James P. McGovern

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Mr. Speaker, the speakers before the gentleman didn't address the fraud. The gentleman just defended it, and I am shocked. I am just stunned by the defense of this. We want to go after fraud wherever it may occur, but what we are simply saying is that, right before our eyes, we have a President who is pardoning fraudsters. I will read some more names: Robert Henry Harshbarger, Jr., guilty of healthcare fraud, pardoned by Donald Trump--the gentleman is leaving; he doesn't want to hear it, and I get it; Joseph Lewis, conspiracy to commit securities fraud, pardoned by Donald Trump; and David Gentile, conspiracy to commit securities fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, security fraud, two counts of wire fraud, pardoned by Donald Trump. Here is the deal: It has caused victims to lose over $2 billion in compensation. That may not mean anything to the gentleman or to the Republicans, but people who have been screwed over by these fraudsters deserve compensation. Now, those victims don't get any compensation because Donald Trump pardoned everybody. I can go on. I have pages of names here, of fraudsters that he has pardoned. I will read a couple more: Adriana Isabel Camberos, conspiracy to commit wire fraud and mail fraud, seven counts of wire fraud, and aiding and abetting; Julio M. Herrera Velutini, two counts of honest-services wire fraud; and David Levy, conspiracy to commit securities fraud. I have pages of names here, of people who have been pardoned, and as a result of their pardons, victims have lost billions and billions of dollars in compensation. There is not a word from my friends on the other side who are afraid to offend Donald Trump in any way because he might want retribution. We are supposed to be Members of Congress here. We are supposed to uphold the Constitution. We are supposed to do the work that our constituents sent us here to do, not to cover up for activity, quite frankly, that is unconscionable. Mr. Speaker, there are so many other things that we should be working on this week to help the American people, and the Republicans have just kind of walked away from that. I want to take a moment and specifically talk about an actual emergency that we find ourselves in. Last week, a handful of AI safety researchers publicly sounded the alarm on the very real existential threat superintelligent AI poses to the future of humanity. There are credible claims that these major AI firms estimate a greater than 10- percent chance that AI could cause human extinction within a decade. Let me repeat that: There are credible claims that these major AI firms estimate a greater than 10-percent chance that AI could cause human extinction within a decade. I don't know about my Republican colleagues, but I think that is a big deal. That makes me concerned. Let's pause for a moment. We are talking about a greater than 10- percent chance we could all be dead soon if we don't do something to radically change the way we regulate and oversee AI. The craziest part of all of this is that tech CEOs agree that their companies need to slow down before AI spirals out of control. They are calling on this government to help them do it. Anthropic's CEO, OpenAI's CEO, and even Grok's CEO, Elon Musk, agree that the government must step up to increase oversight of their companies. I don't necessarily trust these guys as far as I can throw them. Maybe they are calling our bluff. Either way, we clearly need to act. What is the response from House Republicans and from this President when they hear these things: nothing, nothing, not a damn thing. The Speaker of the House is sending Congress home 2 weeks early. Trump is saying that communities that do not want data centers will end up ``backwards and poor.'' I mean, he actually said that. I mean, seriously, these data centers are driving up energy costs. Big tech is making record profits. We have an existential threat from AI. People are begging us for action. What has the President done? He said data centers are great. What has Congress done? Not a damn thing, nothing. The Speaker is sending us home early, so we don't even have an opportunity to maybe debate these issues or come up with some sensible regulation, nothing. I think we need a national moratorium on these data centers. We need to immediately stop construction until Congress passes comprehensive legislation. People are begging us to take this on with full force. Donald Trump's response is to write them off entirely, to insult them, to defend the ultrawealthy who are getting rich off AI at the expense of the rest of us and our future. Get this: Just yesterday, Trump said that the only guardrail we need for AI is ``a STRONG AND SMART (High IQ!) PRESIDENT.'' I mean, let that sink in. Well, I hate to break it to you, Mr. Speaker, but we don't have one of those. We don't have one of those, nor do we have a high-functioning Republican majority. If anything, Republicans here in the House of Representatives are more interested in jetting off to their next vacation than they are in solving the AI crisis or any other problem, for that matter. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.