Scalise Rolls Out Conservative Agenda As GOP Nominee For Speaker

Moments after a fractious U.S. House Republican caucus nominated him for Speaker of the House, Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) revealed an aggressive conservative agenda for the Congress.

“Speaker-designate Scalise highlighted that, as Speaker, he would hold the Biden Administration accountable for its refusal to secure America's southern border, which allowed for an unchecked flow of fentanyl and suspected terrorists to cross into the United States,” a statement from Scalise's office read.

“Speaker-designate Scalise also highlighted his support for Israel and highlighted landmark legislation passed through the House to help families struggling under inflation, and called out Senate Democrats for failing to take action,” the statement continued.

Scalise himself laid out a more detailed plan in remarks after the meeting, noting:

“I want to thank my House Republican colleagues for just designating me as the Speaker. Obviously we still have work to do. We're going to have to go upstairs on the House Floor and resolve this, and get the House opened again. We have a lot of work to do — not just in the House for the people of this country — but we see how dangerous of a world it is, and how things can change so quickly. We need to make sure we're sending a message to people, all throughout the world, that the House is open and doing the people's business.Making sure that we're unequivocally standing — in our first resolution that we pass under Speaker Steve Scalise — will be to make it clear that we stand with Israel. The McCaul-Meeks resolution will be our first order of business, but obviously there's a lot more work to do. 

“The conversations we've been having with my colleagues over the last few days leading up to this show that there's a resolve that we need to get back to work. There's a lot of business to take care of. Families are struggling across this country. We've passed a lot of legislation to help families get back on track, to address our border crisis, to get our economy moving again, to address the spending in Washington that's driving inflation, high energy costs. All of those bills that we passed — and that we're going to continue to pass — that are sitting over in the Senate need to be taken up. We've passed over 70 percent of the bills to fund the government dealing with appropriations and setting the priorities of this nation's spending. And the Senate has taken up zero.

“The Senate has to start doing their work. And by the way, in that legislation — including the [State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs] bill, the defense appropriations bill — includes funding for Israel. Things like [the] Iron Dome, precision guided missiles, things that could be used today to help them in this war. So there is a lot to do. 

“I'm also going to be calling on President Biden to sit down and talk about the crisis at the border. As we have an open southern border, and we've seen millions come in in the last few years, including people on the terrorist watch list from all over the world. If he doesn't know now, after what happened, we cannot have an unsecure border. We've got to secure America's border. We've passed legislation to do that. It's time we sit down and have a conversation about how to secure America's border. And it's not a Republican or a Democrat issue. There are Democrat mayors all over the country who've been calling on the President to do this too. That's a conversation we need to have today. There is a lot of busy work to do, a lot of important work to do on behalf of people who are struggling. Not only here in America, but who are concerned all around the world. We're going to provide that vision. We have a lot of work to do.”

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.

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