House GOP, Democratic Leaders Hold Weekly Press Conferences

We'll excuse her today with some flight issues. This weekend, Americans will mark Memorial Day, as we all know, remembering the men and women who never came home from war. They gave their lives, not for recognition or politics, but for this country and something bigger than themselves. We can never repay that sacrifice, but we can make sure that it is never forgotten. And we can make sure that families that they left behind and the men and women who continue to serve are supported in a real and meaningful way. And that commitment doesn't end when the uniform comes off. So in Utah, one of my constituents, Terry Scowl, has continued to serve as a role model in the veterans advocacy. He was instrumental in reopening a state veterans house and office. He helped create four new veterans homes in the state, and he even inspired his own sons to serve. He's making sure those who carried the burden of war don't have to carry it alone. That's what honoring service looks like, not just remembering the fallen, but standing with those who came home. And that's exactly what House Republicans are focused on. Last week, we pushed forward and passed the Milcon VA Appropriations Bill, the first bill of the fiscal year 2027, because taking care of our service members, veterans, and their families should always be the first thing that we do. This week, we're continuing that work with common sense legislation to strengthen veterans benefits, protect those who served, and deliver on promises we've made, because this is what common sense leadership looks like. You honor sacrifice not just with words, but with action. And that's where a clear contrast is. Our Republican priority will always be to be putting government ahead of Americans. Our priority is the American people, the American family, the working family, the veterans family, and the like. Bottom line, we will always stand for those who stood for us, not just on Memorial Day, but every single day. And with that, I hand it over to, out of the great state of Texas, Mr. Jake Elsey. Thank you, Blake. It's indeed an honor to be standing in front of you. I'm not worthy to be able to talk to you today on behalf of my fellow veterans and those who didn't come home. But I hope that my words honor them and their families. I spent 20 years in the world's finest Navy as a helicopter and fighter pilot. And then I got to serve here, one of only 11,000 Americans. It is indeed an honor to be talking to you today. As Blake said, we passed the Milk on VA Bill 415. So when you out in the audience today get to speak about what we do and don't do here, I want you to keep in mind that while there's clickbait out there all the time about how divided we are, understand this one thing, that Americans come together. I don't know who the 15 were who decided to vote no on this bill, but 400 Americans in the House of Representatives, Republican and Democrat, chose to honor and serve our veterans. $900 million going to advance medical care, $2 billion going to improving our facilities in the VA, Second Amendment rights for our veterans in there, 400 to 15. We do good work in here. Also, as Blake mentioned, we got a bill on Thursday and Friday addressing benefits for survivors and veterans' Second Amendment rights. But since we are on a Memorial Day, I would be remiss if I didn't mention to you as we go about our business every day and we've got a weekend coming ahead of us that is full of joy and sales, I want to point out a couple of people. When I deployed with Morgan Luttrell, my brother, in Iraq in 2006, I was with Team 5 as a JTAC. This young man right here, Clark Schwedler, I'm reminded of him every day, and I hope to honor his service how I conduct myself up here. I wear him on my wrist. I chose this picture because Clark Schwedler didn't have anybody but that dog. He had his parents, but he lost his life, gave his life for both the Iraqis and the American people on April 6th of 2007. He didn't get to come home. I chose the dog picture because he brought that back. His teammates brought that back to him and his parents got to keep that dog. But I want you to say his name either loudly or quietly to yourself, Clark Schwedler, because that's what Memorial Day is about. On the same operation on April 6th, Mike Day got shot 27 times, 27 times, 16 to the body, 11 in his plates. The plates fell off as they took him off. He got knocked out by a grenade. He came back, but he didn't come home. And in 2023, he took his own life. So I just want to point out that when we're talking about what this week is about, over a million Americans have given their lives so you and I can go about life, so that I can watch my son play baseball and play catch with him, so I can take my daughter to go see her next school, next college, and so that I can come home from very difficult weeks here and hold my wife. Keep in your minds, say their names, keep them in your memories on this Memorial Day. I yield to Tom Emmer. Thank you, Jake. Too often, we forget the price of freedom. It is thanks to the bravery and sacrifice of the men and women in our military that we get to wake up each day in the greatest country on the face of the planet. That's why House Republicans are committed to delivering for our nation's veterans, their families, and their surviving spouses, who've made the ultimate sacrifice. This week, as you've heard, we're gonna vote on two bills that will do just that. American heroes and their families should not have to worry about making ends meet. Congressman Tom Barrett's H.R. 6047 is a much-needed, long-overdue expansion of benefits for severely disabled veterans and veterans' surviving spouses. Sadly, they have not seen an increase in benefits in over 20 years, even as the cost of living has continued to go up. This is unacceptable. This week, House Republicans will right this wrong, ensuring that no veteran or veteran's family gets left behind. House Republicans will also vote on the Veterans Second Amendment Protection Act led by VA Committee Chairman Mike Bost. It's simple. Veterans deserve the same constitutional rights as every other American. Right now, veterans who get help managing their benefits can be stripped of their Second Amendment rights by Washington bureaucrats. Washington bureaucrats. No judge, no due process, no court ruling. This isn't just insane, it's anti-American, and it's an affront to the Constitution. Thankfully, Chairman Bost's bill will protect the Second Amendment rights of our nation's veterans by restoring due process. It's common sense, it's constitutional, and it's time to get it done. As we approach Memorial Day, a time for our nation to remember the men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom, House Republicans are proud to stand with our veterans and their families because they so bravely stood for us. And with that, I turn it over to our leader, Steve Scalise. Thank you, Whip. And I really want to thank my colleague, dear friend, Jake Elsey, for those warm words and really kind of reminded everybody what Memorial Day is really all about, why we pause to pay tribute to those men and women, especially who gave their lives, who did not come home. And obviously, you know some of them served with them, and it wears even heavier on your heart, but it wears on all of us. And so we remember them, we will say prayers for their family, but we're also taking action. And the bills, as the Whip mentioned, that we're bringing to the floor, Chairman Bost's committee, the Veterans Affairs Committee, is dedicated to making sure that we're properly taking care of our men and women in uniform, but especially those who don't make it back. And the fact that the survivor benefits have not been adjusted for decades is an embarrassment. And we correct that oversight that has gone on for way too long by bringing that up to where it needs to be to help those families who don't have their loved ones with them, but still have bills to pay, have kids to raise. And that's an important bill, the Second Amendment, protections of all people who should have those. It surely should be those who fought to defend the rights that we have. They surely should not have less rights than American citizens who did not participate in our military. And so that bill at least gives them equity and parity to make sure that our veterans are not treated less than every other American citizen when it comes to Second Amendment rights. We'll bring in a number of other bills too. Of course, we're waiting on the Senate to finish the reconciliation bill. They are gonna go through the vote around midnight. Hopefully they get it all wrapped up by tomorrow. We stand ready to move as soon as the Senate is finished. And we adjusted our schedule to be here longer for that. The housing bill that we're gonna be voting on today is really, really important to lower housing costs for all American families. This is a bill that French Hill, the Financial Services Committee did incredible work on to make sure we got the policy right. Clearly there were some differences between the House and Senate. You see many of those problems were addressed in the changes in the amendments that Chairman Hill is bringing forward in the bill that is on the suspension calendar today. I think you're gonna see a very strong vote which shows that all of us want to see lower housing costs but we need to change laws. We need to simplify some of the laws so that we can lower those housing costs. This is something that every American in this country is going to be happy to see to have lower housing costs. And then one of the bills you're gonna be able to watch a really interesting vote on tomorrow's the Women's Museum. We're bringing a National Women's Museum shouldn't be controversy at all except for the fact that the Democrat Women's Caucus has now come out against a Women's Museum. And you would ask why that doesn't make any sense and it doesn't, but it shows you how crazy the other side is right now on how void of common sense the Democrats are. There is one condition that is in that bill that they took objection to. Now you think about it. Everybody for years had been asking for a Women's Museum to be created and in the creation of it they said, the only people that can be honored in a Women's Museum are biological women. And because that word biological women is in there, every Democrat woman came out against the bill. So let's see how they explain that to people back home who would say, what world are you living in where you don't wanna pay tribute to women and we're gonna have that vote anyway, but it shows you how far their party has strayed. You saw that vote last week on Law Enforcement Week. A week again, pay tribute to our men and women in uniform who keep our community safe. The police, a lot of them were up here from all over the country. We had a resolution by Zach Nunn to pay tribute to our men and women in law enforcement. Unbelievable that 86% of Democrats voted against that resolution. So when people go back home and say they support the men and women in blue, you don't support them when you vote no on a resolution that pays tribute to our men and women in uniform. So the defund the police movement is alive and well in the Democrat party. When 86% of Democrats last week voted against cops, it was disgusting to watch. But I think police and anybody who supports men and women in uniform all across the country were watching that vote. One more example, the sharp contrast between Republicans moving common sense legislation and Democrats going off the deep end of crazy, totally void of common sense. With that, the Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson. Thank you, Mr. Leader. I wanna talk a little bit about what's ahead of us, but wanted to just take a moment to reflect on something that just happened. It was on Sunday a few days ago. We had the Rededicate 250 event on the National Mall. It was really an extraordinary thing. Many thousands of Americans came out to participate in that historic event. It was a welcome opportunity to recommit ourselves to the cause that our founders fought and died for 250 years ago. And sadly, too many young Americans are no longer taught the moral and religious foundations of our extraordinary country. And that is the source of our greatness, the reason we became the most free, most successful, most powerful, most benevolent nation in the history of the world. But evidently, some of the mainstream media missed all that history lesson as well. And I just wanted to comment. It was brought to my attention yesterday that MS Now, formerly MSNBC, mocked me in a big segment they had. And the reason they mocked me was because in my remarks, I led the prayer of rededication on the Mall. I stated the self-evident truth that our rights do not derive from government, they derive from our creator. And they had this entire segment about how ridiculous that was and what a crazy notion and isn't Johnson such a crazy fundamentalist, et cetera. The best part is that was literally quoting from the Declaration of Independence. So let me take this opportunity, I wanna just direct my friends in the mainstream media to the second paragraph of our nation's birth certificate, the Declaration, which remains the most foundational and consequential sentence in all of American history. We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal, they're endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights, among those rights to life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness. It shouldn't be too much to ask that the people who talk about politics on TV, on a network that millions of Americans tune into have a basic understanding of America's political foundations. I hope this serves as a friendly reminder to every American that the best civic education is not from your favorite TV anchor or late night host, okay, it comes from our founding documents. You gotta go read the Declaration and the Constitution and the Federalist Papers and the other foundational texts that shape and guide our country. And as we approach the 250th birthday of the greatest nation in history, I encourage all of us to revisit those founding documents. It's really important, it's really important. The founders believed that in order to keep a constitutional republic, to maintain the republic, you had to have an informed and engaged electorate, the people, a government of, by, and for the people ourselves. The people have to be engaged. They have to know basic civics. They gotta know their foundations. And quite clearly, we need that review, at least some of the media do, okay? All right, regarding this week on reconciliation, on housing, on Women's Museum, et cetera, we've got a very consequential week ahead of us here. There's a lot going on, as you know, and the leadership team's covered it here. Republicans are still on track to complete the reconciliation process on time by the June 1 deadline that we set. And Leader Scalise talked about that. We're gonna fully fund immigration enforcement and border security in our reconciliation bill. Again, it's worthy of note. That is rather a shocking proposition. The Democrats don't want to have anything to do. Think of it, they don't wanna give $1, one penny, to border enforcement, border security, and immigration enforcement. So sadly, we've gotta do that ourselves. We don't yet know exactly what form that bill will take, because it's still going through the parliamentary process there and working through the committees and the floor vote. But we'll process it as soon as we get it, and we're anxiously awaiting it in the House. We expect that that's gonna happen here by Thursday. That's the hope. House Republicans also voting this week on that bipartisan bill to lower the cost of housing for working families. And we worked really hard on that, and it has been bipartisan. Increased housing costs and lack of quality supply are two issues that impact nearly every American family. And the House will vote tomorrow on a strong bipartisan package that'll put more American families into homes. It's gonna increase the supply, and it's gonna make it easier for local banks to deploy capital in their own communities. And all those things are gonna help with the cost of living, help with affordability. This can be a big thing for the people. The House and Senate remain closely aligned on getting the best possible product to the President's desk, and we'll do that in very short order. On the Women's History Museum, I'll just say we're gonna take that up. Nicole Malliotakis, representative from Staten Island, worked very hard on this and drawn a big coalition of people. I think it has almost maybe 270, 280 co-sponsors at this point. The Smithsonian American Women's History Museum. Nicole and others have done a lot of good faith work for years on this. 230 bipartisan co-sponsors is the actual number right now. But suddenly, in spite of that, Democrats are all backing out. And you heard Leader Scalise talk about this. It's just an incredible thing. Why are they backing out? Simply because the bill reinforces an objective truth that a museum for women, get ready, should showcase only women. Okay, that's the concept that got them all riled up. Here's the language of the Common Sense Amendment that was added to the bill that made all the Democrats run for the hills. Quote, the museum shall be dedicated to preserving, researching, and presenting the history, achievements, and lived experiences of biological women in the United States. The addition of the word biological made them all run for the hills. I mean, if that's controversial in Democratic Party, we're in serious trouble. The party that purports to support women demanding that the museum include biological men. The Democrats may be okay seating control of their party to the most radical far-left people in the country, but Republicans are not gonna be any party to that. We're not gonna stand for it. And neither are the overwhelming majority of Americans who still believe in common sense. Finally, Memorial Day, I'm so grateful for Jake Elsey, our colleague, he was a top gun pilot. He looks the part, doesn't he? Straight out of Central Casting. He's got the great voice and all that. But the fact that he comes up here and speaks from the heart and talks about all those who served and paid the ultimate sacrifice is a really serious thing. And I wanna, we give credit where credit's due, and I wanna thank our Republican House Chairman, Mike Bost, and Representative Tom Barrett worked on these two bills that will safeguard the constitutional rights of American veterans and deliver meaningful relief to Gold Star families. At a time when the world faces grave threats, not the least of which include Iran, the largest state sponsor of terror, every one of us is keenly aware that American strength and freedom are not free. And they're paid for by the selfless service of military personnel who serve our nation every single day. And we're reminded of that fact. We're gonna pause to remember those and their families, those who paid the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom. We benefit from their heroic work every day, and we should never take that for granted. Real quick word on the primary results last night. That's the big political news, of course. Last night, just in a nutshell, I talked with the president late last night after everything was, all the dust was settling over all the elections, and we talked about how his endorsement is the most powerful in the history of politics. I mean, anywhere in the world. I think it's just a phenomenon. I wasn't involved in the Kentucky primary, Thomas Massey's primary, the leadership team wasn't, because he's an incumbent, but the president certainly made his opinion known, and I'm not surprised by the results there. The president knows what's at stake in this fall's elections, and he and I need conservative patriots here ready to help us continue saving America. And that's why we're working hand in hand to defend and grow the South Republican majority. I'm convinced we're gonna do that. I'm thrilled about three more of our endorsed candidates who are gonna do just that. They advanced last night, Ralph Alvarado in Kentucky, Houston Gaines, and Jim Kingston in the state of Georgia. All three of those are gonna be great members next year as we defend and grow this majority, and at the same time, this is what's really important for everybody to be paying attention to. There's an effect happening around the country, and y'all have heard me summarize it this way, the best way to describe it in short summary is that there are many Mamdanis popping up all around the country running for Congress as Marxist, openly as socialist Marxist. And it's a race to the far, far, far left. And as we say all the time, this is not our father's Democratic Party. This group has been taken over. I mean, Democratic Party's been totally taken over by the far left, and Hakeem Jeffries and the team here can't do anything about it. In fact, Republicans are the only ones that can stop them from destroying our country, and that's why we must and we will win. But they continue to nominate some extremely radical candidates last night. Even people, there's a candidate in Pennsylvania stolen from his own family, and he won the primary on the Democrat side. They're gonna lose these swing districts. And in summary, I'll just, we'll go to questions, but in summary, this is what it boils down to. You heard the leader say it, you've heard all of us say this over and over and over. This is a contrast election, okay? And at the end of the day, the American people have to just look at this. It's contrast between common sense and crazy. We're gonna ask the people, I mean, as all of our candidates and our incumbents are out in the field, they're just, ask the questions. Do you wanna keep the team in charge who secured the border, got dangerous criminal illegal aliens out of your communities and brought down crime, that got American energy dominance going again, that returned us to peace through strength, that has put all the conditions in the economy to make your life better and bring down the cost of living and higher paychecks and higher tax refunds and got men out of women's sports and little girls' locker rooms and into trans surgeries on minors? Do you wanna keep that team, that party in charge of Washington? Or do you wanna turn it over to the people that wanna do the opposite of all those things I just described? It's a serious contrast. It's a serious, serious chasm, a widening chasm between the two parties that didn't exist here even 20, 30 years ago. But this is where we are. And you gotta keep America on track and that's what this election is about. Okay, a few questions. Yeah, for sure. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, Congressman. With massive defeat yesterday, Cassidy over the weekend, possibly John Cornyn, is the message for Republicans that you have to be in lockstep with the president or you will face defeat. And also, given the amount of money that was spent in Kentucky, that is likely going to be spent in Texas and elsewhere, is that a wise choice to use all that money against Republicans when you have such a fraught battle for the House? The message is that we're advancing America's first agenda, the America First agenda. It's about bringing the country back. And America is back. And that's because we've been running an agenda again, based on common sense that achieves so many of those things I just said and more. We need people here who understand that, who are not trying to carve out their own lane and do something that's destructive or counterproductive, I think, to the agenda. And that's what's happened. I mean, that's the message. We have gone out very careful with candidate recruitment to recruit patriots, people who are selfless, many veterans who are coming in to serve, people who have been accomplished in their community, done things selflessly, servant leadership in their community. They've been accomplished state legislators or local legislators and accomplished business persons. We have an incredible array of people. The one thing they all have in common, they're not monolithic, they don't agree on every issue, but they believe in the core principles of our party. What is the Republican Party? What is American conservatism? What is the Republican Party? It's individual freedom, limited government, the rule of law, peace through strength, fiscal responsibility, free markets, and human dignity. I don't ask much more of anybody, but you gotta hold to the core principles that made us the greatest nation in the history of the world. I never ask anybody to violate a core principle, but you have to give up on some of your personal preferences sometimes because you're in a deliberative body and you have 434 colleagues, other people. So that's the message, it's nothing more than that. The president has the strongest endorsement in history of politics, as I mentioned, but we don't demand loyalty to the president. What I demand as Speaker of the House is loyalty to our core principles, the principles of our party, which are the principles of America, and that's where we're standing for. Jake. So you're understanding that the Senate, what do you wanna see happen here? And if it doesn't, this bill, are you gonna do a supplemental for Secret Service because they've said they need money regardless of what happens? Well, look, funding for Secret Service is essential. The president has now survived a third assassination attempt in just a few years. We're obviously in a heightened threat environment. This is a different time than it's ever been. And so we need all of our law enforcement adequately funded, certainly Homeland Security, and certainly Secret Service. So we'll look at that. I don't yet know, as I said, I don't know what will be included in the second reconciliation bill, the final details of it. We should know that in a few hours and we'll process what we get and then we'll look at the next issues. I mean, what they're asking for to harden the security at the White House and elsewhere to make sure that Secret Service can protect the president, the vice president, and the executive branch officers is a critical function. That's not a partisan thing at all. I mean, everybody has to acknowledge it's necessary and important and we'll figure out how to make it happen. Just money. Would you be okay if January 6th rioters, the ones who were convicted, even some of the ones who attacked the police, had access to this taxpayer dollars, taxpayer dollars of $1.8 billion in settlement that the DOJ has created, the settlement fund, would you be okay if they had access to that money? We don't know any of the details of that settlement fund. The acting attorney general, Todd Blanche, testified yesterday and he gave a lot of detail and I'll just defer to what he said because he obviously knows a lot more about it than I do. He said, let me tell you what he said. He said they are setting up a fund to compensate all Americans who have been the subject, the target of lawfare or weaponization of the federal government. Again, that's not a partisan proposition either. Everybody should support that. He did not say who will be eligible. There's many details to be filled out on that and I'm not going to comment on it until that, I'm not going to comment on that until it comes out. Yes, ma'am. Congressman, does he owe his constituents transparency and for your purpose, are you able to pass partisan legislation like this? Yeah, look, I talked to Tom, it's been a few weeks ago now, on the phone and he sounded good and optimistic and we're expecting him back here soon. He's had a medical issue and he's going to be fully transparent and disclose all that. I mean, that's what he told me, but I don't even know the details and I have to respect that. It's a member's personal privacy on whatever matters they're dealing with, but we expect to have him back soon. We've missed him. He's a great member of Congress. He'll get reelected because he comes from a long history, a legacy in his family of faithful public service. Things happen to people individually in their health and otherwise, and they deal with challenges and they get right back. That's what champions do. Tom Kane is one of them. Proud to stand with him. He's going to get reelected and we look forward to welcoming him back here very soon. Thank y'all. Appreciate it. I want to thank Vice Chair Ted Lieu for joining us and Ranking Member Brendan Boyle with the Budget Committee. Donald Trump and House Republicans this week are once again proving that this is the most corrupt administration in our nation's 250 years. Americans didn't vote for a slush fund to bail out January 6th insurrectionists with felony convictions or to build ballrooms with helipads or to help Trump and his billionaire donors get rich trading stocks. Yet that's exactly what this administration has been doing. And in Congress, it stopped much better. Last year, Republicans passed the largest healthcare cut and food assistance cut in American history just to give billionaires and wealthy corporations record profits, the continued tax cuts. Now this week, they're doubling down on their disastrous misuse of taxpayer funds by giving an out of control ice $70 billion with zero reforms while they continue to push a ballroom that costs a billion dollars. All of this comes at a time when hardworking Americans are already struggling within the weight of Trump's costly tariffs and skyrocketing food and gas prices. Thanks to his war of choice with Iran. Americans are smart. They know Trump's policies are directly impacting their wallets. And they know that Republicans aren't concerned about improving their lives. It's no wonder his economic rating is hovering around 30%, a career low. Republicans know that they're hurting Americans. And do you wanna know what the response is? Jim Jordan says, that's life. Mike Lawler said that the Iran war is absolutely worth it. And Trump even doubled down saying that his comment that he didn't think about American's financial situation, he called a perfect statement. When a Democrat is in power, Republicans love to play the blame game. But when they're in power, Republicans tell Americans to be patient even as they face financial ruin. Remember, Republicans control the house, the Senate and the presidency. They could work with Democrats at any time they want to lower the costs that Americans face. I hope they'll finally listen and work with us. Vice Chair Ted Lieu. Thank you, Chairman Aguilar. We have a cost of living emergency in America. Gas prices are skyrocketing. Grocery prices are surging. Mortgage rates are climbing. And what are Trump and Republicans focused on? A $1 billion taxpayer funded ballroom, a giant arch in DC to honor Trump. And now we learn a nearly $1.8 billion slush fund to pay criminals who are friends of Donald Trump, including January 6th rioters. November is coming. Now let me tell you a little bit about why this nearly $1.8 billion taxpayer funded slush fund is completely unethical and totally ridiculous. First of all, it came as a result of a settlement between the IRS and the Department of Justice. Well, it turns out both those agencies are the same entity because they both report to Donald Trump. So it's like settling with yourself. And with these fake negotiations and this fake settlement magically appears nearly $1.8 billion to pay people who have been convicted of crimes. This is completely unethical. The people drafting this document know it's unethical. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche will lose his law license after his term is over because he's engaging in flatly unethical behavior. You can't have a fake settlement with fake negotiations with essentially one entity negotiating against itself and then just paying out taxpayer money that Congress never authorized to go to criminals. And now I'm honored to represent, I'm sorry, to present to you the amazing representative from Pennsylvania, Brendan Boyle, who's also the ranking member of the House Budget Committee. Thank you. And thank you to both the chair and vice chair. Well, here we are to debate and vote on the Billion Dollar Ballroom Act. You know, if you take a step back, you recognize just how absurd this situation is. We have right now healthcare costs out of control thanks to the Republican cuts that were passed last summer and signed into law by the president. Let's not forget that's even before the Medicaid cuts come into effect this December. When it is projected, we will begin to see the 15 million Americans who are about to lose their healthcare because of the Republican bill passed last summer. But that's not all, not just healthcare. Food prices skyrocketing far higher today than they were a year and a half ago. And gas prices? Gas prices were actually a bit of a bright spot two and a half months ago. Gas in my area, like the national average, was just under $3 a gallon. Where is it today? An average of $4.52 a gallon and climbing. A more than 50% increase in just two months. We haven't seen something like that in 60 years. So it's no wonder that we have consumer sentiment at a record low in the University of Michigan study, a study that goes back and has been asked every month since 1952. And the president's approval when it comes to the economy, the lowest recorded for any president since George W. Bush at the height of the Great Recession. What an unmitigated disaster this administration has been when it comes to the economy. The people are desperately in need of help. They are in desperate need to make their lives more affordable. And what do the Republicans offer them? The billion dollar ballroom, all to honor their dear leader. It's about time they start putting the people first and not their dear leader. Questions? Max. Thank you. There was just a big bipartisan vote on the housing package. Can you comment on that? And that means a strong bipartisan bill. I want to give Ranking Member Maxine Waters and Chairman French Hill a lot of credit. They put forward a product that a lot of us could stand behind. And I believe every Democrat present voted for it. Something that's long needed. We've talked all along, and I mentioned in my comments, there are a lot of problems with affordability. Housing, healthcare, utilities, gas, groceries. Housing is one that we can. We need to work with other levels of government, our state leaders, county and city leaders. But this is something that we can affect. And this was a strong bill, a collection of a lot of ideas. But it also is an opportunity for the House to assert itself. It wasn't long ago where the senators just said, just hours ago, they said, just take this and eat it, right? And we appreciate our House colleagues stepping up and putting together a bipartisan product. That's what we can do when we work together. And if Republican leadership gives their members a little bit of space to do that, sometimes they can. And I wish that this place would do more of that. As you all also focus on cost of living and affordability issues, obviously, there's opposition across the caucus to the ballroom, the anti-organization fund that Mr. Liu talked about. How do you all kind of thread this needle between talking about affordability and cost of living, bringing down gas prices, the housing bill you just spoke about, but also accountability? Because a lot of this accountability and oversight won't happen until you all get back to the majority. So I guess the question I'm asking is if you're making all of these commitments on bringing down the cost of living, how are you going to also focus on holding this administration accountable for what you all say is corruption that has not happened in the country's history? As Leader Jeffries just said, when it comes to oversight, it's a target-rich environment down the block, down at 1600 Pennsylvania. Just in the last couple of days, Michael, you have the $1.8 billion that we're talking about. There's been discussion of helipads as part of a side agreement potentially included in this. The president, his family members, his entities can never be audited or second-guessed by the IRS. I mean, all of these things in a normal environment, each one of those would have been worthy of congressional oversight. That's what this president does. He throws everything at the wall and he wants to see what sticks. We don't have the luxury of doing just one thing. We don't have the luxury of just focusing on one thing. We have to do oversight and accountability when we take the gavels, but we also have to deliver for the American public. And we've talked about what that looks like, lowering the costs that people face. They're getting crushed with healthcare costs. They're getting crushed. Brendan mentioned gas prices, over $6 in Southern California for a gallon of gas. I mean, these are the real things that people are concerned about. And so we don't have the luxury of just focusing on one. We have to do it all. And we have to present over the next few months. We have to tell the American people exactly what we're going to do to make their lives better. And yes, that does include asking tough questions to the White House and holding them accountable for the slush funds that they're creating and that they want to give potentially million-dollar settlements to violent criminals who broke into this building. But we will have time to ask a lot of those questions. We're focused on where we go for the next few months and how we drive down the costs that people face and how we win and how we win in November. So we have an opportunity to do that. I'll ask Vice Chair Liu and then Ranking Member Boyle too. Democrats are going to do what we're telling the American people we're going to do when we flip the House, which is lower costs. So we're going to pass off the floor legislation to reduce the largest Medicaid cut in US history by Republicans. We're going to pass legislation to get rid of the Medicare cuts that happened because of the way the Republicans wrote the bill. We're also going to pass legislation to restore the ACA tax credits. At the same time, our committees are going to do the work of what committees have always done in the past, which is oversight. So today, Ranking Member Raskin on House Judiciary is making a request for subpoenas to Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and the other people that worked on this slush fund document. This $1.8 billion slush fund is so unethical that the General Counsel of the IRS resigned because of it. So we want Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche to come in right now and answer questions. If Republicans don't go along with that, we're going to get the gavels, as the Chairman said, next term, and we will get Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche in if he lasts that long. I don't have anything to add. I just want to ask you for your reaction to the indefinite vote pass vote just now and whether we can see any kind of action across Democrats in the event of military action against Cuba. I just saw the headline, so I'd need to read a little bit more. But obviously, this is an administration that believes that they can go into other countries and grab foreign leaders. We have pushed back strenuously. We have asked questions about not just Venezuela, but about Trump's reckless war in Iran. And this seems to be another area where the President is using every tool he can to deflect against a reckless war of choice and to distract from the American public that he's trying to enrich his family. Those are all the things that we know this President does, and this is one more example. I haven't read the details of the indictment. Obviously, this is the similar metric to what they've used in Venezuela, seeking an indictment in U.S. court. So we'll see what the next steps are. I'm not prejudging those, but we'll continue to gather facts and work with the relevant committees, including Judiciary and others to ask questions. Thank you, Chairman Aguilar. Eric Rosales with EWTN, Global Catholic Network. Yeah, I mean, with this Castro indictment, a lot of people are just, a lot of lawmakers are concerned that we're gonna see the same pattern that happened with Iran and with Venezuela. And just, is there anything that Democrats can do, checks and balance, to prevent any sort of military action besides bringing possible impeachment charges? Look, every week we've been here, we've had an Iran War Powers Resolution. We have stood up time and time again to hold this administration accountable and to tell them to stop reckless wars. If there is another invasion, we will have, we will be guided by the Foreign Affairs Committee and potentially Judiciary if this is a U.S. indictment. So those are the types of questions that we can ask about pushing this administration is something that we can do. Obviously, this is all breaking and this is news to us. It's not like they sent us a memo or anything when they did this. So we'll dig in and have more to say in the future. Nominees or Democratic candidates who have expressed some remarkably anti-Semitic tropes, like the gentlelady in Texas, there's a gentleman in Pennsylvania, and I'd like you to weigh in on this as well. How is the Democratic Party going to grapple with that, especially in your caucus, when Republicans might try to turn that anti-Semitism against them and say, well, you know, Democrats might do that pretty hard. How do you deal with that in your caucus? Well, we need to speak out when we see it. We need to speak out against anti-Semitism. We need to speak out against Islamophobia when we see it. We need to hold folks accountable for their actions and their words. But what we also need to do is hold Republicans accountable because in that exact race that you're talking about, Chad, Texas 35, Republicans are propping up that person who in any other environment would be disqualifying and would never have the oxygen to be the Democratic nominee. It's only with potentially a million dollars that super PACs and Republican PACs could be behind this. They have not said that, but they need to be asked the question. And I don't know why anybody isn't asking them the question why they can't disavow this individual and why they can't ensure that no funds go to this individual. They are seeking to do this for one simple purpose, and it is because they have a damaged candidate in that race and they are trying to prop up somebody with baggage who does not speak for House Democrats and does not speak for the Democratic Party. And so we will continue to say that as loud as we can because that's just the reality of the situation, but it's Republicans who are propping up this candidate and making this an issue for someone who otherwise would be disqualifying from even seeking office. Here's what Kassi Kertesz, who really stood behind this candidate last talk with Senator Peterman this morning, is why didn't they want to hop this guy in Paris? What's your response to somebody in suburban Philadelphia? Well, I'm in Northeast Philadelphia, to be clear, but Chad, I think we need to be intellectually honest on the topic of antisemitism. I have seen and observed certain comments and actions that I would characterize as originating on the fringes of either political spectrum, and we need to condemn it in all its shapes or forms. We also have to be careful not to conflate antisemitism with those who criticize certain actions of the Netanyahu government. We're standing here, three proud patriotic Americans, including one veteran who served our country honorably, we're standing here saying things that happen to be critical of the President of the United States. Well, that doesn't make us inherently anti-American. I would say quite the opposite. So let's make sure that in a unified voice, we call out antisemitism wherever it originates. And then specifically, we have to make sure our dollars aren't supporting it. We have right now a Republican super PAC, a dark money group that is pumping in a ton of money to prop up this woman who said some of the most vile things just yesterday, which I condemned on Twitter as soon as I saw them. So let's put our money where our mouths are. And I call on my Republican colleagues to repeat the same call that no one should be funding this individual, especially an outside dark money Republican group. We've been very clear. Look, we will always be hopeful because we can legislate in this body. And when we work together on things like housing, sometimes we can find common ground. Our Republican colleagues have not wanted to meet us halfway on this at all. We've been very clear with what we wanna see out of reforms to ICE and CBP. It starts and ends with them acting like a real law enforcement agency. And that means just like our local law enforcement agencies that they conduct themselves appropriately, body cameras, use of warrants, no masks unless it's undercover operations. I mean, these are reasonable things that we've asked for. And time and time again, our Republican colleagues have said no. They've used ICE and CBP funding to brutalize communities. They've killed U.S. citizens. They've detained U.S. citizens. That's exactly what they're doing with tax dollars. And the Republicans answer this week, they're bringing them $70 billion more. We've found that unacceptable. If they wanna meet and talk, committees of jurisdiction can have discussions, members can have discussions, but we do not believe that ICE and CBP are worthy of additional funds until they get reformed. That's been our position. Last one. He's gonna introduce a measure to get rid of this $1.8 billion. Do you know anything about that? Have you spoken to him? This is gonna be a typo. Do you have any updates on the absence of Representative Frederico Wilson? I don't have any comment or anything new on absences on either side, whether it's Mr. Kane in New Jersey. I've not talked with Frederico. I think the WHIP's office handles our members and has been pushing our members. Our expectation for whether you're a ranking member of a committee or whether you're democratic leadership, our position is that members show up and vote. That's our job. Our job is to be here and to vote. I haven't had a conversation with Mr. Fitzpatrick. I appreciate that members have comments about this and that they're speaking up about it. That's great. I know Leader Thune said the same thing. It doesn't matter unless they actually use their vote to get rid of it, to get it out of a package, if it's a ballroom, or to provide accountability and oversight, or to put actual language in these bills that prohibits the administration from doing this fund. It doesn't matter. Everything else is just happy talk and press releases, unless he says, you cannot have my vote unless you fix this. It doesn't mean a damn thing. Thank you.