Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the subject of my Special Order.

Mr. Speaker, before I give my speech on voting rights, I yield to the gentleman from California (Mr. Correa).

Honoring the Life and Memory of Manuel T. Padilla

Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Foster).

Brandon Road Project

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for his comments.

Mr. Speaker, I am here today to talk about the foundation of our democracy: the right to vote and why we must protect it.

I want to begin just by telling a little bit about me. My story is somewhat unique. I didn't take the traditional path to Congress. Before I got here, I played in the NFL for 5 years as a linebacker for the Tennessee Titans. After hurting my neck, I decided to pursue my other dream, which was to become a voting rights attorney, a civil rights attorney. While I was in law school, I decided to focus on voting rights because of what I saw happening in my home State of Texas where it was becoming harder to vote as the State was becoming more and more diverse.

After I came back to Texas, I worked doing voter protection in 2014, setting up poll watcher programs across the State of Texas, trying to help voters deal with the new voter ID law that had just been put in place and that I knew was going to deeply impact so many Texans. Then I became a voting rights litigator suing States like Ohio and Wisconsin for the laws that they passed making it harder for the people in their States to vote.

Then I was lucky enough to rejoin the Obama administration and finish out that administration.

I decided to come home and run for Congress in my hometown and my home district where I was born and raised. In 2018, I ran against an opponent who had been unopposed in 2016. I won, and I am now proud to be representing the 32nd Congressional District in Congress.

In that campaign in 2018, I had the distinct honor of having Congressman John Lewis come join me in Dallas. Mr. Lewis is my hero, and to have him with me talking to voters and campaigning with me was, to say the least, surreal. We went on to become colleagues, and I considered him to be a friend and a mentor. I know that without John Lewis, I would not be here today. There would be no Congressional Black Caucus.

So many of us would not be here today were it not for him, the other civil rights leaders, and the foot soldiers who fought for the right to vote. That is why we named this critical piece of legislation after him, the Freedom to Vote: John R. Lewis Act.

Now, this piece of legislation is not coming out of thin air. It is not a Federal takeover. Many of the reforms are intended to address long-held problems with access to the ballot box for many Americans. It is also meant to address the gutting of the Voting Rights Act by the Supreme Court in 2013, and the 440 voting restriction bills across 49 States that have been introduced in recent years.

Many of those bills to restrict the right to vote have become law in States like my own, in Texas, in Georgia, and so many other States. While other pieces address the direct and more recent threat to our democracy, including the counting of votes and the safety and security of election officials, this legislation is necessary for us to save our democracy.

Yes, we have had setbacks in this fight. Yesterday was another one. Not enough of our Republican colleagues in the Senate were brave enough to stand up to President Trump's lies and to vote for the same Voting Rights Act that the Senate had unanimously reauthorized in 2006 that my constituent, a Republican, President George W. Bush, signed in 2006. We were just shy of having enough Democrats in the Senate with enough courage to change the rules so that we could protect our democracy.

But I am here to say today, to all of my constituents and to anyone across the country who is worried about our democracy, that we can't lose hope. We have had setbacks before, just as Mr. Lewis did, and we have come back from

them. The American people have sent us a clear message.

In 2020, 155 million Americans voted in a pandemic. They risked their lives to vote. That is how important it was to them. Campaign finance reform; ending partisan gerrymandering; and expanding access to the ballot by creating national standards around voter registration, early voting, and vote by mail are all necessary for us in our democracy, and they are commonsense ideas that are contained in the Freedom to Vote Act. They will fortify and protect this sacred right.

But let's talk about what is happening in the country because I hear all the time from folks that voting is not difficult; that there has not been a rash of voter suppression laws passed across the country; that this is a Democratic story that is being told.

According to the Brennan Center for Justice, between January 1 and September 27 at least 19 States enacted 33 laws to make it harder for Americans to vote.

Restrictive laws in four States: Georgia, Iowa, Kansas, and Texas, imposed new or more stringent criminal penalties on election officials or other individuals for helping their fellow citizens vote. These new criminal laws would deter election officials and others who assist voters from engaging in ordinary, lawful, and often essential tasks. People in Georgia can now be charged with a crime for handing out water and snacks to voters waiting in line to vote; lines that were created intentionally by restricting other ways to vote.

Montana eliminated election day voter registration, making it harder for new voters or folks who have moved to vote in that State.

Arizona temporarily restricted the powers of their secretary of State to represent them in lawsuits. And the reason? Because that position is held currently by a Democrat.

Other States have shortened the window to apply or the deadline to deliver a mail-in ballot or have eliminated ballot drop boxes and reduced polling places, and the list goes on and on and on.

Mr. Speaker, 155 million Americans voted in 2020, the highest turnout since the 1900 election. The Trump administration itself called it the most secure in American history. Yet, the lies about the election and the attacks on the right to vote have just continued and continued, and that is why I am standing here today.

Because of this new lie, these new laws have been passed, and we are seeing voter suppression taking place in real time in my home State in Texas.

Mr. Speaker, I want to just talk about my home State for a little bit because I hear from a lot of Texans who wonder why voting rights experts like myself say that it is one of the most difficult States in the country to vote.

I want to walk you through just how difficult it is to cast your ballot in my home State. First, the State of Texas makes it incredibly difficult to register to vote. In order for me to register my neighbors in Dallas County, I need to go to the Dallas County elections department, take a short course, and become deputized as a volunteer deputy registrar. That is just to register my neighbors. After that, I am able to register voters only in Dallas County, and I am only able to do that for 2 years because it is going to expire, and then I have to go back and get it reauthorized.

After I registered that voter which I have done hundreds of times, I have 5 days to deliver the completed form that I filled out with them, or I face criminal penalties; 5 days. So if I lose it, something happens, I will be held criminally liable. If I would like to register voters in both of the counties in my congressional district, Collin County and Dallas County, I would have to go to Collin County and get deputized separately there. If I meet a voter who lives in the city of Dallas but doesn't know what county they live in, because four counties touch the city of Dallas, I would not be able to register them unless I know that I am deputized in their county, whether it be Denton County, Kaufman County, Collin County, Dallas County. I have to figure it out. That is just to register my neighbors as a lawyer, as a voting rights lawyer, for me to help my neighbor get registered.

If a voter would like to participate in the next election, they have to register at least 30 days before that election day. So if, like many young people, you decide that a week out from an election you are fired up, you are ready to go, you want to vote in that election, guess what? You can't. Because you didn't get registered in time.

Unlike many other States where they have same-day voter registration, in Texas you have to have decided 30 days out from the election that you were going to get registered and, hopefully, get through all of those other hoops.

Right now, as we speak, the secretary of State's office is citing a paper shortage as the reason why they can't print out enough voter registration forms, despite dragging their feet for years in expanding online voter registration for Texans. That is all just to get registered, Mr. Speaker. We are not even talking about casting your ballot yet.

So after you have gone through those hoops, after you have gotten registered, you have to then survive the purges of the voter rolls that are going on right now, such as in 2019, when Texas attempted to kick 100,000 Texans--incorrectly--off the voter rolls claiming that they were noncitizens. It was such a disaster the secretary of State had to resign.

Now, if you survived that, if you have gotten registered and you have not been purged from the voter rolls to actually cast your ballot, you have to jump through more hoops because Texas has the strictest voter ID law in the country. In order for me to vote in the State of Texas, I need to possess one of seven acceptable forms of ID which does include a Texas handgun license but does not include a student ID like my constituents at SMU, or UTD, or any school in Dallas might be issued.

A Texas district court found in 2014 that 600,000 registered Texans or 4.5 percent of those registered at that time lacked one of these qualifying IDs. Now, thanks to a court ruling, you can sign a declaration stating that you don't possess that required form of ID. But that is not often communicated at the polling place. I know because I have trained poll watchers to try and watch for this. When voters present themselves and they don't have the required ID, they are often turned away.

If you have a disability or if you are out of town, or you just have difficulty coming to a polling place, you can't vote by mail very easily either. To vote by mail in the State of Texas you have to be 65 years or older, you have to be sick or disabled, or you have to be out of the county where your election is being held on election day and throughout the entire early voting period.

Recently, thanks to the State's voter suppression law, S.B. 1, this has become even more difficult. As reports from counties from across the State have shown, mail-in ballot applications are being rejected at an alarming rate. That is because this new law requires that people provide either a partial Social Security number or a driver's license number on their application for a mail-in ballot, and that number has to match the identification on their voter registration. This makes it extremely difficult for voters to remember which ID they used when they registered, perhaps decades ago.

In Dallas and Tarrant Counties right now, 40 percent, Mr. Speaker, of the applications have been rejected. In Bexar County where San Antonio is located, it is almost 50 percent. If these rejection rates hold, tens of thousands of mail-in ballots and possibly more will be rejected.

It is now a crime, Mr. Speaker, for county officials to encourage folks to vote by mail, meaning that if you are in a household and you are married and if a spouse requests a mail-in ballot, the county official cannot inform you that your spouse can also request a mail-in ballot if they are eligible or they face criminal penalties. And that doesn't even scratch the surface of dealing with voters whose names have changed because of marriage or divorce, or a change in gender identity, or whose names no longer match the names on the voter roll.

If you possess one of these IDs and if you are aware of your rights, you may still struggle to find a polling place. According to a report from the Leadership Conference Education Fund, 750 polling places have been closed in

Texas since 2012. This has disproportionately happened in counties with large Black and Latino populations.

The law also curbed other initiatives by counties to make voting easier. That happened during the pandemic, including limiting ballot drop boxes, banning counties from drive-through voting, and opening 24- hour voting locations as they did in Harris County where Houston is. They even tried to ban Sunday morning early voting to stop souls to the polls until they had too much outrage and they had to back off.

Texans in minority communities disproportionately face long lines when they get to the polling place in order to vote. This includes one Black man in Houston who waited 6 hours to cast his ballot in 2020.

If you make it through all of those hurdles: register to vote, cast your ballot by mail or in person via early voting or on election day, your vote will then be diluted through aggressive partisan gerrymandering at the State house, State senate, and congressional level.

According to the Brennan Center for Justice, Texas Democrats would have to win 58 percent of the vote to be favored to carry more than 37 percent of the State's congressional seats. That is a State where Joe Biden earned 46.5 percent of the vote.

According to this analysis, Texas would have to vote very heavily for Democrats in order to barely break the gerrymandering, and it would still likely leave Republicans with a 2-to-1 seat advantage.

This is all due to partisan gerrymandering, which allows politicians to choose their voters instead of the other way around.

Gerrymandering doesn't just silence communities, though. It also suppresses the vote. It is well known that competitive elections drive higher turnout, which is why the recent State and congressional maps in Texas sought to limit the number of competitive elections as much as possible.

For the Texas voter that has found a way to register and cast their ballot, and has ignored the impacts of gerrymandering, their vote is still under attack, even after they have cast it.

Currently, right now, as we are 2 months out from the primary election for our next election, our State's leaders are conducting a so-called audit of the 2020 election results in our largest counties at the request of the former President of the United States, trying to prop up the lie that the last election was stolen from him--in a State that he won.

All of these hurdles, combined with the potential discriminatory penalties, are making it difficult for the average Texan to feel that they can engage in an election freely. Even worse, States across the country are following Texas' lead. That is why we need to pass the Freedom to Vote Act and the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Act.

The Freedom to Vote Act, just very quickly, for folks who are wondering, because there is a lot of discussion about this, this is what it actually does:

It establishes automatic, online, and same-day voter registration, which would solve our voter registration problems in the State of Texas.

It makes election day a Federal holiday, something that should happen.

It sets national standards for early voting and vote by mail, requiring 2 weeks of early voting, including 2 weekends, and allowing any American who wants to, to vote by mail.

It bans partisan gerrymandering and establishes clear, neutral standards and rules as well as increasing transparency and enhanced judicial review. This would address Texas' extremely gerrymandered maps.

It creates a uniform standard for what forms of ID are acceptable for voting.

It prevents States from subverting their own elections and protects election records, legislation that I introduced here in the House that I am glad to see included in this final bill.

Of course, the Voting Rights Act needs to be restored. We need to make sure that we have preclearance again. We need to have a national standard. That is what the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Act does.

This is a bill that passed the Senate 98 to nothing in 2006. It passed the House overwhelmingly. It was signed into law by my constituent, again, George W. Bush, a Republican. Now, not a single Republican in the Senate or in the House will vote for it.

This brings me to my final thoughts. On January 6, I was just a few rows back from where I am standing now. The doors to my right were barricaded with furniture like this, which we use to hold paper, as a mob tried to break in and prevent us from ratifying the results of an American Presidential election.

I along with my colleagues like Mr. Jones, who is here with me, were prepared for the worst. These doors were locked. We didn't know if there would be a way out. But we were determined to do our job.

I think the most important thing that happened on January 6, the thing I hope that people remember that happened, isn't that we had to evacuate the House floor. I hope they remember that we came back.

We came back while there was still blood on the walls, while there was still broken glass on the floor, while we ourselves were dealing with our own emotional response to what had happened. While we ourselves were shaken, we came back and we voted--yes, in a bipartisan way--to affirm an American Presidential election. Our democracy held, just barely.

Since then, we have seen a more clever, slower attempt to accomplish the same thing that those rioters tried to do on January 6, which is to subvert the will of the American people. We have seen it in State after State.

We have seen the worst rash of voter suppression laws that we have had in this country since the days of Jim Crow. In many ways, it is worse because it is not 1965, Mr. Speaker. It is 2022, and we should have made more progress by now. We shouldn't be having this conversation about whether or not certain Americans should be able to vote in our elections.

We have had this problem since the passage of the 15th Amendment, the idea that certain votes matter more than others, or that votes of certain people who live in certain places are inherently fraudulent, or that they don't know enough to be involved in an election.

I tell you what, I believe in the American people. I believe that they know that our democracy is what makes our country great. Our democracy is what allows us to have this thriving economy.

People are trying everything they can to get into this country still. They are not trying to join some of our autocratic opponents. They are not trying to break into Russia or China. They want to come to the United States. We are still a beacon of hope for the world.

When strongmen and autocrats worry about the United States, it is not just our military they worry about. It is our ideas. It is the idea of the United States. While that idea is under attack, I believe it is going to stand strong.

I want to say, Mr. Speaker, to all of my constituents, to anyone who may be listening to this, the fight to protect the right to vote is far from over. The Senate may not have done its job yesterday, but I and my colleagues will not give up that fight.

Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Jones).

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from New York for his words.

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

I thank the gentleman for yielding.

Madam Speaker, this should be a bipartisan vote. The right to vote has been reauthorized, and the Voting Rights Act has been reauthorized overwhelmingly by bipartisan majorities in this House, and unanimously in the Senate.

My constituent, George W. Bush, signed the reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act. But now it is time for us to not just restore the Voting Rights Act, but to make sure that we expand voting rights across the country, to give us a sword and a shield; the shield of the Voting Rights Act to protect the right to vote, to protect changes; and the sword of the Freedom to Vote Act and the expansions that it will provide, to vote by mail, voter registration, and allow every single American to make their voice heard in our elections.

Madam Speaker, our Nation's future depends on protecting our wireless networks from vulnerabilities and untrusted vendors like Chinese-backed companies. That is why today I rise in support of my bipartisan bill, the Open RAN Outreach Act.

This bill encourages the administration to provide outreach and technical assistance to small communications network providers regarding how to use Open Radio Access Networks, or Open RAN technologies, including those produced in my district in north Texas.

Many carriers use a closed or proprietary network, meaning that they need to use one vendor or manufacturer. This can place a substantial cost burden on smaller carriers to reduce costs, potentially by using cheaper, Chinese-owned alternatives like Huawei.

Open RAN allows different components to be produced by different companies, leading to a more diverse and competitive supply chain. My legislation ensures smaller carriers have the tools they need to deploy Open RAN if desired, helping secure our wireless networks.

Madam Speaker, I encourage my colleagues to vote ``yes'' in support of this bill.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of my bipartisan bill, the fiscal year 2021 Major Medical Facility Authorization Act.

As the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq come to an end, as a Nation, we are reminded of our profound and sacred commitment to ensure that each and every one of our veterans gets the support, services, and care they need when they return home.

We owe this commitment to every generation of veterans who have served. I know this from when I visited Afghanistan in 2019 as a member of this committee.

Whether it is exposure to toxic air, coping with the stress and mental toll of their service, or trying to find a good job as they transition back to civilian life, we must do all we can to support our veterans who have served us so well.

That is why I was proud to lead this bipartisan bill in the House. This bill would create jobs by authorizing the construction of several major VA medical facilities across the country, including a spinal cord injury center in Dallas, my hometown and just outside of my district.

The Dallas project, currently underway, will construct a 30-bed, long-term care spinal cord injury center with the capacity to expand to 60 beds. These funds will ensure this center has all the tools it needs to best serve veterans in its care, including a warehouse administration building, parking garage, and central plant improvements.

In addition to providing long-term care for the medical complications of spinal cord injuries and disorders, the center will provide a residential setting in which highly dependent or medically complex veterans could live on a long-term basis, receiving the specialized environment, staff skills, and equipment that they require.

In 2020, I worked with folks in both parties to help secure a new VA hospital in Garland, in my district. This was a vacant hospital that we were able to get donated to the VA system. It took months and months of meetings and calls, but we were able to get it done. It has now been up and running for over a year, and the folks there are doing extraordinary work. It proves that when we provide the VA with the resources it needs, the hardworking folks there will go above and beyond to serve our veterans.

The facility is expected to eventually create 5,000 jobs and is helping us to better serve 174,000 veterans in north Texas.

Mr. Speaker, I am so honored to keep building on this work with the passage of this bill because, like our veterans' service and sacrifice, our commitment to them must be sacred.

I thank my House cosponsors, Representatives Derek Kilmer, Kim Schrier, and Mike Levin. I also thank Chairman Takano and Ranking Member Bost for their leadership on this bill. I thank the Senate leads, Senator Jon Tester, chairman of the Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs, and Senator Jerry Moran as well.

Mr. Speaker, I urge all of my colleagues to support this measure.

Madam Speaker, I am honored to congratulate the Baylor University men's basketball team for their historic achievement in winning the 2021 NCAA national championship.

This marks the very first men's basketball championship in the history of the school, and it caps off an incredible season in which the team held a 28-2 record and were the Big 12 regular season champions.

I played college football at Baylor; and I know that it is a place filled with committed,

student-athletes who work together to achieve great things. It takes a tremendous amount of hard work, practice, and teamwork to reach this level of success, and those qualities abound in this team.

In a basketball season like no other, this accomplishment was hard- fought, and it reflects the dedication of each and every player, the leadership of Coach Scott Drew and the team's entire coaching and support staff as well as all their families and friends.

An achievement such as this does not happen without the support of an entire community.

It is such a privilege to recognize this outstanding group for their dedication, perseverance, and ultimately success in bringing a championship home to Baylor.

As a former Bear, I could not be prouder. Sic 'em.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 1, the For the People Act.

As a former voting rights attorney, I have seen firsthand the devastation on the faces of Americans when they are denied their ability to make their voice heard in our elections because they missed an arbitrary deadline or have shown up to their old polling place. It is heartbreaking, and it is not who we are as a nation.

With today's vote on the For the People Act, we, as a Congress, have an opportunity to affirmatively expand access to voting. This bill would do so by allowing for automatic and same-day voter registration and establishing a national early voting period, while also enacting key reforms that will make our elections more secure and that will ensure Americans and only Americans take part in them.

I am proud that two bills that I introduced, the Know Your Polling Place Act and the Shell Company Abuse Act, which would make our democracy more accessible and more secure, are included in today's bill.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to return political power to everyday Americans and to vote for this legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I hereby remove my name as cosponsor of H.R. 804, which I was inadvertently put on.

Madam Speaker, I congratulate the people of Garland on the re-opening of the Carver Senior Center. This building has been a pillar of the community for decades, and I commend the City of Garland and Carver Alumni Programs and Services for investing in this facility and keeping its legacy alive.

This building holds historical significance for the City of Garland, as it previously served African-American students as the George Washington Carver School for Negroes before Garland schools desegregated. Throughout that time, the building also served as a cultural center for Garland's African American community.

I commend the alumni of the Carver School, the City of Garland, and community leaders who, through a partnership with the Council of Governments, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, were able to secure federal funds to renovate the facility and fight to keep the center open for the seniors that needed it.

The center will now be able to provide recreation, wellness check- ups, nutrition programs, and companionship for low-income senior citizens in Garland. l thank everyone who came together to ensure this building could continue to serve our community. They represent the best of Texas.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor the outgoing mayor of Dallas, Mike Rawlings, for his 8 years of exceptional service to our great city.

Under the mayor's leadership, Dallas saw incredible economic growth. Unemployment has outperformed the State and national rate for 51 consecutive months.

There is no better advocate for Dallas, as the mayor traveled all over the world working to bring investment to our city and help every part of the city succeed. He helped to improve the quality of life by adding 215 of parklands and 40 miles of trails. He has worked to close the gaps in opportunity in our city.

Maya Angelou said: ``You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them.'' Mayor Rawlings showed incredible leadership in times of crisis, and there is no better example than the grace and leadership he showed in handling the July 7, 2016, attacks on Dallas police officers. He has been a unifying voice for our city.

As a son of Dallas, I want to thank Mayor Rawlings for his service.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to oppose the newly announced tariffs on Mexico by this administration.

Hardworking Texans cannot be asked to bear the brunt of a costly and unnecessary trade war that would not solve our problems or address our broken immigration system.

Our economy in Texas is powered by trade with Mexico. Texas is the number one State in the Nation for trade with Mexico.

Last year alone, we imported $107 billion in goods from Mexico; and these tariffs, if taken to their natural end, could cost us $27 billion in Texas alone.

I have met with Lennox, a heating and air-conditioning company, headquartered in my district in Richardson, Texas. They employ 8,000 Americans, and they rely on subcomponents made in Mexico to manufacture products here in the U.S. Their business is put at risk by these tariffs.

Toyota, another great company that is headquartered in north Texas, has said that these tariffs will cost them and their suppliers as much as $1 billion.

I have heard from countless constituents about their concerns about what this will do to the Texas economy. This is unacceptable.

I commend my colleagues in the Senate for contemplating action to stop these tariffs and plan to join them and support them in the House.

Mr. Speaker, I received a letter recently from Paul Rozinsky of Richardson, Texas. Paul is 81 and uses Medicare Advantage. He has type 2 diabetes.

In his letter, he says that there are two identical versions of insulin; one is

$140 and the other is $24.88, made on a special contract for Walmart. Paul can't get access to the cheaper drug because it isn't on the insurer's drug list.

He wrote to his insurer about an exception to his tiered pricing so that he could qualify for the cheaper version. They rejected it with a note, saying: ``We apologize for the inconvenience.''

That is unacceptable and far too common. In fact, one in four patients with diabetes are rationing their insulin because of higher costs.

We must do better for Paul and millions like him who need access to cheaper medicines. This Congress must act and sign into legislation law that lowers costs and simplifies the process so it is easy to use.

Access to healthcare shouldn't be a partisan issue. I call on my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to come together and get something done this year to address the cost of prescription drugs.

Madam Speaker, this new freshman class has made history as the youngest and most diverse ever, and I am incredibly proud to be a Member of this class and of this Congress and to serve with my friend, Representative Stevens, as freshman class co-president of the Democratic class.

We truly do represent our Nation's slogan of E pluribus unum--out of

many, one. And though we have much more work to do as the end of our first 100 days approaches, we have made real progress in fulfilling our efforts to make the lives of ordinary Americans a little bit better.

As freshman class co-president, I can tell you that this class came here with a mandate to end the sabotage of Americans' healthcare and to work to lower costs. I was proud to lead the effort, on our very first day in Congress, as we placed the United States House back on the side of the people by intervening to defend the Affordable Care Act in court and with it its protections for people with preexisting conditions.

This resolution, that I was proud to lead, passed with bipartisan support, sending a strong message that the United States House will not stand idly by while this administration tries to take us back to the bad old days when people were denied care because they had a preexisting condition or ran into lifetime caps on their coverage.

We have also introduced bold legislation that will stop the sabotage, stabilize healthcare markets, and lower costs for regular folks, that I hope will pass with bipartisan support. After all, that is what the American people want us to do, to work together.

We have also passed commonsense gun safety measures that will keep our communities safe by closing loopholes in the background check system.

We passed the Paycheck Fairness Act, which helps guarantee that, no matter who you are, everyone gets equal pay for equal work.

We passed the most historic anticorruption and pro-democracy bill in a generation, H.R. 1, the For the People Act, which will reduce the influence of big money and special interests in Washington and return power to the people by expanding voting rights and ending voter suppression.

From my post on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, we are laying the groundwork for a much-needed and long overdue infrastructure bill. In my district in north Texas, we are rapidly growing, and I know that I am not alone in hearing from folks who are stuck in traffic and tired of congestion on their commutes, and we can and must do more to repair our roads and bridges and to diversify the transportation options available to all Americans.

In closing, I issue this challenge to my colleagues in both parties, in the House and in the Senate. The American people are counting on us. Let's put aside partisan politics and let's work together. From prescription drugs to infrastructure, there is so much that we agree on. Let's deliver in the next 100 days for the American people.

Madam Speaker, I thank Chairman Pallone for his leadership, and I am proud to lead the charge on this resolution condemning the administration's attacks on American's healthcare in Federal court.

With the support of so many of my colleagues, this resolution puts the United States Congress on the record as being on the side of the people. As this administration seeks to tear down our healthcare system, this Congress will not stand by while cynical and partisan interests attack our healthcare system and that of hardworking Americans.

Whether it is allowing young people to stay on their parent's insurance until they are 26, or protecting people from lifetime caps, or ensuring that folks with preexisting conditions get the care that they need, this should not be a partisan issue.

The fight to protect preexisting conditions is personal for me. My mother is a breast cancer survivor and my wife Aly and I just celebrated the birth of our son. Both of those are preexisting conditions. And concern about healthcare is, by far, the number one issue that my constituents talk to me about back home.

That brings me to Natalie, a lawyer with young children, Hugo and Mia, who is married to Nathan, a law professor at Southern Methodist University. Nathan recently attended the State of the Union here with me in Washington.

I met Natalie on the same day that the House voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act. I learned that she had stage IV cancer and that she had come to my event from her chemotherapy treatment. She explained to me that her goal was to fight her cancer for as long as she could so that her two children would know her.

Natalie came to my event that day because she was worried about future moms who would lose their care if the Affordable Care Act was repealed. She was concerned about a return to the bad old days with lifetime caps and discrimination against people with preexisting conditions.

Sadly, Natalie passed away last year, but her fight goes on, a fight that I am honored to carry forward on behalf of north Texans here in Washington. My home State of Texas has the highest uninsured rate in the country. One in five people in Dallas County, where I live, do not have health insurance. We can and must do better.

I urge my colleagues on the other side of the aisle in the House and the Senate to join us in condemning these attacks on our healthcare system. We must make sure that we don't go back to the bad old days where people can get thrown off their healthcare just because they got sick.

This resolution is a good first step, but we must come together to help our constituents by working together to pass legislation that will stabilize our system and lower costs for everyone.

Madam Speaker, I am honored to commemorate a milestone for the community of Rowlett, Texas, the grand opening of the Life Message Veterans Resource & Outreach Center.

This facility is already making a difference in veterans' lives in this community, but Friday, March 29, 2019 will mark the ground- breaking and official opening ceremony of the center.

We owe a great debt to our veterans and their families, and I thank the people of Rowlett for their work on this effort. This is a great example of a community coming together to support those who have sacrificed so much for our nation.

It is an honor to represent them in Congress, and I know that I am deeply dedicated to being a strong and reliable partner for this new center as it works to become a source of long-term support and solutions for our veterans.

Mr. Speaker, as I am back home in Dallas, Texas, on paternity leave with my family, I submit the following vote explanation. Had I been present, I would have voted ``yea'' on rollcall No. 85, ``yea'' on rollcall No. 86, and ``yea'' on rollcall No. 87.