Brian Higgins

I urge the committee to exercise oversight over the Department of Transportation in this case, as I am, and call on Secretary Buttigieg to issue the final rule that was due back in 2019.

I thank the ranking member for yielding. I rise today in opposition to H.R. 1. My community of Buffalo and Niagara Falls are all too familiar with the devastating consequences of decisions that put polluters over people. Toxic waste dumped…

As has been said here by many, the best way to grow an economy is to invest in it.

The past five recessions started under Republican administrations.

A default on American debt would not only destroy the American economy with high recession, lost household savings, lost retirement savings, but it would drag the entirety of the world economy down with it.

President Trump was on the way to doing that before the pandemic.

Every Republican since Nixon has left office with a worse deficit situation than they inherited without exception.

They contributed to the debt and therefore have a moral responsibility to raise the debt ceiling to help the American economy.

The 1993 budget passed with no Republican votes in the House, no Republican votes in the Senate.

Every Democratic presidential administration has left office with a better deficit situation as a percentage of GDP than they inherited.

Those surpluses were taken by the next administration, a Republican administration, to provide tax cuts to the very, very wealthy on the faulty theory that trickled down would help grow the economy, and it didn't.

The proposed Biden budget of $6.9 trillion is about 29 percent of the U.S. economy.

Drug trafficking along the Northern Border is increasing exponentially.

If we do not address this crisis at the Northern Borders, if we do not look at that border that is totally unprotected, there is just not enough men up there to do it.

The chief of the U.S. Border Patrol acknowledged in his testimony that we do not have operational control of the Southern Border.

this is the Show Me the Money moment.

There should be a dedicated Northern Border infrastructure fund to pay for improvements to land ports of entry.

I support the agreement that President Biden and Prime Minister Trudeau announced last week to address irregular migration.

It is critical now more than ever for Members of Congress to come together with one voice to advocate against President Biden and Secretary of Homeland Security Mayorkas' reckless policies.

Let's not compromise our relationship with our northern neighbors who have been good neighbors.

Let me also try to clarify very quickly before I raise questions with one of the witnesses.

I oppose efforts to expand temporary duty travel. These assignments take officers away from their families and community for extended periods of time.

It is unacceptable that people who are hired on the Northern Border... are forced to go to the Southern Border.

We need each other. We have all kinds of examples of that in Buffalo and Western New York.

Today, fentanyl is the leading cause of death among adults in the United States, taking more lives each year than car accidents, suicide, heart disease, or cancer.