Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of my amendment to define the phrase ``short term'' for the purposes of the Schools Not Shelters Act as being a period of up to 72 hours. The phrase ``short term'' has varying definitions for different purposes in law and in different States. In many cases, the law considers housing for as long as a year as short term. The underlying bill prohibits housing illegal aliens in taxpayer- funded schools with an understandable exception for emergencies. If people are seeking shelter from a storm, we don't want to lock them out to face the elements, regardless of their citizenship or immigration status. My amendment protects the intent of this bill by ensuring that Governors can't abuse this emergency exception by opportunistically using an emergency or declaring an emergency that doesn't really exist so that they can house illegals in schools for months on end. My amendment still allows State and local authorities the flexibility to offer schools as shelter in moments of true crisis, but requires that they limit that to a few days to make sure it is a momentary stop- gap solution rather than a long-term reality. Under the so-called leadership of President Biden, Vice President Harris, and Secretary Mayorkas, our southern border is open. Every State has become a border State as criminal cartels traffic aliens into our country by the thousands.…”