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WASHINGTON – Today, Congressman Brad Wenstrup, D.P.M., (R-Ohio) offered an amendment to H.R. 1333 that would require migrants released by CBP to show proof of a negative COVID test before being allowed to board a plane. The measure failed on a party-line vote with 216 Democrats opposing. He delivered the following remarks on the House Floor during the debate:

Madam Speaker, there's an ongoing crisis at the border. President Biden himself has admitted it. Despite his political staff's best efforts to avoid acknowledging the truth, he's admitted it.

I've served as a doctor in private practice for more than 26 years. I served on our board of health in Cincinnati. I've served in a combat support hospital in Iraq where we provided outstanding care to thousands of detainees. I've seen quite a few crisis situations in my life.

Two weeks ago, I led a group of health care experts and national security experts to the border. What we saw was a very difficult situation. It's a humanitarian crisis. It is a national security crisis. But it's also a national health security crisis.

Our group visited HHS's Donna Processing Center, which, per COVID guidelines, is supposed to house 250 individuals. That day, it had 3,500. Earlier that week, it housed 5,000.

The sites we visited had seen cases of lice, scabies, meningitis, chickenpox, flu of unknown origin, and, of course, COVID-19. What really stuck out was that we're only testing symptomatic individuals for COVID-19.

We learned through this pandemic to know better, to know that this is not an effective way to stop COVID from spreading among the camp or fueling surges across our nation. Worse, we're releasing people into our nation without ever having tested them for COVID. You don't have to be a doctor to know that that's dangerous.

That is why I offer this motion to recommit today and delay this legislation until every migrant released by Customs and Border Patrol produces a negative covid test before boarding a U.S. domestic flight.

If international travelers are required to show proof of a negative COVID-19 test before they can come into the United States from a foreign country, why are we making an exception for this surge of migrants?

American citizens are banned from the U.S. without a COVID test, but not non-U.S. citizens? That's bizarre.

We risk all the progress we have made in this country to contain this virus by allowing this vulnerability to go unaddressed.

Madam Speaker, if we adopt the motion to recommit, we will instruct the Committee on the Judiciary to consider my amendment to H.R. 1333 to require that migrants released by Customs and Border Patrol show proof of a negative COVID test before they are allowed to board a plane. And I ask unanimous consent to insert the text of the amendment in the record immediately prior to the vote on the motion to recommit.

And with that, I yield back.