Mike Garcia: “It is cold outside. It is about 24 degrees outside of the Chamber right now, and as a kid from southern California, that…”

“It is cold outside. It is about 24 degrees outside of the Chamber right now, and as a kid from southern California, that is especially cold. But that is not as cold as what is happening inside this Chamber. Right now, as we speak, our Nation is $31 trillion in debt. We are suffering from record-high inflation, and we are about to vote on a $1.7 trillion spending bill, a record-high spending bill that is going to aggravate these things; and more than half of the Members of Congress have not shown up to vote on this bill, not to engage in debate. The Democratic Party has not allowed us to bring this forward through the normal debate process, through the committees, through markups, just bringing it to the floor. Mr. Speaker, that is cold. The fact that this bill pays more credence to the borders of foreign nations like Tunisia and Egypt than to ours-- the fact that the Speaker of the House speaks of the personal desires and necessities of Members of Congress and prioritizes that over American citizens is cold. The fact that we, this week, had more Members of Congress show up to listen to a speech by a president of a foreign nation than to vote on the annual operating budget for our entire Nation is cold. We have to do better. We knew this budget was due on September 30 of this year, yet we decided to wait.…”