Massie: This Is the Place to Have the Debate
Floor remarks: the House floor is where the argument belongs.
Original by Office of Rep. Thomas Massie on YouTube ↗ · Is this yours? Claim credit →
Transcript
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- Gentleman from Kentucky is recognized. I might have an unique perspective here. Um unlike the Democrats, I support this
- bill, I support the um underlying purpose of it, but I'm interested in this amendment. I was very interested
- when Mr. McClintock reserved a point of order. I thought maybe we would debate whether this is the right place to have the debate on whether you need a warrant
- to enter into a residence. This debate does belong on an authorization of DHS bill. The problem is we haven't done
- that. We're not doing that. We haven't done that in a long, long time. And we should That's where this debate belongs.
- There will There would be an opportunity to have this debate on the spending bill, which is stalled right now, the the DHS spending bill. I think that
- would be a good place to put it, a limitation amendment that says none of the funds hereby appropriated shall be used to enter a residence without a judicial warrant. We can sort of Any one
- of us could write that amendment right here now. The problem is we've had so many closed rules uh from our Rules Committee
- that I don't think they're going to allow us to have that debate there, either. So, it turns out this is the place to have the debate. And um
- and you know, my party didn't raise a point of order, so let's have the debate. Anticipating this debate, I asked Secretary Noem yesterday what her
- opinion was on judicial warrants versus administrative warrants when you enter into a residence. And
- I I believe she tried to assuage my concerns. I did She said that out of the thousands of arrests and incidents, this was only
- an issue in 28 of the arrests. Now, if I'd had more time, I would have asked two questions. Well, why even try those
- 28 arrests? Or number two, could you have completed 26 of those arrests if you'd gotten a judicial warrant? Or
- maybe all of them. Was Was that an impediment in those in that very small number of cases that she claims that this is actually a debate.
- So, with, you know, keeping in mind what Secretary Noem said, which is this is a very rare occurrence,
- I actually don't think this amendment is a poison pill. This is another test that I apply before I vote for an amendment that
- I'm sorry to the members of the other side of the aisle. I'll have to kind of look a little bit with a little bit of scrutiny when you offer amendments to make sure these are not poison pill
- amendments because, like I said, I under I support the underlying bill. I feel like a few of these earlier amendments
- that say, "Well, except in cases where you violate the Constitution." I understand that's just kind of a dilatory amendment that doesn't mean
- much, but in this case, I think you have a real amendment. Uh I think this might be the only place we can have the debate, unfortunately, because everything's so closed. I've been
- assured by Secretary Noem this is just a very minor issue that Republicans shouldn't be concerned about. And so, um
- I'm going to support the amendment. And and because this is about the Fourth Amendment, and do you need a warrant to enter not some
- squatter's encampment of illegals who just came over the border, we're talking about going into American citizens'
- residence. Right? These are legally owned homes and apartments owned by American citizens. So, I understand, you
- know, we need to pursue illegal [snorts] immigrants and deport them, but why can't we still maintain respect for the
- Constitution and say that if you're going to enter an American's home with law enforcement and you're not in hot
- pursuit and somebody's not about to die, why can't you just spend the extra few hours to call up a judge and ask for a
- warrant and make sure that we're a republic, uh that we've got three functioning branches of government. So, with that, um
- I just want to say I support the amendment and I yield back. Gentleman yields back.
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