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Washington, D.C. - Congressman Tom McClintock (CA-05) today delivered the following remarks on the House floor:
Mr. Speaker:
Ukraine and Israel are in growing danger of running out of arms and ammunition while China casts a hungry eye on Taiwan. History warns us of allowing aggression to grow unchecked and of how quickly events in an unstable world can unravel
Profligate spending is exhausting our resources and damaging our economy, but as Reagan reminded us, defense is not a budget issue. You spend what you need to spend – and although the defense of these besieged nations is one step removed from our own – it would be good to keep it that way.
I regret that the three military aid bills are larded up with $20 billion of economic handouts, but we’re out of time and out of options. I’m afraid it is the price we now have to pay for months of dithering in this House. Without these bills today, we and the world risk a future butcher’s bill that is incalculable.
This bill is a collection of several minor bills I support, including greater reporting of Fentanyl traffic and Iranian human rights violations, and tightened sanctions on Iranian oil and weapons exports. But it also includes two major provisions that I cannot support. One is the ban on TikTok, which I believe is an unconstitutional violation of the First Amendment. The other is the REPO act, that would seize sovereign Russian assets. This would be an unprecedented peacetime act and runs a high risk of discouraging foreign investments in the United States, particularly U.S. Treasury notes. These provisions set very dangerous precedents.
Washington, D.C. - Congressman Tom McClintock (CA-05) today delivered the following remarks on the House floor. Mr. Speaker: I don’t discount the mounting dangers we face from enemies abroad. But we also cannot discount the dangers we face at home from the very powers this bill would continue. The FBI abused these powers 278,000 times in a single year and turned them against American citizens: searching for January 6th and Black Lives Matter rioters, probing political donors and even piercing congressional offices. John Adams believed that indiscriminate searches by British officials became the first spark of the American revolution. Having lived under such a tyranny, the Founders protected us with the Fourth Amendment. Before authorities can search through our records, they have to get a warrant from an independent judge by showing probable cause to suspect we’ve committed a crime. There are many excellent reforms in this bill that I applaud. But they largely depend on these agencies policing themselves, and experience warns us that’s just not enough. Without a warrant requirement, I fear these powers will once again be turned against our fundamental liberties and -- these days -- that scares me as much as a terrorist attack.
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