During Wednesday’s House Republican Leadership hearing, Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA) discussed the proposed budget reconciliation legislation.
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00:00Thank you. Well, I'm proud to join my colleagues in celebrating National Law Enforcement Week,
00:07bringing a number of bills to the floor to give better protections to our men and women in law
00:12enforcement and just continue to remind those brave heroes that we have their back. And like
00:19Sheriff Rutherford and so many others in law enforcement, they now serve in Congress. Pete
00:23Stauber, who was a cop on the beat I room with. You know the kind of heroes that they are. And we
00:32hear about heroes a lot. You sometimes hear stories about heroes in law enforcement. I get to walk
00:40with one of those heroes every day. And I'm going to embarrass him and he's going to be upset with
00:46me, but he happens to be with me this morning. And that's David Bailey. You want to meet a real
00:51life American hero. It's that man right there. And I wouldn't be here today and probably about a
00:56dozen other members of Congress wouldn't be here today if not for his bravery that I got to experience
01:02firsthand. I didn't get to see it all, but I heard it all. Over a hundred rounds of gunfire when a
01:09gunman came out on a ball field and tried to kill all of us. And the only reason we're alive today
01:14is because he put himself between us and the gunfire, risked his life, got hit during the
01:21shootout. And the only reason we're alive and he's not is because of the bravery of David Bailey
01:26and Crystal Briner. And while we hear about heroes every now and then, when you actually get to see
01:33one and walk around with one, and he came back to work when he got out of the hospital for his
01:38treatment, he wanted to go back to work because he loves what he does. He cares about his training.
01:45It's not talked about a lot because many men and women in law enforcement might never have to use
01:50their revolver. And hopefully they don't. And they don't want to. But they go to training every day in
01:57case they have to. So they're ready to risk their lives to protect us and our communities. And that's what
02:03David did. The reason that we're all here today, including him, is because he took his training so
02:11seriously. And the days where you could have just phoned it in, he said, you know what, if I'm ever
02:17called on to be ready, I want to be prepared to do the job. And we know there's so many brave men and
02:24women just like David, but I got to see it and experience it. And I'm here because of him. And I'm
02:29always going to pay tribute to the great heroism of what law enforcement represents. And so I hope
02:37we all remember that. It's not just a talking point. It's not just stories that we hear about.
02:42I got to experience it. And a number of my colleagues would tell you the exact same thing.
02:48We also, of course, are moving through the reconciliation bill and finishing it up this week.
02:53This is incredibly important work. We're doing what a lot of people said couldn't be done.
02:58And we're doing it because families are relying on us to get this done. We've had many meetings
03:04with President Trump, including the last one with the Speaker and the Chairman of the Ways and Means
03:10Committee, Hugh Smith, Chairman of Energy and Commerce Committee, Guthrie, last week in the Oval Office to
03:15finalize some of the final pieces of this bill. A lot of work has gone into getting 11 committees
03:22ready to complete all of their work today, by the end of today. Think about that. 11 committees.
03:27When we did this in 2017, which is an important bill, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act to get economic
03:33growth, to get our economy moving again, to create jobs, to put more money in the paychecks
03:38of workers. There were only two committees involved in that back in 2017. There's 11 involved this time.
03:44And each one of them has hit their mark. And by the end of today, all of them will have exceeded the
03:50things that they were asked by us to do. And they will be delivering a great product for all members of Congress to
03:57vote on. Now we all know not all members of Congress will vote for that bill, but everybody who casts a
04:03no vote is going to have some tough questions to answer back home. Why would you vote against tax relief for
04:11working families? You can lie all day long, as Luke pointed out, about the rich and the billionaires. The rich and the
04:17billionaires are always going to figure out how to get through whatever the tax code looks like. You know who can't
04:23figure out every single component of it, especially if a tax goes up on you? It's the lower and middle
04:30income families of America who have been struggling. We were losing our middle class before 2017 when we
04:37finally lowered rates for those hard working families. And we saw the benefits primarily to
04:43lower and middle income families. And they would be the ones hit the hardest if this bill were not to pass.
04:49Luckily, we're going to come together and figure it out as we have every step of the way to get this
04:55done for the American people, because failure is not an option. We will get our economy moving again.
05:00We will give President Trump the resources he needs to keep our borders secure now that he has secured it.
05:06He needs additional tools for our Border Patrol agents. We're going to make America energy
05:12independent again. It's in this bill. We're going to remove the threat of a debt crisis in this bill.
05:18So many other important things. We're getting people back to work in this bill. It's an important
05:25piece of legislation, but I want to commend all the committees, all 11 committees, who have worked
05:31hours and hours tirelessly to get their work done, starting with the leadership of President Trump,
05:37making sure that every step of the way, when there were questions, when there were final decisions that
05:42had to be made, he was always one phone call away. And he'll continue to be. This process isn't over.
05:47We're, you know, just getting to close to maybe halftime. When we pass this bill next week,
05:52through the House and go to the Senate, they'll do their work. But we will get this bill to President
05:57Trump's desk before the July 4th deadline that the White House has asked for. And the reason
06:05that we've been able to hit all of these marks is because in every meeting, and I've been in all these
06:11meetings, the Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, has been about as patient of a man as I've seen,
06:18listening to our members. And believe me, you know this, we have members that have a lot of
06:24different points of view, have a lot of different views on how the bill should be put together. And
06:30they're not ashamed to express those views. But at the end of the day, we've all got to come together.
06:34And he has brought our members together on every tough issue. And there are a lot of tough issues.
06:40Might be one remaining to solve, but we've gotten through every one of them because he's had the
06:45patience of Job and continues to lead us the right direction for those families who are counting on us.
06:52And that's the Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson.