Dear [salutation],
The cold weather hasn't stopped House Republicans from working this week. We held another hearing in the impeachment of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and passed key legislation to stand up for mothers and the unborn.
Here's a quick recap:
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Yesterday, the House Committee on Homeland Security held our second hearing on impeaching Secretary Mayorkas for his dereliction of duty at our southern border.
Under his "leadership", millions of illegal immigrants have entered the country, the cartels have taken control of the border, and Americans and migrants alike are suffering. It's a humanitarian crisis, and Secretary Mayorkas is chiefly responsible.
I've talked to border patrol agents and other law enforcement officers both in hearings and at the border, and they've all told me the same thing: they signed up to enforce our country's immigration laws, but Secretary Mayorkas won't let them do their jobs.
While I normally just share my questions during the hearing, I linked the full clip this week because I don't want you to miss what was said. Some of the testimony we heard was absolutely heartbreaking.
We heard from Tammy Nobles, whose autistic daughter, Kayla, was raped and strangled to death by an illegal immigrant who was a known member of MS-13 and had an extensive criminal history before entering the United States and being released in 2022.
We also heard from Josephine Dunn, whose daughter Ashley was killed by unknowingly ingesting fentanyl, leaving behind a five-year-old son.
Both of these moms lost their daughters because of Secretary Mayorkas's unwillingness to do his job. You can watch the full hearing below (my questions start here):
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Secretary Mayorkas was asked to testify during the hearing, but he declined, citing meetings with Mexican officials in Washington. It's embarrassing that a Secretary of Homeland Security would prioritize meeting with other nations' officials over testifying to Congress, but it's no surprise coming from him. Without Mayorkas present to defend himself, Democrats attempted to spin their way out of the border crisis.
Congressman Dan Goldman, a lawyer from New York, went after the mothers who testified, claiming they didn't have the "background" to understand impeachment.
Thankfully, our founding fathers disagreed. They didn't think impeachment needed to be some complicated legal theory that ordinary Americans can't grasp. Their writings, including the Constitution, make it clear that failure to do your job is an impeachable offense.
Even the Democrats' star witness, Princeton Constitutional law professor Deborah Pearlstein, has made this argument in the past. In 2019, she told NPR that impeachment was warranted in cases where officials violated the public trust. That's exactly what happened when Secretary Mayorkas took an oath to uphold the laws of this country and failed to keep that oath.
During the hearing, Professor Pearlstein said another thing that I completely agree with: she told my friend, Congressman Morgan Luttrell of Texas, that people who have problems with the ongoing border disaster "should vote for a different president."
I look forward to doing that, but we can't wait until then to begin fixing the crisis at our southern border. We must hold Mayorkas accountable for failing to enforce this nation's laws and uphold his oath of office, and we must do it now.
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We passed key pieces of legislation this week to support mothers and the unborn, including the Supporting Pregnant and Parenting Women and Families Act, which would prevent the Biden Administration's Department of Health and Human Services from passing a rule to take away funding for crisis pregnancy centers.
In December, I sent out a survey email about this proposed rule. More than 78% of respondents agreed with me that Biden shouldn't be restricting funds to pregnancy centers—especially when Planned Parenthood has received billions in government funding.
I was proud to vote for this bill, and I'll continue to support pregnancy centers that provide critical services like counseling and healthcare, as well as resources like formula, diapers, and baby clothes, to young mothers.
Because of my commitment to mothers and babies, I recently received an A+ rating from Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, one of the nation's most prominent pro-life organizations.
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SBA Pro-Life's rating is based on the votes and actions taken by each member during a session of Congress. Since I was sworn in, I've fought tirelessly to support babies and mothers, prevent tax dollars from going to fund abortions, and stand up to the Biden Administration's pro-abortion radicalism.
I'm the proud cosponsor of several pieces of pro-life legislation, including: - the Life at Conception Act (H.R. 431), which would declare the right to life guaranteed in the Constitution begins at conception;
- the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion and Abortion Insurance Full Disclosure Act (H.R. 7), which would permanently codify the Hyde amendment and ensure that federal funds can not be used to pay for or subsidize abortions; and
- the SAVE Moms and Babies Act (H.R. 427), which would combat the FDA's attempts to deregulate abortion drugs.
I'm proud of the work our Republican majority has done so far to protect life, and I'll never give up the fight.
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Late yesterday, I filed a Supreme Court amicus brief alongside Majority Leader Steve Scalise (LA-01), Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX), and other Republican lawmakers in the case Donald J. Trump v. Norma Anderson, et al.
In Trump v. Anderson, the U.S. Supreme Court is considering whether former President Donald Trump should remain on the ballot in the State of Colorado after the Colorado Supreme Court ruled that he should be removed. Our brief urges the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn Colorado's decision and allow Trump's name to appear on the ballot.
The decision by Colorado's Supreme Court was a massive overreach and a dangerous attack on voters' ability to elect their leaders. It takes power that our Constitution gives to Congress and transfers that authority in a way our founding fathers never could have imagined. If it's allowed to stand, it will lead to widespread abuse against the political opponents of people in power.
I'm proud to join my fellow lawmakers on this brief to defend the Constitution and our American democracy.
On top of everything else going on this week, Congress passed another continuing resolution—the third since FY2023 spending levels were set to expire in September—despite the opposition of myself and more than 100 of my Republican colleagues.
We can't keep extending out-of-control spending levels while doing nothing to secure our wide-open southern border.
The House has passed bills that would both lower spending levels and secure the border, and we passed them through the process the founding fathers intended—a process that hasn't been followed correctly in decades.
Unfortunately, Senator Schumer refuses to put these bills up for a vote in the Senate. He doesn't want to show the American people that Senate Democrats oppose common-sense solutions to the border crisis, the inflation crisis, and our rising national debt.
I came to Washington to change how things operate. America is facing too many problems to keep kicking the can down the road without doing something different. That's why I was opposed to a clean continuing resolution last year and why I opposed this one as well.
If you have questions about the continuing resolution or other bills Congress is considering, or if you need help with a federal agency, please contact my team via my website or at one of the offices below. For more frequent updates, make sure you're following my office on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Thank you for allowing me to serve you in the United States Congress.
Sincerely,
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Mike Ezell Member of Congress
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