Mr. Speaker, I have been attending town halls and meetings across my district for the last 2 weeks in smaller communities in Wisconsin like Edgerton, Sauk City, Monroe, Mazomanie, and Darlington. These are communities with hardworking people that have a strong work ethic and upper Midwestern values like fairness and compassion. At those meetings, Mr. Speaker, I have heard a common thread: They don't like what they are seeing in Gaza and Israel. The vast majority recognize that the attack on October 7 was horrific and Israel had a right to respond, but they didn't have a right to collectively punish 2.3 million people stuck in Gaza. They know that 1,200 people are dead in Israel from the attack and over 130 people are still being held by Hamas. However, they also know that nearly 34,000 people are dead in Gaza, 70 percent of which are women and children, clearly not members of Hamas. They know that 2 million people have been displaced in Gaza and the majority of the buildings and infrastructure have been demolished or damaged by Israeli bombs. They know that the people are dying of starvation because almost every entry point to Gaza is through Israel and not enough supplies and aid are getting through. They understand that the United States is trying to help with aid, but we have to drop it from the air or bring it in by sea because our friend Israel won't allow us to bring it in through easier, safer ways like by truck and transport.…
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Mr. Chair, you heard from our Democratic leader. Democrats strongly oppose this amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. Speaker, there are plenty of reasons to support pay increases for military personnel but oppose the bloated $895 billion defense budget. My hope is that the DOGE commission will seriously scrutinize the Pentagon budget, which has…
Mr. Chair, as I said, we are not debating the merits of the amendment. It is just not appropriate in this bill, period. Mr. Chair, I oppose the amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. Chair, the amendment doesn't do anything. It simply says funds in the bill can't be used to prevent voluntary disclosures. The administration is already doing this. Mr. Chair, I reserve the balance of my time.





