{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://roy.house.gov/media/press-releases/rep-roys-speech-nominating-rep-biggs-speaker-house-representatives", "Rep. Roy's speech nominating Rep. Biggs for speaker of the House of Representatives", "2022-11-17", "2022", "2022-11", "Republican", "House", "TX", "Chip Roy", "R000614", "roy.house.gov", "roy", "https://roy.house.gov/media/press-releases", "scraper", "WASHINGTON\u2014On Tuesday, Rep. Chip Roy (TX-21) nominated Rep. Andy Biggs (AZ-05) for speaker of the House of Representatives. A copy of Rep. Roy's prepared remarks is below:\n\nI rise in support of my friend and colleague from Arizona to serve as Speaker of the House. Andy Biggs is a proven leader who has demonstrated leadership here in D.C. as well as serving as President of the Arizona State Senate in a slim two seat majority. He is a committed conservative and a good man.\n\nAndy\u2019s candidacy is not an attack on Kevin \u2013 with whom a number of us have been engaging and will continue to in good faith\u2026\n\nAndy\u2019s candidacy is about his courage to stand here today, willing to take the arrows\u2026 the courage to offer a debate rather than a coronation\u2026\n\n\u2026the courage to say perhaps we should consider changing the way we do things in this broken Congress\u2026 in this broken town\u2026\n\n\u2026a town to which our constituents sent us specifically to change it.\n\n\u2026While there are many factors impacting last Tuesday\u2019s elections, the outcome is not so much murky as convicting.\n\nOur voters expected a reckoning\u2026 and in so doing, they gave us nearly 5 million more Republicans voting in congressional elections than Democrats...\n\n\u2026YES, redistricting can explain why we only a gained a few seats\u2026 but it\u2019s not enough.\n\nWhat did we run on?\n\n\u2026In the 90\u2019s we ran specifically on crime and a bold agenda to transform Congress.\n\n\u2026In 2010/2012, we ran specifically on Cutting Spending\n\nMeanwhile\u2026 this year\u2026\n\n\u2026Bold conservative leadership outside of this city was affirmed enthusiastically by voters...\n\n\u2026No one better represents that than Governor Ron DeSantis\u2019 overwhelming dominance in Florida.\n\n\u2026But we also saw Governor Lee in Tennessee\u2026 Governor Kemp in Georgia\u2026 Governor Reynolds in Iowa\u2026 Governor Abbott in Texas\u2026\n\nAnd we saw Lee Zeldin\u2019s powerful run for governor in New York, where he fell short but helped flip 4 seats\u2026\n\n\u2026 because Lee ran on something\u2026 crime & the rule of law.\n\nDeSantis ran on something\u2026 fighting COVID tyranny and wokeism\u2026\n\nAbbott ran on something \u2013 securing the border.\n\nMeanwhile in a mid-term election\u2026 against the most radical leftist and dangerous White House in American history\u2026 we left the Senate in Democrat hands\u2026 and we\u2019re looking at a 3-5 seat majority in the House.\n\nSo \u2013 what do we do?\n\nI hear a lot about unity.\n\nAmen. But it has to be REAL unity.\n\nIf we just \u201csay\u201d we are unified \u2013 it will not do a thing if the rules committee jams a disastrous immigration and border security bill \u2013 like happened in July of 2018\u2026\n\nOr, consider that \u2013 to the best of my knowledge\u2026 the House Freedom Caucus, which represents about 20% of this body\u2026 has ONE member of the Steering Committee\u2026 and ONE of 20 standing Committee Chairs...\n\nOr respectfully \u2013 PACS broadly associated with leadership spent millions of dollars, admittedly undefined degrees removed from anyone in here, against Mary Miller in favor of Rodney Davis \u2013 where there were two incumbents\u2026 one very much part of the leadership circle\u2026\n\nBut it\u2019s not about any one person or group. it\u2019s about empowerment of the whole GOP conference\u2026 not just a select few...\n\nWe say we are for limited government. But, how do you expect to de-centralize the power of Washington if we can\u2019t even de-centralize our own leadership structure?\n\nOur republic is on the edge. Americans and their families are being crushed by weaponized government, radical wokeness, vaccine mandates, open borders, crime, inflation...\n\nVoters don\u2019t understand how Democrats, who have championed such destruction, still hold so much power and largely avoided the reckoning. We talk a lot about accountability. I ask everyone in this room, \u201cHow can we hold them accountable if we cannot hold ourselves accountable when we come up short?\u201d\n\nToday\u2019s voting date is an arbitrary date\u2026 rushed\u2026 in an environment where many of our voters believe the system is rigged against them.\n\nA vote for Andy is a vote to shout STOP\u2026 and to stand athwart the status quo. It\u2019s a vote to pause & debate. It\u2019s a vote to empower every one of us to have a say and to have the ability to use our election certificate to its fullest...\n\nIt\u2019s not a vote against Kevin\u2026 but a vote to force us ALL to the table to figure out HOW \u2013 not if \u2013 HOW we will come together as a party\u2026 to re-shape the conference rules, re-think the make-up of steering and the very structure and operation of the rules committee\u2026 and most of all\u2026 lay out a specific agreed-to agenda and battle plan around which we can unify\u2026 and to inspire and win the minds and hearts of Americans.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-08T03:24:37Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://roy.house.gov/media/press-releases/rep-roys-speech-nominating-rep-biggs-speaker-house-representatives"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.5844129957258701, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}