Burgess Owens

Mr. Speaker, every cent of taxpayer money should be treated as sacred. It comes directly out of the pockets of hardworking Americans. That is why no amount of fraud in Federal public assistance programs is acceptable. The Government Accountability Office, GAO, recently estimated that the Federal Government loses between $233 billion and $521 billion every year to fraud, based on data from 2018 through 2022. When the government spends the American people's money, Americans should have confidence that their Federal taxpayer dollars are being used responsibly and carefully.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to start my comments with a simple truth: There are only two sexes, male and female. Sex is a biological fact, not an ideological whim. Yet, across our country, school districts are actively pushing radical gender ideology on children and, in some cases, facilitating social transitions without parental knowledge or consent. I grew up in a time when most Americans, like me, knew what a boy was and what a girl was. This was not ever controversial. Unfortunately, with the rise of radical gender ideology today, many have lost what was called common sense.