Byron Donalds

This resolution recognizes that the national debt is a threat to national security and that deficits are unsustainable, irresponsible, and dangerous. It also commits to (1) restoring regular order to the appropriations process, and (2) addressing the fiscal crisis faced by the United States.

This resolution expresses support for recognizing a Day of Tears and lowering flags to half-staff to honor unborn lives lost to abortion.

This resolution designates the House of Representatives Press Gallery (rooms H-315, H-316, H-317, H-318, and H-319) as the Frederick Douglass Press Gallery.

**Preventing Aliens Through Rivers or Land Act or the PATROL Act** This bill prohibits the Department of Justice (DOJ) from bringing certain civil actions against a state for building a physical structure impacting navigable waters along the U.S. border for security purposes. Specifically, the DOJ is prohibited from bringing an action for (1) the construction of a bridge, causeway, dam, dike, or other structure over or in a port, harbor, or other navigable water of the United States without federal approval; or (2) the creation of any obstruction to the navigable capacity of waters of the United States without federal approval.

**1071 Repeal to Protect Small Business Lending Act** This bill repeals the statute that requires financial institutions to collect data regarding applications for women-owned, minority-owned, or small business loans. Currently, financial institutions must collect and report to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau information on (1) how many applications were received; (2) the disposition of each application; (3) the type of loan; (4) the amount applied for; (5) the amount approved; and (6) each applicant’s census tract, revenue, race, sex, and ethnicity.

**No User Fees for Gun Owners Act** This bill prohibits a state or local government from imposing any insurance requirement, tax, user fee, or similar charge on the manufacture, import, acquisition, transfer, or continued ownership of a firearm or ammunition. The bill includes an exception for a generally applicable sales tax that is assessed against firearms or ammunition in the same proportion to which the tax applies to other goods or services.

**Chinese Spy Balloon Assessment Act** This bill requires the Department of Defense to consult with the President and report on the effects on national security of surveillance conducted by China via the high-altitude surveillance balloon shot down in the United States in February 2023. The report must be submitted in an unclassified form, but may include a classified annex.

**Drug Cartel Terrorist Designation Act** This bill directs the Department of State to designate four specified drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations. (Among other things, such a designation allows the Department of the Treasury to require U.S. financial institutions to block transactions involving the organization.) The four specified cartels in the bill are the Gulf Cartel, the Cartel Del Noreste, the Cartel de Sinaloa, and the Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion. The bill also requires the State Department to submit a detailed report on those four cartels and any other cartels it may identify. Based on this report, the State Department must designate as a foreign terrorist organization any such identified cartel (or faction thereof) that meets certain criteria for designation as a foreign terrorist organization. The bill specifies that it may not be construed to expand eligibility for asylum.