On October 5, 2023 we wrote an article titled, “Pat Fallon’s Controversial Choice: Voting to Retain Kevin McCarthy as Speaker of the House” where we discussed how his decision to vote with McCarthy to remain as speaker of the House has raised significant questions about his (Fallon’s) commitment to accountability and responsive leadership.
What we didn’t mention was that prior to publication we had reached out to Representative Fallon for comment, but he had failed to respond. Five days later, after he has obviously had much time to reflect on his position, he as returned a response.
Rather than interprete for our readers, we have elected to simply post it in it’s entirety…without further commentary. What follows is a copy/clip with the actual document linked for download at the end. Our readers may be the judge.
| Dear Mr. Pipkins, I want to thank you for writing to me and sharing your thoughts on our selection for Speaker of the House. It is a deep honor to represent you in your office in Congress. After two years of a disastrous Democrat-led House of Representatives in the prior 117th Congress, the American People decided to fire Nancy Pelosi and restore conservative leadership in the US House. In fact, three million more Americans chose Republican congressional candidates instead of the liberal Democrats. Over the last ten months, the Republican-led House has voted to repeal Biden’s 87,000-strong army of Internal Revenue Service agents, end the COVID national emergency, unleash the American energy sector, actually secure our southern border, and spearhead efforts to stop the weaponization of the federal government. As mentioned above, House Republicans have passed H.R. 1, the Lower Energy Costs Act, and H.R. 2, the Secure the Border Act. These two pieces of legislation are comprehensive legislative packages that pushed back against the Biden Administration’s war on American energy and would end their open border policies. We also passed legislation such as H.R. 5, the Parents Bill of Rights Act and H.R. 734, the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act, to restore the rights of parents to have a say in their child’s education and safeguard women and girls’ access to sports. House Republicans have also intensified our investigation into the Biden crime family. We recently announced a formal impeachment inquiry into President Biden’s business dealings and allegations of corruption, obstruction, and abuse of power. As a member of the House Oversight Committee, I can assure you we are working vigorously to uncover the facts and bring to light the innumerable wrongdoings by Joe Biden, his family, and their associates. For far too long, President Biden has escaped accountability and made a mockery out of our legal system, and it is my sincerest belief that he has peddled access and sold influence. I have full faith and confidence that decisive action will be taken to remedy this. As you know, on October 3, 2023, the US House of Representatives voted to vacate the office of the Speaker of the House. Eight Republicans were joined by ALL of the Democrats in ousting the former Speaker. This was incredibly shortsighted, a strategic blunder, and an inexcusable unforced error. Please allow me to explain… Because of our narrow majority, it only takes five Republican members to kill ANY proposed legislation. Because of this, all the members of our GOP conference have a huge say in what legislation reaches the Floor and how it ultimately looks once it hits the Floor. Furthermore, each faction has a de facto veto in all GOP legislation drafted. Nothing will pass unless we have pretty much every Republican member supporting it. This has led to heretofore powerless groups, factions, and members now having a strong voice and critical input into our entire agenda for the last 10 months. Power had and still has been incredibly and historically decentralized in our conference, which is currently the ruling party in the House. Removing Kevin McCarthy was unnecessary because it won’t affect this new (and for me at least) welcomed reality. What the call in the chair did do is give the socialist, easily digestible talking points to use in the general election next year. Hopefully, if we can come together in the next few days and choose a strong unifying leader, and avoid this ‘dumpster fire’ strategy moving forward, I do feel we very well may be able to perform effectively for the American people by passing important conservative priorities and thereby delivering in our promises and holding back the socialists by maintaining our majority next November. As our nation experiences numerous crises and leadership failures, particularly with the Biden Administration’s failure to secure our southern border, Americans are looking for our elected officials to take charge and hold Biden accountable. We need to put an end to unsustainable government spending, fund our nation’s key priorities in a responsible manner, secure the southern border, and end this mass unlawful immigration once and for all! It’s impossible to keep our eye on the ball, if you will, if Republicans are publicly and privately bickering like toddlers. At the end of the day, I’m sure you’d agree that there is simply too much at stake to derail all that we have accomplished in the past year, on a whim. While I’m writing you this letter, we are going through the process of selecting a new leader for House Republicans. I am FULLY committed to supporting the candidate that our conference selects. Both Steve Scalise and Jim Jordan are proven conservative leaders, intelligent, talented, and honorable men and personally good friends of mine. Our country and our cause will be well served by either of them. Again, I really want to thank you for reaching out to me. We’re not going to be able to have a thriving and prosperous republic unless we have an active and engaged citizenry. In short, we needs more folks like yourself that pay attention, understand what’s going on and what’s at stake, and most of all, TAKE ACTION! Please feel free to reach out anytime if there’s anything myself or my staff can do for you. Thanks again, take care, and may the good Lord bless you! It is a deep honor to represent you in Washington. If there is anything I can do for you, please do not hesitate to call or email any time. I would love to stay in touch with you through our newsletter. Sign up here to get the latest on what’s happening in Congress and around TX-04: https://fallon.house.gov/forms/emailsignup. |
For Texas and Liberty, Pat Fallon, Member House of Representatives 4th District of Texas |