Floor Statements

Madam Chair, I have an amendment at the desk.

Madam Chair, I rise today in support of my amendment to H.R. 2740, which advocates for funding for the Department of Education's comprehensive literacy development grants.

The LEARN Program provides competitive grants to States to help local educational agencies develop comprehensive literacy plans to ensure high-quality instruction and evidence-based intervention strategies for all students from birth through grade 12.

This program is the only Federal funding stream to support these statewide efforts. This funding allows local school districts to support high-quality professional development for teachers, teacher leaders, principals, and specialized instructional support personnel to improve literacy instruction for struggling readers and writers, including English language learners and students with disabilities.

The state of literacy in our country is alarming. Before coming to Congress, I taught high school chemistry, and what I found was that most of my high school students couldn't read above a third or fourth grade level.

How could my students learn chemistry if they couldn't read? How could they expect to, later in life, be able to pursue a quality and rewarding life?

It was a wake-up call for me, and I spent the next 4 years, as a consequence, building a nonprofit that focused on early childhood literacy in our most disadvantaged communities.

According to the National Institute of Literacy, approximately 32 million adults in the U.S. cannot read. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development found that half of U.S. adults cannot read a book written at an eighth grade level.

The fight for a more literate America is crucial, and we must acknowledge that low literacy more dramatically affects communities of color.

On the most recent National Assessment of Educational Progress, in the 12th grade reading level assessments, 46 percent of White students scored at or above proficient, while only 25 percent of Latino and 17 percent of Black students scored proficient. In essence, the fight for literacy is a fight for a fairer country, for a more level playing field.

How can we expect young Americans from every race, gender, and socioeconomic background to be ready for our workforce?

How can we be living up to the notion that every American deserves a shot at the American Dream if we are not aggressively fighting to ensure that they have the most fundamental ability to read.

Our inaction is costing us all. The National Council for Adult Learning estimates that low literacy costs our country $225 billion each year in nonproductivity in the workforce, crime, and loss of tax revenue due to unemployment.

The American Journal of Public Health found that in excess of $230 billion a year in healthcare costs is linked to low adult literacy. Our inaction on literacy is costing us nearly $500 billion a year. I believe, and I am sure that many of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle believe, that every American child deserves his or her shot at the American Dream, at the ability to get a quality education, and to make a living wage to support themselves and their families.

We are denying millions of people their shot and their promise in this country by refusing to more aggressively advocate for and fund programs that do the critical work of increasing our literacy levels.

I am thankful that my amendment is being considered. I think it is an important first step in the long overdue fight for a more literate and, by extension, a more fair America. I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Chair, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Connecticut (Ms. DeLauro).

Madam Chairwoman, I am nearly speechless with the conversation that I have just heard where we are talking about the most fundamental of things that we need, the equipment that we need to be functioning in our society, that skill of literacy, that we are thinking somehow that this is a checkbook balance situation rather than an investment in a child, an investment in a family, an investment in a future.

If we are talking about the need to imagine, we have to give people the skills so that they may imagine. Imagine the life that they will be able to have when they are able to read a street sign; when they are able to read to their child; when they are able to read their driver's test. These are things that we should not deny anyone. These are fundamental things that we absolutely have to provide to every single citizen in our economy.

If we are not providing education and literacy, what good is this Nation? I will conclude by saying that I came here to Congress and I stand on this floor, the daughter of a refugee from Poland. He came here with nothing as a 5 year old. He came here with no literacy skills, and a generation later, I am standing here in front of you because my father had the opportunity to learn to read.

My father had the opportunity to pursue the American Dream, and 70 years later, I stand here in front of you because that is the promise that our Nation makes to all of us and the investment that our Nation makes in every one of us.

I very much appreciate the opportunity to speak about something that I am deeply passionate about. I am confident that the vast majority of our Nation is deeply passionate about this, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, ``Young girls need to see role models in whatever careers they may choose just so they can picture themselves doing that job some day. You can't be what you can't see.''

Madam Speaker, Sally Ride, the first American woman in space, spoke those words. She was a personal hero of mine, one of the few women in STEM I could look up to as a child. And to this day, I am grateful to Sally because she showed me, as a young girl, that being a woman did not prevent her from pursuing her dream, from entering a male-dominated world and space.

Yesterday, I spoke on television with my friend Representative Mikie Sherrill, about the launch of the first ever Servicewomen and Women Veterans Congressional Caucus, and it turns out another young girl was watching.

``Why do those two girls have the same necklace on?'' she asked her father, referring to my and Representative Sherrill's pins. Her father explained the meaning of the pin, explained how we were two women elected to serve in the United States Government.

True equality can only be achieved when every young girl can look up to her leaders and see herself reflected, see a legitimate path for achieving her dreams. For that, we need more women in leadership, more people of color. Our elected representatives need to be a more accurate reflection of America that we represent.

Maybe that young girl yesterday will go into politics, maybe she won't, but she saw two women who were elected by their peers to serve.

``You can't be what you can't see.''

Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks on the subject of my Special Order.

Madam Speaker, there are over a dozen caucuses in Congress today that address issues facing servicemembers and/or veterans, but none of these are geared towards addressing the issues faced by the fastest growing cohort in our Nation's military: women.

Today, that changes.

My name is Chrissy Houlahan, and I represent Pennsylvania's Sixth Congressional District. Today I am announcing the launch of the first ever Servicewomen and Women Veterans Congressional Caucus.

When the draft ended in 1973, women represented just 2 percent of the enlisted force and 8 percent of the officer corps. Today, those numbers have grown to 16 percent and 18 percent, respectively. Currently, there are 2 million living women veterans in the United States, and in the next 25 years, women veterans are projected to nearly double their population and will account for one in five living veterans.

We cannot afford to wait, and the time to act is now.

Twenty-seven years ago, I gave birth to my first child, my daughter Molly. I was Active Duty at the time, and I was given 6 weeks of maternity leave. When I returned, I intended to enroll my daughter in the on-base childcare but discovered that there was a 6-month-long waiting list. I looked for private care in Boston where I was serving, but the cost was too high. In fact, my entire paycheck would have gone to childcare.

I was a lieutenant in the Air Force, stationed at Hanscom Air Force Base at the time, and my assignment, my job, was to determine what kind of information people needed and in what order and in what visual display when ballistic missiles were raining down on them and the end of the world was coming.

I am a very well-educated engineer. I became an engineer in the Air Force, and yet I couldn't, with my skills and my education, figure out how I was supposed to make ends meet and make childcare work to fulfill my military responsibilities and serve our country.

I was going against the system in many ways, a new mother serving in the military with a working civilian husband. That is not what most people picture when they picture a traditional military family. It wasn't even what I saw as a young girl when I was growing up.

I was the daughter and granddaughter of career Naval officers and career Navy wives, and I watched as my mother and my grandmother moved us all around the country and cared for us while my father and my grandfather served. My mother's job was to create a sense of home in every new place that we moved. Her job was my brother and I.

So there I was with a new baby of my own and a mission to deal with ballistic missile defense, no viable options for childcare, and working within a system that had not yet caught up with me and my career. So I decided to make a very difficult choice, and I separated from the Air Force.

You see, at that time, I didn't really have any role models, anyone that I knew or could look up to who had walked in my boots, so to speak, and had navigated being a new mother while simultaneously serving our country. So few women were really high up in the Air Force's ranks at the time, so there were very few I knew who could show me what Active Duty looked like as a mother.

But that is changing. In 2019, women represent the fastest growing cohort in America's military. More and more women are hearing that same call that I and my friends here heard--the call to serve.

What is upsetting, though, is 27 years later, despite women's increased presence across all branches of the military, we all still struggle with many of the same issues, including access to quality and affordable childcare, and I find this unacceptable.

In this 116th Congress, we set a record. For the first time in history, there are more than two women veterans serving in the House of Representatives. There are now four. It was the realization that I was surrounded by three other women who served our country that inspired me to start this caucus.

Now is the time to address these issues that have been plaguing our servicewomen and women veterans for years, and that is what today is about. That is what the Servicewomen and Women Veterans Congressional Caucus is about.

We four women are here to enact change to better support the brave women who have also answered the call to serve. We four are here as four women veterans who will lead this caucus with our lived experiences in the Armed Forces and who will evaluate the unique issues that our women face and who will work towards enacting legislation that better serves them and better serves their families.

This is not a Democratic issue nor is it a Republican issue. It is neither a man's issue nor a woman's issue. It is an intrinsically American and human issue, and that is why this caucus has members from both sides of the aisle, and that is why we have veterans and nonveterans as participants, men and women.

This caucus is comprised of people who are held together by a shared understanding that, when Congress neglects its duty to support the men and women who serve, it hasn't done its job. It undermines our country's national security and our military's readiness.

I remember thinking to myself when I got here that I was just one person. Then when I got here, I met Representative Tulsi Gabbard, Representative Elaine Luria, Representative Mikie Sherrill, and the one became four. And now, today, I am launching that Servicewomen and Women Veterans Congressional Caucus, the very first caucus in our country's history to specifically address the issues facing servicewomen and women veterans.

We are more than 50 strong in number now; 1 became 4, and 4 became more than 50. We have a mission. We have our marching orders. And speaking as an Air Force veteran, I can promise I won't stop fighting until our mission has been accomplished.

Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Chairman, I have an amendment at the desk.

Mr. Chairman, I rise today in support of my amendment to H.R. 9.

Inaction on climate change will lead to the demise of the human species. Science is not a partisan issue, and the science in this case is crystal clear: Climate change is happening, and we, as humans, are causing it.

The amendment that I am offering today would require the President to include in the administration's strategy how the United States will be able to use all the diplomatic tools available to help our partners around the world meet their own goals.

It is simple. Their success is our success; their failure is our failure. We all share the same planet, the same environment, and the same atmosphere. We cannot fight this alone. We have to be in this fight with every tool available to us, and that includes our diplomacy.

My amendment recognizes the leadership role that our country can and should play in addressing global climate change. This administration has taken a back seat to facing one of our most pressing national security threats, and this amendment puts us back in the global arena, leading this vital charge.

Some naysayers and doubters have expressed concern that developing countries are and will take advantage of the Paris Agreement, placing the burden of addressing climate change on the U.S. This is misleading. The agreement requires all parties to develop their own plans to reduce carbon emissions. Rather than retreat from that effort, we should lead it.

I serve on the Foreign Affairs Committee. Just today, Ranking Member McCaul said that we have always been leaders on the global stage, and when we are not involved, we leave a power vacuum. This applies militarily and diplomatically with respect to humanitarian aid and in the case of climate action as well.

The best way for us to secure the safety and health of our planet is for us to be an aggressive leader in the fight against climate change. Pulling out of the Paris Agreement would send a resounding message to the international community that the United States is not in this fight to save this planet, and that is unacceptable.

Let us be clear: The fight to stop climate change is not just a fight to save our environment. It is a fight for our economy. It is a fight for the health of everyone and for social justice. It is a fight for national security. And, yes, it is a fight for our children, for our future generations, and for humanity.

I introduced this amendment because the threat is too grave for us, as a country, to be doing the bare minimum as laid out in the Paris Agreement. We must also work aggressively with each country to combat climate change at every turn. Inaction is a death sentence for us all.

We have the opportunity before us to stand up for our fellow Americans and brothers and sisters around the world. I am sure my colleagues on both sides of the aisle and in both Chambers of Congress would agree: This country we call home and this planet we call home are worth fighting for.

I served our country in the Air Force. I believe in this country, and I believe it is worth fighting for.

Yes, climate change poses one of, if not the, gravest existential threats to our country, but its threats are not insurmountable.

Just 2 days ago, Pennsylvania became the 24th State to join the U.S. Climate Alliance, committing to work toward cutting greenhouse gas emissions in line with the Paris Agreement. We in Pennsylvania are still in.

I am proud of our Commonwealth for joining this fight for our country. We in Pennsylvania know America is worth it.

Mr. Chairman, to vote for my amendment is to commit to our necessary leadership on climate change. I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to support this amendment, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Chairman, I thank Chairman Pallone, Chairman Engel, and Ranking Member McCaul for all of their leadership and guidance on this very, very important issue.

I also thank the members of my community who have brought me here to serve in this way. This issue couldn't be more fundamental to our existence in my community, our Commonwealth, our country, and our planet.

Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, today I rise for Lori Smith of Pennsylvania, a member of my community who passed away last month after a very long and hard-fought battle with stage IV colorectal cancer.

When she first received her diagnosis, Lori learned that several of the symptoms that she had been experiencing had been there for over a decade. So, Lori stood up. She harnessed the power of social media and advocacy to share her story with the world, to stand up and fight for her life and the lives of all those affected by this insidious disease.

We met with Lori's husband, Kenny, here in Washington to hear of her brave fight and of their tireless work to make sure that other families never have to go through the pain that they went through.

That was March 19. Lori passed away on March 20.

I refuse to let Lori's death and the thousands of cancer-related deaths go unnoticed. I cosponsored H.R. 1570, the Colorectal Cancer Screening Act, which would waive Medicare's cost-sharing requirements for preventive screening of colonoscopies.

I urge the House and the Senate to pass this bipartisan and lifesaving legislation.

As we continue to search for a cure, the greatest tool at our disposal is always early diagnosis. No one in our country should ever have to forego lifesaving screenings.

And to all my fellow Americans battling cancer, I will not stop fighting for you.

Mr. Speaker, I rise for my Molly.

I stand here on the floor of the House of Representatives as a proud mother of a gay daughter.

When I was in the Air Force, we were taught never to leave anyone behind; and, after the 2016 election, I listened as my daughter, my Molly, cried in my arms.

She was scared for her community, the LGBTQ community. She was scared that America had left her and her community behind.

This is and was the country that I served. This was the daughter that I have raised. I was scared too.

When we decided, as a family, to run for Congress, Molly and I spoke about her story and whether she was comfortable with me sharing it with our Nation. We agreed that it was important.

As a mother, an ally, and now a Member of Congress, I feel it my duty and my privilege to champion the voices of those in the LGBTQ community.

I am proud to cosponsor the Equality Act. I do so for my daughter--my Molly--for my community, the Pennsylvania 6th, and for all of my fellow LGBTQ Americans.

You will not be left behind.

Mr. Chairman, I have an amendment at the desk.

Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Chairman, I was sent to Congress by the Sixth District of Pennsylvania

to fix the broken culture in Washington. H.R. 1 will help to reduce the role of money in politics and address the culture of corruption in Congress. I rise today to support my amendment, No. 57.

This bill also takes key steps to expand voting access to eligible voters. Currently, my constituents in Pennsylvania have no access to early voting and have severe absentee restrictions on voting by mail. This bill will introduce early voting and vote by mail to all 50 States, which will greatly help working families who may have trouble voting around their working schedules on election day.

I am introducing an amendment to further expand this early voting provision to mandate at least 10 hours of early voting each day for the final 15 days before election.

Expanding access to early voting, especially in Pennsylvania, is a key component to bringing the government back to the people by helping people with inflexible hours or people who work shift work to exercise their right to vote. This ensures that their voice is heard and that they are represented in our government.

This week, with H.R. 1, we are taking a big step to returning us to government of, by, and for the people.

Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Chairman, I very much appreciate the bipartisan spirit and the olive branch that the gentleman has reached out to me.

Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Sarbanes).

Mr. Chairman, again, I urge the adoption of my amendment and also the adoption of H.R. 1 so that we can once again restore the faith of the people and focus on the working Americans of today.

Mr. Chairman, if you do a shift or even if you have a 9 to 5 job, it is very, very hard to get to the polls, particularly in Pennsylvania.

Mr. Chairman, I look forward to support of my amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from New Jersey for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today also in support of H.R. 8, and I rise to tell the story of one resident from my community, from Pennsylvania's Sixth Congressional District, Jamie Loeper, and his parents, Liz and Joe, from West Chester, Pennsylvania.

Jamie had just graduated college and was looking for a permanent postcollege job. In the meantime, he was working in a pizza shop in West Philadelphia when his life was tragically cut short in January 2004 when a worker accidentally shot him. This was not done in malice but was the result of a coworker accidentally mishandling a gun. Jamie passed away when he was 22 years old. Today would have been his 38th birthday.

I rise for the 1,600 Pennsylvanians and nearly 40,000 Americans who have lost their lives to gun-related incidents in 2017 alone.

The Loepers, like mine, are a military family. We understand the values of responsible gun ownership but also that we must take commonsense steps to reduce gun violence in our communities. We have seen for far too long far too many gun-related tragedies over the past several years with Congress doing nothing. We must act now.

Madam Speaker, I rise for Rodney and Michelle Roberson and their daughter Bianca, who was fatally shot in a road rage incident in June of 2017.

Bianca had recently graduated from Rustin High School in Chester County, in my district. She was coming back from a pre-college shopping trip when she found herself in an encounter with someone who tried passing her in a merge lane and then, in a horrific act, pulled out a loaded firearm and fired a single, fatal shot at Bianca.

Bianca was a beautiful and smart young lady who was, tragically, taken from us too soon because of senseless gun violence.

I rise for the 1,635 other Pennsylvanians whose lives were cut short in 2017 because of gun violence. I am a third-generation veteran, and I support responsible gun ownership. And, like many in my community, I support commonsense safety measures that Congress should act on to curtail gun violence in our communities.

We must act now.

Madam Speaker, I rise to speak on behalf of Megan and Rick, and their children, from Pennsylvania's Sixth.

Rick answered the call after 9/11 to join the Air National Guard. He was deployed to Iraq in 2007 and Afghanistan in 2008, and then hired as an air traffic controller on a veteran preference. Currently, the family's only income is Rick's.

In day 34, Megan now is selling items online to try to get income for their family because they have no idea how long this shutdown will last. She has called their daughter's preschool to see if they can withdraw her and get a refund for the remainder of the school year. She now has an appointment with SNAP this week for food assistance for her and her family.

Rick loves his job. He takes pride in what he does, but this is taking a toll on him as well. The family's last-ditch plan is to pull from their 401(k)'s and

incur severe penalties to be able to keep a roof over their heads.

This tragedy is playing out in household after household in my community.

I am a third generation veteran. Border protection is an imperative and a real issue, but a shutdown is not the answer. I rise for the people like Megan and Rick, because shutting down the government is failed policy.

Madam Speaker, I rise for Jodi Readinger, a tax preparer in Pennsylvania's Sixth District. She and her organization, the Berks Community Action Program, provide a range of services to over 2,500 low-income individuals and families in my community. For example, her team works for free to help people navigate the complicated process of filing their taxes.

During a weekend town hall in Berks County this weekend, Jodi shared with me that she has been unable to reach the IRS to access tax preparation software due to the shutdown. Her work is responsible for bringing $1 million worth of tax refunds back to my community and for saving $80,000 for her customers.

I am a third generation veteran. Border protection is imperative and a real issue. I am certain that there are measures to protect our borders that we can come to an agreement on in this brand-new Congress, but a shutdown is not the answer.

Madam Speaker, I rise for the people like Jodi, because shutting down the government is failed policy.

Madam Speaker, I rise to speak on the impact of the shutdown on Pennsylvania's Sixth District.

My office has heard from small businesses that can't pull permits, veterans receiving food assistance who worry, and Federal workers about paying their bills.

Agriculture is a vital part of the economy of my district, and the shutdown is having an impact there already as well. The last Congress passed a bipartisan farm bill, but the shutdown has prevented its implementation. The USDA farm loan program, a program providing millions of dollars to the Pennsylvania farmworkers, is no longer in effect.

My district is the mushroom capital of the world, and, yesterday, I heard from the mushroom growers that the lack of EPA inspections of drainage ditches and other water runoff is impacting the development of mushroom houses and the expansion of their businesses.

We cannot afford 1 day more, 1 week more, or 1 month more of this shutdown. We cannot ignore the impact it is having on so many Americans, including farmers, ranchers, and growers in Pennsylvania's Sixth.

The House has passed legislation to open our government, and I urge the Senate to do the people's work and to pass the bill as well.