Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, it is a somber day of remembrance in our Nation's Capital. It was on this day 5 years ago when this Chamber, the people's House of the United States of America, was viciously attacked by a violent mob.

No tweet, no post, no spin, no disgusting lie-filled website is going to change the facts of the history of what happened on that day.

I rise today to honor the men and women who with great courage and sacrifice defended this Capitol Building. Our Capitol Police are still being treated with disrespect and now denigration from the President who today has accused them of somehow being responsible for their own beatings. They have already given so much.

Mr. Speaker, the leader of this Chamber is bound by law to hang the plaque in remembrance of what these brave men and women did on January 6, and there is no excuse, no excuse, for his moral failure.

Madam Speaker, I rise today in fierce opposition to Representative Greene's bill that would throw doctors and parents in jail for providing lifesaving medical care. Even for Republicans, this bill is extreme.

Are we really attempting to lock up parents and doctors?

Your kids' medical care is none of their damn business.

We should call their obsession with being in your kids' pediatrician's office and what treatment they are getting in a pediatrician's office what it is. It is creepy. It is a creepy obsession we have had to deal with for years.

The science is clear: Evidence-based, medically necessary care for transgender youth is safe, effective, and supported by every major medical association in the United States, including the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics.

My Republican colleagues know this, because this intentionally discriminatory bill includes a bunch of exemptions to allow other kids to receive the exact same medical care.

I call on my colleagues to vote ``no'' on this truly reprehensible piece of legislation. Congress should not be making medical decisions for your kids.

For this reason, at the appropriate time, I will offer a motion to recommit this bill back to committee. If the House rules permitted, I would have offered the motion with an important amendment to this bill. My amendment would ensure that this bill does not compromise the private medical records of a minor or result in parents and doctors being thrown in jail.

Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to insert the text of my amendment in the Record immediately prior to the vote on the motion to recommit.

Madam Speaker, I hope my colleagues will join me in voting for the motion to recommit.

Madam Speaker, I have a motion to recommit at the desk.

Madam Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. Speaker, in light of the President's offensive and cruel post about the tragic murders of director Rob Reiner and his wife, producer and actress, Michele Reiner, I think it is important to speak out.

Mr. Speaker, may this be the last time America elects a President devoid of sympathy and compassion.

May this be the last time that we choose someone so heartless and cruel, who denies the basic dignity of honoring someone's life when they have been murdered.

May this be the last time we choose someone who divides us instead of unites us.

May this be the last time we elevate and celebrate a man unwilling to offer condolence or consolation or comfort.

May this be the last time we choose a leader wrapped up in spite and vindictiveness.

May this be the last time that we lose ourselves in our collective cruelty.

Mr. Speaker, another day, another disgusting pardon by Donald Trump. I will tell you today about Joseph Schwartz.

Joseph Schwartz ran a nationwide nursing home empire and stole $38 million through Medicaid and tax fraud. I want you all to remember that is our money. He cheated American taxpayers. He cheated his employees. He stole money out of their paychecks and kept it for himself instead of paying their taxes. He robbed them of their 401(k)'s. Elderly patients in his care got substandard care.

In April, this swindler was rightly sentenced to 3 years in prison, but he didn't stay long thanks to our President. He gave him a full and unconditional pardon after just 90 days. Trump and the Republicans cut $1 trillion from Medicaid, and Americans are not going to have their healthcare.

Meanwhile, this guy literally steals $38 million from all of us, and Trump lets him walk free and back home to his $1.2 million home. Trump is laughing at his voters. It is disgusting.

Mr. Speaker, the Uniform Code of Military Justice is clear. It requires servicemembers to obey lawful orders and to refuse illegal orders.

We can't order a servicemember to commit a crime. It is that simple. If someone is a servicemember, he can't follow an order that requires him to commit a crime.

Recently, my Democratic colleagues merely reminded our servicemembers of their lawful duty. The President's reaction was that these Democratic Members of Congress were traitors and should be hanged.

Fast-forward to last week, when we learned that Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered the illegal killing of defenseless survivors of an attack on a boat in the Caribbean. This is what our colleagues were warning about.

Mr. Speaker, Secretary Hegseth and anyone else who commits war crimes must be held accountable. Secretary Hegseth has to go.

Mr. Speaker, last Friday President Trump said he would give a full and complete pardon to Juan Orlando Hernandez, the corrupt former President of Honduras. It is disgusting.

Trump is going to erase a major drug trafficking conviction against Hernandez, who is serving 45 years in Federal prison for his crimes. He was convicted by an American jury for working with drug cartels to move 400 tons of cocaine through Honduras to the United States. He got millions of dollars in kickbacks and bribes.

What the hell is the President of the United States doing giving this thug a full pardon?

He is a man who helped bring deadly drugs into our communities. Trump is literally rewarding a narco-terrorist.

What will it take for my Republican colleagues to speak up?

There is no way to spin this. He is literally standing with a drug trafficker and against us.

Mr. Speaker, on October 2, 2018, a man, a journalist, a father, a fiance was lured into the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkiye. He went to get documents so he could marry his fiancee. He never came out. He was murdered in that building. His name was Jamal Khashoggi. He was a writer for The Washington Post, and his murder was an attack on the free press.

A month later, our own CIA under Trump concluded that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, MBS, had ordered Khashoggi's killing and dismemberment. The U.N. came to the same conclusion. MBS ordered the murder.

Despite that, yesterday, President Trump welcomed MBS to the White House with fanfare and pomp and circumstance. Trump said Khashoggi was controversial. ``Whether you liked him or didn't like him, things happen.''

Mr. Speaker, there is only one way to look at this and that is moral rot: dangerous, chilling moral rot.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of my colleague, Congressman Chuy Garcia, who is my seatmate on the Judiciary Committee.

Chuy is someone who is always looking out for the working people of this country. Chuy is always the one in committee who is thinking: How is this going to affect the people back home in my neighborhood.

For 45 years, this man has worked relentlessly for the communities that he serves. His steadfast dedication to community has been on full display this year in the midst of the barbaric assaults that they have endured in Chicago. As Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino has indiscriminately launched chemical agents in residential neighborhoods and kidnapped people off the streets, the people of Illinois' Fourth District have had a strong champion in Chuy Garcia, standing alongside them every step of the way to demand justice.

That is how he fights for not just everyone in his district but for people across this country. He is a man of principle and a man of morals, and it is so disheartening to see his name dragged through the mud today.

When Federal agents kidnapped staffers of a local elected official off the streets, Chuy and his team were there demanding their release. He goes where he needs to go to stand up for his people. Isn't that what we all want from our elected officials?

Now, I acknowledge that yes, indeed, our democracy is corrupted and rigged against working people, but it is not because of Chuy Garcia.

Chuy has fought for working people his entire life, and he has been fearless in voting to stand up to mega corporations that are screwing us over and the big banks that don't give a damn about us.

I urge my colleagues to keep all of these things in mind.

I want my colleagues to think about the totality of this man's life and what he has done in service not just to Illinois but to the people of this country. I urge my colleagues to keep this in mind.

This is not a game. It is a man's life. Please consider that as we think about this resolution.

Mr. Speaker, the healthcare system that we have today doesn't work for anyone except if you are an insurance company. I hear it from Vermonters all the time: Our healthcare system is on the brink, and every choice Republicans make leads us further into collapse.

Republicans have no plan for healthcare, and they never have. For the last 15 years, all they have done is try to repeal, defund, deauthorize, and dismantle the Affordable Care Act with no alternative ever presented.

Americans are so tired of hearing about a concept of a plan or volumes of ideas.

Mr. Speaker, I will tell you the plan: Medicare for all. I will tell you the vision. It is that every American has access to affordable healthcare, to good jobs, to good schools, to clean air and water, housing they can actually afford, safer communities, and a functioning democracy. That is the vision.

I want the American people to know that Democrats are not giving up on healthcare. We are going to continue to fight.

Mr. Speaker, our Nation is in crisis. We are in a very dark place. Americans are scared, and they want to see a way forward. We all need to start with ourselves.

This morning, I sat, and I lit a candle. I thought about the anguish and suffering of Representative Melissa Hortman's two children as they try to cope with the assassination of their mom and dad.

Then I sat, and I thought of the pain and the torment of Charlie Kirk's family as they try to cope with the killing of their dad.

Today, Mr. Speaker, I am inviting Americans across the Nation to do the same. I invite them to sit for a few minutes in the pain of these two families. If they can feel compassion for one family and not the other, that should tell them about the work they need to do and the work that we all need to do.

Mr. Speaker, so over at the Centers for Medicaid & Medicaid Services, the administrator, Dr. Oz--yes, that guy--decided they should curb waste by letting the government use AI to decide if your medical procedure is really necessary.

That means for-profit companies will use bots to deny care for seniors and working people and will get rich doing it at your expense. Right now, there are over 70 million Americans who rely on Medicare and Medicaid for their insurance.

If there is one thing that Americans agree on right now, it is that our healthcare system is sick. Our premiums are too high. Our access is shrinking. We are all enraged by a system that is already designed to deny us healthcare coverage, not make us healthier. Our healthcare system is so perverse, we don't need yet another way for the system to screw us over.

Americans deserve affordable, quality healthcare, and AI should not be determining whether you get healthcare. That is what Democrats are fighting for.

Mr. Chair, I rise today in strong opposition to this amendment.

If passed, this amendment would immediately prohibit TRICARE coverage of mental health counseling for transgender young people. Let me repeat that. This amendment would take away mental health care services for transgender kids of servicemembers. That is what we are talking about.

This amendment is intentionally discriminatory and will result in higher rates of mental health issues and suicide for trans youth, kids who already experience higher rates of depression, anxiety, and suicide compared to their peers.

Republicans' all-out assault on healthcare right now has put these people into a state of constant fear and anxiety. Imagine that you are a servicemember, you are a parent, and you hear from a doctor that Congress has banned medically necessary care endorsed by every major medical association that would literally help save your child's life. All young people in this country should have access to the mental health care that they need, full stop.

Forcing servicemembers to choose between being able to provide healthcare for their family, for their kids, or serving their country does not make our military stronger, does not make our country safer, and it will not--no matter what the Member says, it will not make transgender people in this country disappear.

I urge my colleagues to vote ``no.''

Madam Speaker, I take to the floor today because I am angry and so are Vermonters. We are furious because of what happened yesterday to a Vermonter, a U.S. citizen, as he attempted to return home.

Wilmer Chavarria is a community leader. He is a school superintendent in my State. He was held and interrogated for hours yesterday in the Houston airport by CBP agents and given no reason for his detainment. Wilmer called this experience psychological terror.

Again, we are talking about a U.S. citizen here. When we say this can happen to any of us, this is what we are talking about. This kind of violation of our constitutional rights is how leaders use terror to intimidate us into silence.

I don't want to hear about how everyone is going after the violent criminals in this country and trying to get violent criminals off the streets, when community leaders and school superintendents are being detained because of the color of their skin and the sound of their last name.

Madam Speaker, we need to hold onto our collective outrage. We do not need to accept this. This is not what Americans want.

Mr. Speaker, I was unable to be present on July 14, 2025, due to weather-related travel delays. Had I been present, I would have voted YEA on Roll Call No. 191; YEA on Roll Call No. 192; and YEA on Roll Call No. 193.