Madam Speaker, I am honored to stand here today as a Member of the Congress of the United States of America, and I am grateful to my constituents for allowing me to serve in this capacity. My…
Madam Speaker, I am honored to stand here today as a Member of the Congress of the United States of America, and I am grateful to my constituents for allowing me to serve in this capacity.
My district is a very diverse one. It contains the greatest medical center in the world, the Houston Medical Center, and it contains the first domed stadium, the Astrodome. We speak more than 80 different languages, and the ballot in the Ninth Congressional District in the State of Texas is printed in English, Spanish, Vietnamese, and Chinese. We are indeed a very diverse district.
My constituents are constituents not unlike those across the length and breadth of this country. There are issues of concern to them. I want to assure my constituents that as we move into the 114th Congress, I will be pushing legislation that will be important: the LAW Act, the Living American Wage Act. We have filed this bill before, and we will file it again in this Congress.
The LAW Act indexes the minimum wage to poverty. It is our belief that anyone who works full time should not live below the poverty line. People should be able to work their way out of poverty.
The LAW Act indexes the minimum wage to poverty such that when the poverty level rises, the minimum wage will also elevate, such that people who are working for minimum wage will continue to live above the poverty line.
As an aside, I spoke to a person who is working at the wage that is paid to the persons who wait tables, the wait staff, $2.13 an hour; and one of the things that was called to my attention was that these persons--good people, hardworking people--don't always make a lot with these tips that are supposed to supplement their income.
I have been told that as little as $8 in one day in tips were being made by one of my constituents, so I am concerned not only about the $7.25 an hour, the minimum wage, but also about the $2.13 an hour. I also supported H.R. 1010, which was filed in the last Congress, and it also indexed the minimum wage, not to poverty, but it did index the minimum wage.
I will be concerned about comprehensive immigration reform because in my district, I have a good many persons who are the sons and daughters of immigrants who came here not of their own volition. Many of them came and discovered that they were not American citizens after graduating from high school.
I support what the President has done with his executive order. I have to support what he has done with his executive order, given that I am the beneficiary of the greatest executive order ever written: the Emancipation Proclamation. It did not free the slaves, but it did pave the way for the passage of the 13th Amendment.
I am honored to say that I support what the President has done, but we still must have comprehensive immigration reform because there is much more to be done. With millions of people living in the shadows, we need to know who is in the country, and we also need to make sure those who are in the country pay their fair share of taxes, that they are a part of the infrastructure that elevates the country--the economic infrastructure--and to do this, we need comprehensive immigration reform.
I am also concerned very much about our veterans. This is why in the last Congress, we passed the language that was in the HAVEN Act in the defense authorization bill.
Senator Jack Reed, thank you so much. Senator Jack Reed helped to get that through the Senate, and that language got through the Senate because Senator Reed was there. Senator Reed, we are eternally grateful, and I think a good many veterans are too.
Twenty million dollars was made available to veterans to help those who are low-income veterans who are injured in some way, such that they cannot use their facilities in their homes as they would without that disability. Counters are lowered, bathrooms are made accessible, and ramps are installed.
Senator Reed, thank you for helping us to get this $20 million, which will be matched by NGOs who will perform this service and help our veterans.
Finally, we are concerned about law enforcement. I respect law enforcement. I support law enforcement. What happened to these peace officers in New York was dastardly done. The dastard that did it is a person that we can never ever in any way glorify. The people who commit crimes ought to be punished, and I support punishment for people who commit crimes.
I also support having a system that prevents our law enforcement officers from being falsely accused. I believe that a camera on an officer can make a difference, and I am honored to say that my colleague, the Honorable Emanuel Cleaver, and I are working together on bills that we have filed to bring them together, so that we can help our law enforcement avoid specious accusations and make sure that they have the evidence of what actually occurred.
God bless my constituents and the United States of America.
