Mike Johnson Elected as Speaker: "The People's House is Back in Business"

to my colleagues I I want to thank you all for the trust that you have instilled in me to lead us in this historic and unprecedented moment that we're in the challenge before us is great but the time for Action is now and I will not let you [Applause] down I want to say to the American people on behalf of all of us here we hear you we know the challenges you're facing we we know that uh that there's a lot going on in our country domestically and abroad and we are ready to get to work again to solve those problems and we will our mission here is to serve you well to restore the people's faith in this house in this great and essential institution my my dad it was mentioned my dad was a firefighter he was an assistant chief on the fire department in my hometown of shreport Louisiana little town in Northwest Louisiana on September 17th 1984 when I was 12 years old he was critically uh burned and permanently disabled in the line of duty all I ever wanted to be when I grew up was the chief of the fire department in treport um but after the explosion on that fateful day he nearly died and it was a long road back and it changed all of our life trajectories I'm the oldest of four kids and and my dad um he lived with pain all the rest of his life for decades more and I lost my dad to cancer three days before I got elected to congress three days and he wanted to be there um at my election night so badly um on the first college of graduate in my family this was a big deal to him and um so several weeks after that it was early 2017 2017 uh it was my freshman term and and um it it fell to me to be in the rostom one night to serve here as Speaker protm I thought that was a big deal until I figured out that's what you do for freshman late at night and I I I want to I think if my memory serves Miss Jackson Lee was um was winding down one of her long eloquent speeches and not not that I was not en en raptured by her speech but I looked up looked up at the top and in the chamber there and I saw the face of Moses staring down and um I just felt in that moment the weight of this place right the the history that is revered here and the future that we are called to forge and our really was just kind of almost overwhelmed with emotion it occurred to me in that moment it had been several weeks and I had not had an opportunity yet to grieve my Dad's passing and and um I just had this sense that that somehow he knew and I had tears come to my eyes and I was standing here and I'm wiping them away and then it suddenly occurs to me the late night C-SPAN viewers are going to think something's very wrong with the new Young congressman from Louisiana it it wasn't Sheila's speech I'm sorry I I I just knew in that moment that my my my dad my father would be would be proud of me and I felt that he was and and I think all of our parents are proud of what we're called to do here I think all the American people at one time had great pride in this institution but right now um that's in Jeopardy and we have a challenge before us right now to rebuild and restore that trust this is a a beautiful country it's the beauty of America that allows a a firefighters kid like me to come here and serve in this sacred chamber where great men and women have served before all of us and stried together to build and then preserve what Lincoln did refer to as the last best hope of man on Earth we stand at a very dangerous time I'm stating the obvious we all know that the world is in turmoil but a strong America is good for the entire [Applause] world we we are the beacon of freedom and we must preserve this Grand experiment in self-governance it still is we're only 247 years into this Grand experiment we don't know how long it will last but we do know that the founders to take the founders told us to take good care of it I want to tell all my colleagues here what I told the Republicans in that room last night I don't believe there are any coincidences in a manner like this I I believe that scripture the Bible is very clear that that God is the one that raises up those in Authority he raised up each of you all of us and and I believe that God has ordained and allowed each one of us to be brought here for this specific moment in this time this is my belief I believe that each one of us has a huge responsibility today to use the gifts that God has given us to serve the Extraordinary People of this great country and they deserve it and to ensure that our Republic remains standing as the great Beacon of light and hope and freedom and a world that desperately needs [Applause] it it was in 1962 in 1962 that that our national motto in God we trust was adorned above this rostom and if you look at the little uh guide that they give uh tourists and constituents who come and and and visit the house if you turn in there to about page 14 in the middle of that guide it tells you the history of this and it says very simply these words were placed here above us this motto was placed here as a rebuke of the Cold War era philosophy of the Soviet Union that philosophy was Marxism and communism which begins with the premise that there is no God this is a critical distinction that is also articulated in our nation's birth certificate we know the language well the famous second paragraph that we used to have children memorized in school and and they don't do that so often anymore but they should GK chesterson was the famous British philosopher and Statesman and he said one time America is the only nation in the world that is founded upon a Creed and he said it's listed with almost theological Lucidity in the Declaration of Independence what is our Creed we hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal not born equal created equal and they are endowed by the the same inalienable rights with the same inalienable rights life liberty Pursuit of Happiness that is the that is the Creed that has animated our nation since its founding that has made us the great nation that we are and we're in a time of extraordinary crisis right now and the world needs us to be strong they need us to remember our Creed and our admonition turmoil and violence have rocked the Middle East and Eastern Europe we all know what intentions continue to build in the Indo Pacific the country demands strong leadership of this body and we must not waver uh our our nation's greatest Ally in the Middle East is under attack the first bill that I'm going to bring to this floor in just a little while will be in support of our de dear friend Israel and we're overdue and getting that [Applause] done we're going to show not only Israel but the entire world that the barbarism of Hamas that we have all seen play out on our television SC screens is wretched and wrong and we are going to stand for the good in that conflict we we have a catastrophe at our Southern border the Senate and the White House can no longer ignore the problem from Texas to New York wave after wave of illegal migrants are stressing our communities to their breaking points we we know that our streets are being flooded with fentel in all of our communities children and even adults are dying from it the status quo is unacceptable inaction is unacceptable and we must come together and address the broken border we have to do [Applause] [Applause] it the skyrocketing cost of living is unsustainable and Americans should not have to worry about how they're going to feed their family every week because they can't afford their groceries anymore everybody in this room should think about this here's the stats prices have increased over 177% in the last two years credit card interest rates are at the highest level in nearly three decades and mortgage rates are now at a peak we haven't seen since 2001 we have to bring relief to the American people by riging in federal spending and bringing down inflation [Applause] the the greatest threat to our national security is our nation's debt and while we've been sitting in this room that's right that the debt is crossed almost $ 33.6 trillion and the time that it's going to take me to to deliver this speech will go up another 20 million in debt it's unsustainable we have to get the country back on track now we this is not going to be an easy task and tough decisions will have to be made but the consequences if we don't act now are unbearable we have a duty to the American people to explain this to them so they understand it well and we are going to establish a bipartisan debt commission to begin working on this crisis immediately [Applause] [Applause] immediately we all know that we also live in a time of bitter partisanship it was noted and it's been on display here today right when our people are losing their faith in government when when when they're losing sight of the principles that made us the greatest nation in the history of the world I think we got to be mindful of that we're going to fight we're going to fight uh vigorously over our core principles because they're at odds a lot of times now in this mod era we have to sacrifice sometimes our preferences because that's what's necessary in a legislative body but we will defend our core principles to the end in his farewell address thank you in his farewell address president um Reagan uh explained the secret of his rapport with people and and I like to paraphrase his explanation all the time he said you know they call me the great communicator but I really wasn't that he said I was just communicating great things and that the same great things that have guided our nation since its founding what are those great things I call them the seven core principles of American conservatism but let me concede to you all I think it's really quintessentially the core principles of our nation I boil them down to individual Freedom limited government the rule of law peace through strength fiscal responsibility free markets and human dignity those those are the foundations that made us the extraordinary nation that we are and you and I today are the stewards of those principles the things that have made us the freest most powerful most successful nation in the history of the world the things that have made us truly exceptional in this time of great crisis it is our duty to work together as previous generations of great leaders have to face these great challenges and solve these great problems I will conclude with this the job of the speaker of the house is to serve the whole body and I will but I've made a commitment to my colleagues here that this speaker's office is going to be known for decentralizing the power [Applause] here my office is going to be known for members being more involved and having more influence in our processes and all the major decisions that are made here for predictable processes and regular order we owe that to the people right and I want to make this commitment to you to my colleagues here and on the other side of the a as well my office is going to be known for trust and transparency and accountability for good stewardship of the people's treasure for the honesty and integrity that is incumbent upon us all of us here in the people's house our system of government is not a perfect system it's got a lot of challenges but it is still the best one in the world and we have an opportunity to preserve [Applause] [Applause] it last thing I'm going to say is a message to the rest of the world they have been watching this drama play out for a few weeks we've learned a lot of lessons but you know what through adversity it makes you stronger and yeah and and we want our allies around the world to know that this body of lawmakers is reporting again to our duty stations let the enemies of Freedom around the world hear us loud and clear the people's house is back in business thank you thank [Applause] you we will do our duty here we will serve you well we will govern well and we'll make you proud in this institution again we're going to we're going to fight every day to make sure that is true I look forward to the days ahead I genuinely believe in my heart that the best days of America are still ahead of us God bless you and God bless the United States of America thank you