti-Semitic. The United States and Israel are not members of the ICC, and the court has absolutely no standing and no jurisdiction over our Nation or the nation of Israel.

Previously, the court has targeted American warfighters for defending our Nation in Afghanistan after the September 11 attacks. They are now targeting our ally and partner, Israel, and drawing a false equivalence and distorted moral equivalency between the leaders of Hamas and the democratically elected Government of Israel.

That is why House Republicans will pass the Illegitimate Court Counteraction Act introduced by the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Roy), my good friend.

This legislation would reimpose the Trump administration's sanctions against the ICC officials that investigate, arrest, detain, and prosecute U.S. citizens or allies, like Israel.

The choice is clear: Do you stand with our ally, Israel, or do you stand with Hamas?

Do you stand with this illegitimate court?

Additionally, as a Navy veteran and a member of the House Appropriations Committee, I am proud to introduce FY25 MILCON-VA bill, which was introduced by Chairman Carter.

Under Chairman Cole's and Chairman Carter's leadership, H.R. 8580 will fully fund veterans' healthcare programs and benefits. It provides for an extra $75 million above the President's budget and $30 billion above last year's enacted level for veterans.

Further, this legislation also provides for robust funding for the Indo-Pacific region, invests billions in quality-of-life projects for our servicemembers and their families, and blocks the Biden administration from placing al-Qaida terrorists in our local communities.

This bill provides for an additional $412 million over the President's budget for military construction so we can invest more in our national security.

As we approach the 80th anniversary of D-day, this week's vote will be an important step in supporting our Nation's veterans.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this rule, and I reserve the balance of my time.

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Mr. RESCHENTHALER. Mr. Speaker, good luck hiding behind procedural arguments when talking about defending the ICC. This is a kangaroo court, and to defend it is to defend an institution that is anti- American, anti-Israel, and anti-Semitic, but we shouldn't be shocked that this is coming from the left and the Biden administration.

This administration has been weak. They have been feckless. They have been incompetent on foreign policy from now going back to when Joe Biden was sworn into office.

What are we seeing? The world is absolutely on fire.

In his first year alone, President Joe Biden green lit the Nord Stream 2 pipeline to provide Russian gas to Europe while at the same time blocking the Keystone XL pipeline that would have actually led to energy exportation from this country.

He also issued 94 executive actions on immigration which led to an unprecedented invasion at our southern border. The President and his unelected bureaucrats in the administration are also directly responsible for the failed withdraw of the U.S. from Afghanistan, giving up the Bagram Airbase before we even evacuated, which led directly to the death of 13 American servicemembers, it stranded thousands of American citizens abroad, and it brought the Taliban back into power, something that we were there to counter for the last 20 years.

Let's talk about President Biden making the decision to delist the Houthi rebels from the terrorist watch list. What did that do? It led to a crisis in the Red Sea. He also placed an indefinite pause on LNG exports, which benefits--I can't make this up--Russia and Iran, rather than helping ourselves and our allies in Europe and the Indo-Pacific.

That is just the start of the blunders of the Biden administration on Foreign Affairs. He also waived the billions of dollars in sanctions on Iran so their energy sector could grow and they could export energy, which, of course, led to Iran being able to fund Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthi rebels, which has led to all the chaos in the Middle East.

Since October 7 alone, our servicemembers in the Middle East have been attacked over 100 times, including the deaths of three Americans in Jordan.

It just doesn't stop there. I just got back from a trip to Turks and Caicos, an official trip, a congressional delegation. There you have a small island nation that has roughly 60,000 citizens, and they are allowed to commit human rights violations on Americans, holding American detainees in a North Korean-style court system and legal system there. All it would take to bring the Americans that are wrongfully detained in Turks and Caicos home would be a do not travel order from Antony Blinken.

Do you think Secretary Blinken has issued an order? Of course he hasn't.

We have seen weakness. We have seen indecisive action from the State Department and that has emboldened these banana republics like Turks and Caicos to have draconian laws on their books that target American citizens.

Biden's weakness has done nothing but embolden our adversaries. It has emboldened Russia. It has emboldened China. It has emboldened Iran, and now you are seeing it embolden banana republics that are holding American hostages in basically the North Korea of the Caribbean, Turks and Caicos.

You can't make this stuff up. It is amazing. I am being gaslit in real time here, and so are the American people. I often say if it weren't for double standards, the Democrats would have no standards at all. Here we are, talking about process and procedure and totally ignoring the fact that the Democrats ran roughshod over process and procedure last Congress when they were in control.

Don't believe me? Let's look at the facts. Last Congress, the Democratic-controlled Rules Committee considered 30 pieces of legislation that did not go through regular order. That includes 28 McGovern waivers for unreported bills. You might say, oh, 28 out of 30, what about the other 2? Well, the other two were reported but without hearings.

It is amazing and so rich, being attacked for having a bill not going through regular order on a few occasions when the Democrats themselves had it 30 separate times in the last Congress. That is quite amazing.

Again, it is amazing that I am hearing my friends across the aisle complain about closed rules and going through regular order. Again, we are being gaslit in real time by the left.

I remind my friends across the aisle that at this point in the 117th Congress--again, when Democrats were in control, this is when Chairman McGovern ran the Rules Committee--Democrats had made 61 percent of their rules closed. In this Congress, the GOP has passed 66 more measures out of the Rules Committee compared with the Democrats at this point in the 117th.

The GOP is legislating in this Congress. We have proportionally fewer closed rules over a much larger pool of bills, and 33 percent of our closed rules were because no amendments were submitted. They were closed because no one even put forward amendments. In the 118th, 81 percent of the Rules measures that have gone to a floor vote have garnered bipartisan support for final passage.

Again, Mr. Speaker, my friends across the aisle like to complain about amendments being made in order and they like to complain about regular order, but facts don't lie. They had 61 percent of their bills with closed rules. I just had a litany of bills that did not go through regular order. You can't hide from the stats.

Let's not fool ourselves. The American people don't care about arcane rules of procedure in the House. No one cares about this. What they do care about are things like foreign policy. It is amazing, like I am being gaslit on procedures in the House, I am being gaslit about the last administration's position on foreign policy.

I am sure if you would ask people around the world if they would rather have President Trump or President Biden, it would be President Trump, and here is why: President Trump actually killed al-Baghdadi, and he dismantled ISIS.

When it comes to Iran, he neutralized Soleimani. He also targeted proxy groups that were controlled by the Iranians in the surrounding area. He put the Quds Force and the Houthis on the terrorist watch list, actions the Biden administration has tried to reverse.

He blocked the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which weakened Russia. He had the Abraham Accords.

We had zero attacks from Russia during the period. Remember, it was under Obama that Russia came into the Crimea, and then Russia didn't do anything for 4 years. Then, magically, when the Democrats came in, showing weakness and vacillation in the face of aggression, then the Russians invaded more parts of Ukraine.

Also, when it comes to China, it was President Trump who put tariffs on China and held China to account. The Biden administration has done very little on that front.

The list goes on and on, but I will leave it at that for the sake of time.

Talking about being gaslit, we are being gaslit on the ICC, this international kangaroo court. There is so much disinformation out there about the ICC, especially regarding their actions on Israel.

Let me just clear some things up. One, the ICC's warrant filings are factually wrong; two, Israel has conducted itself consistently with international law and its humanitarian obligations; three, the ICC does not have jurisdiction over Israel as the nation is not an ICC member; and, fourth, the ICC warrant applications for Israeli leaders threaten U.S. national security. Let's just get the facts out there. Those are the facts, and you can't hide from them.

It is amazing how many of my friends across the aisle, beholden to the extreme far left, want to talk about these make-believe Israeli transgressions, when they wholeheartedly ignore the transgressions of international law by Hamas. You want to go through a list of all the international law that Hamas has broken? Let's do it.

Let's start with targeting civilians; not wearing a uniform; hiding among civilian populations; storing weapons in places like mosques and schools; having their military headquarters in a hospital; using torture, and rape; and deprivation of food, water, and medical aid for their hostages. This is just a short list, but it is amazing how the left, controlled by radical, dangerous extremists, refused to call out Hamas and their violations while latching on to these false perceived notions that the Israelis are somehow the ones in violation of international law.

I am sick and tired of the gaslighting. The American people know the truth, and we are going to see the results of that in a few months.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to tell my friends across the aisle that I have no further speakers at this time and I am prepared to close. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, it is amazing. I continue to get gaslit up here. At the end of the day, facts don't care about your feelings, and numbers don't lie.

I will distill this argument into two facts right now to show you the hypocrisy from the other side. Last Congress, the Democrats had 30 pieces of legislation that came outside of regular order.

At this same point in the 117th Congress compared to this Congress, the 118th, the Democrats had 61 percent of their bills come to the floor under closed rules. Again, numbers don't lie. Don't sit here and try to gaslight me.

Mr. Speaker, I have no further speakers, and I am prepared to close.

In closing, I don't even know where to begin, describing closed rules as threats to the institution, as disrespectful, as shameful.

Again, I remind the gentleman that last Congress, they brought 30 pieces of legislation to the floor that had not gone through committee.

At this same time last Congress, 61 percent of their rules were closed rules. The gaslighting has got to stop.

We are here today to talk about MILCON-VA and the international kangaroo court known as the ICC. This week when it comes to these two bills, Americans will see a stark difference between House Republicans and the dangerous far-left extremists on the other side of the aisle.

Some are saying that the bills are partisan exercises, and they are full of culture war issues. It is the Republicans that are taking the culture war issues out of these bills, at least out of MILCON-VA.

If you don't believe me, look at the actions of the VA. Under President Biden, the VA has gone far left and woke. These include initiatives in the VA like DEI and CRT. They just waste taxpayer-funded resources on these far-left culture wars that are coming from the left.

If you don't believe me, just look at the actions of the VA. The Department backtracked not too long ago after removing the iconic V-J Day picture from Times Square.

The iconic picture of V-J Day, for whatever reason, wasn't woke and had to be removed. That is quite amazing coming from the VA.

The VA also removed from their mission statement a quote from Abraham Lincoln. Why? Because that quote used male pronouns. You can't make this stuff up.

The Department uses a gender gingerbread person that teaches veterans and employees that gender is a spectrum, and it is fluid.

How about the Department's focus on the backlog of thousands of veterans' claims and veterans who can't receive timely care? Maybe they should focus on that instead of gender-neutral gingerbread men.

That is why House Republicans will pass FY25 MILCON-VA that will focus the Department's mission back to its core mission, which is taking care of veterans; not fighting culture war issues.

We protect veterans' Second Amendment rights. We prohibit DEI. We prevent critical race theory, and we put the Hyde amendment into the bill.

We are making this bill neutral and bipartisan. We are stripping out culture war issues that the far-left extremists have put in it.

Lastly, let's talk about the rule before us bringing up the piece of legislation that will protect U.S. citizens and servicemembers and our allies, including Israel, and that is to make sure we are working against the illegitimate sham court, the kangaroo court known as the ICC.

H.R. 8282 will reimpose the Trump administration sanctions against the ICC and demonstrate to the world that the United States supports our number one ally, Israel, and Israel's right of self-defense.

The material previously referred to by Mr. McGovern is as follows: An amendment to H. Res. 1269 Offered by Mr. McGovern of Massachusetts

At the end of the resolution, add the following:

Sec. 7. Notwithstanding any other provision of this solution, the amendment specified in section 8 shall be in order as though printed as the last amendment in part B of the report of the Committee on Rules accompanying this resolution if offered by Representative Wasserman Schultz of Florida or a designee. That amendment shall be debatable for 10 minutes equally divided and controlled by the proponent and an opponent.

Sec. 8. The amendment referred to in section 7 is as follows:

``Page 77 beginning on line 9, strike section 256.

Page 77 beginning on line 12, strike section 257.

Page 87 beginning on line 12, strike section 416.''.

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Mr. RESCHENTHALER. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to vote ``yes'' on the previous question, and I urge them to vote ``yes'' on the rule. I yield back the balance of my time, and I move the previous question on the resolution.

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