Floor Statements

Madam Speaker, the Putin regime requires every strategy and every action that we can muster to put a stop to Russia and restore sanity to our world order.

Russia's aggressive and brutal behavior, brutal actions towards Ukraine is beyond what I call the pale. We have no other choice but to step in and put a stop to it.

Madam Speaker, I strongly support this resolution.

Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from New Mexico (Ms. Stansbury).

Mr. Speaker, I have been taught and told from an African proverb that when a tall tree falls in the forest it makes a lot of noise, it gathers a lot of attention, everybody and every entity in the forest knows that something has happened.

A few days ago, a tall tree fell in the ``Chicagoland'' community where I live. A gentleman, Mr. Pervis Spann, spent the last day of his life. Pervis Spann, to all of us, is known as the ``blues man'' because he was a great artist who projected, promoted, and entertained us for years.

Pervis was born in Itta Bena, Mississippi. Like many other African Americans who were born in Itta Bena, Mississippi, and anyone else in Mississippi, individuals migrated to other places. Thousands and thousands and thousands of them made their way to Chicago, Illinois.

As a matter of fact, we fondly say that the only place where there are more Mississippians than there are in Chicago is in Mississippi itself. Many individuals left the delta area. So did Pervis Spann. He went to Michigan; worked in Gary, Indiana; and joined the military. But eventually he made his way to Chicago.

He came to Chicago and used his GI Bill to go to broadcasting school, and he got to be very good at it, not only as a broadcaster but also as a promoter.

Ultimately, the Stack brothers bought a radio station, and they named that station WVON. Eventually Mr. Pervis Spann, Vernon Jarrett, Wesley South and a woman named Gwendolyn Hayes ended up acquiring the station. Spann was the blues part of it. As a matter of fact, he entertained and promoted, entertained and promoted.

The station also became a pioneer in talk radio. As a matter of fact, before there was talk radio, Wesley South, one of the partners, had a talk radio program called ``On Target''. And this was years and years and years ago. ``On Target''. It is hard to believe that talk now dominates in many places. So WVON was a pioneer of talk radio.

It also has become the powerhouse of communication in the Chicagoland area, especially for African Americans. Talk all day long about whatever is going on in the community, whatever is going on in Chicago, and whatever is going on in the world, WVON. As a matter of fact, many of my neighbors and friends wait to wake up in the morning so that they can listen to WVON especially, beginning at 6:00 o'clock in the morning.

But not only was Pervis Spann a tremendous promoter, but he also was a tremendous businessman period. Ultimately the station came into the hands of his daughter, Melody Spann-Cooper, who has taken it to new heights. If it is not heard on VON, it did not happen if it was not part of the discussion on WVON. So it is much more than entertainment. It is the community's townhall all day long, every day, whatever it is, WVON leads the way.

So I simply wanted to express condolences to his family on his passing and also let his family know how much Pervis Spann has meant to Chicago, how much it has meant to the socialization of the community, how much it has meant to the business promotion of the community, and how much it has meant to the spirituality of the community. On Sunday afternoons there is kind of a gospel-political atmosphere created, so that some people can hardly wait to get home from church so they can turn on VON so they can listen to

the ``Gospel with Pam Morris Walton'' show.

So Pervis may have been the bluesman, and he may have entertained all the greats. Pervis Spann was noted and known as the person who named Aretha Franklin the ``Queen of Soul''. He gave her that designation, and it stuck. So Melody will carry on in the tradition of her father as VON is the voice not just of the Negro--that was what the VON stood for--but the voice of the Nation, WVON, Pervis Spann.

Of course, Mr. Speaker, this month is Women's History Month, and we celebrate Women's History Month because of the tremendous progress that has been made.

I am always reminded that when a group of men sat in the room and stated that we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, they didn't really mean all men. They meant some men. They meant the men whom they felt had enough knowledge, enough resources, and enough interests to make decisions for the country. Therefore, all men were not in the room.

As a matter of fact, African-American men who were in slave States were not even considered as a full man. African-American slaves were considered as three-fifths. They had something called the three-fifths compromise which meant that they would only count African-American slaves as three-fifths of a person when they were counting up for the Census, not all men and no women.

As a matter of fact, women didn't get the right to vote in this country until a little more than 100 years ago. Yet, as a result of suffrage, protests, struggle, and changes, now a woman is the Vice President of the United States. So there has been movement, although not nearly enough and not nearly what there has to be. So the struggle will continue so that ultimately there will be levels of equity in this country for women, Blacks, and other citizens who don't have it and have not had it.

The woman that I chose to mention at this time is a woman, Merri Dee, who was an icon in broadcasting and philanthropy. Merri Dee was born in Chicago in 1936, the youngest of six children. She was only 2 years old when her mother died. Her father ultimately became sick and, of course, he had remarried. She was adopted by her stepmother, and she maintained that life was pretty rough for her until she got to the fifth grade and met a wonderful teacher who helped to change her life.

She stated in an interview that this teacher, a Mrs. Robinson, told her that she would be great. She believed in that teacher, and then she went on and became great.

She graduated from Englewood High School, went back to New Orleans and enrolled in Xavier University where she studied business administration. She, of course, dropped out and took a job at IBM to help her other brothers and sisters. She then worked, got married, got divorced, had a daughter, got a good job, and she just felt that she was spending too much time away at her job and from her child, so she quit that job, and somebody told her: You have a gift for gab.

She decided to study broadcasting and journalism.

She did, and she got so good at it, eventually she got her first show, a radio show. She did that for a bit, and then she got a television show, became excellent at it, and became one of the top female broadcasters in the United States.

As a matter of fact, she was so good, she did that, then she ran into a little difficulty. She and one of her guests were kidnapped leaving the show, robbed, shot, left for dead, and with two bullets in her head she crawled up to the highway where someone picked her up, took her to the hospital, and she stayed hospitalized for a year.

As a matter of fact, she was told that she wouldn't make it and had two last rites given to her, one by the Reverend Jesse Jackson who was indeed a friend of hers. But she prevailed and lived and was in the hospital for a year. She came back, got hired by WGN Television, and she became an anchor. She did that for 11 years. Then they asked her to take the job as director of community relations and public affairs and their children's charities, and she did.

She generated $31 million for the charities and for the philanthropic work. She just kept doing it. I have never known anybody who was more open and more giving. I must have gone to at least hundreds of charitable events over the years where Merri Dee was the announcer. She was the facilitator. She was the person making it happen.

So when we design and define what greatness is, Merri Dee was obviously a great woman, a great broadcaster, a tremendous communicator, and a person who could stir audiences and groups and convince people to give thousands of dollars for needy causes.

So, Mr. Speaker, I salute Merri Dee. I salute her, and I revere her. I know that if people go up that way, that she is up there walking among the angels and putting on events and activities and waiting for other people to come.

Remembering Harold Washington

Mr. Speaker, finally, I will mention, although it is Women's History Month, I will mention now an African- American male who was a transformative figure in the life, especially of a big city that was the third largest city in the United States of America, a gentleman named Harold Washington, who became the first African-American mayor of the city of Chicago.

Harold, if he was alive now, would be celebrating his 100th birthday. He would be 100 years old.

Harold was a transformative figure in the political life of Chicago. Chicago was known as the city of the big shoulders, known as many things. But it was a patronage-laden city. Patronage guided the politics of Chicago.

For a long time, it had a tradition that if somebody went to city hall or to State government or county government to get a job, the saying was: ``Don't bring nobody, didn't nobody see it,'' basically meaning that unless you had a letter from a ward boss or from some elected official who was part of the system, even if it was a job that you had ten times the qualifications for, you wouldn't get it. You wouldn't get it because you didn't have the hook-up; you didn't have the connection.

We actually convinced Harold Washington, I am sure, to run for mayor. He had become a Member of Congress. He had been the Democratic lead on the voting rights bill. Of course, in the mid `60s and `70s, that was still hot, just as it is hot today.

It is amazing that we can't get the voting rights extension granted, especially when all politicians in this country basically suggest that they believe in democracy, that they believe in democratic principles, and that they believe that everybody should have a right to participate and express themselves. Then we go through this process of wrangling to make it happen.

But somehow or another, there seems to be a block. I don't know; maybe people have changed their minds from what they learned in grammar school or in high school or what they read in the Constitution and all of that. It seems that way.

Nevertheless, Harold Washington was convinced by people like Lou Palmer, people like Vernon Jarrett, people like myself and others, to run for the mayor of the city of Chicago. He said: Well, if you guys really want me to run for mayor, you have got to show it. If you don't show it, I won't do it. You have got to get some people registered to vote, and you have got to raise some money.

I remember sitting in a room in Lou Palmer's basement, eating watermelon, as a matter of fact, about 10 or 12 of us. We then said to Harold Washington: Well, Harold, you can go on to your next meeting. And we set out to generate the conditions and meet the conditions that he had set.

Harold was so astute, such a charmer, such an intellectual, but he also liked to walk the streets and talk to people in the alley and talk to people who other people probably wouldn't.

I never will forget that I had set up a meeting with a bunch of motorcycle riders for Harold to go to, and some of his campaign people didn't want him to come. Motorcycle riders, the Born Losers, the Buzzing Bees, and Dragons. Harold said: I will be there. Of course, he came, and everybody had donned their leather jackets and all those things.

After he got elected, we ended up with some plaques that the motorcycle

riders gave to Harold and to me. I don't know what happened to his. Mine is still around.

But when Harold got elected, the city council organized against him. There were 29 people on the other side and 21 of us. We called it the 29-21. Ultimately, we ended up with a 25-25 split. Every item that came up, there would be 25 votes for it and 25 votes against it. Then, of course, Harold would get a chance to break the tie.

He had such a sense of fairness that he went all over the city assuring every community that they would be treated the same as every other community, that they would get a part of the infrastructure money, that their schools would be prepared, and that their sidewalks would be repaired and fixed.

He became bigger than life. As a matter of fact, when Harold died, people celebrated in the streets and spent days walking through to pay reverence. That is because he helped people understand that government belonged to them, and they did not necessarily belong to government.

When people ask what was the transformation, the transformation was that the patronage system was seriously diminished. The transformation was the greatest participation, in terms of turnout in elections, would occur, because the people felt that they had somebody in the highest office who respected and recognized what they had to say.

Harold would stop on the street and have a townhall, and 15, 20 people would gather around. It wasn't his intent to stop on the street. He just stopped and would spend time.

Someone asked me what was one of my fondest memories or stories about Harold Washington. I told them it was the fact that I drove a car for 19 years. In 19 years, the car had sort of rusted in the floor, and I put a plank there. We were someplace and Harold wanted a ride to tell me something or ask me something, so he told his guys to go ahead and he was going to ride to the next stop with me. When he got in the car, the plank had shifted. He looked down and said: ``What the . . . ''

I said: ``Mr. Mayor, don't worry about that. Just push that plank back over, and you won't even know that there is no floor.''

He said: ``Why don't you buy yourself a car?'' Well, I didn't get one right then. Eventually, I did.

Harold Washington transformed the politics of Chicago. Harold Washington gave being an elected official in Chicago a new meaning, that it was not just about glad handing and backslapping. It was about trying to serve and serving the people.

Harold, you did your job, you did it well, and we pray tribute to you even during Women's History Month.

Recognizing Chicago's Ukrainian Village

Mr. Speaker, as I prepare to close, I can't help but be reminded that I represent a community in Chicago that we fondly call Ukrainian Village. That is because most of the people there are of Ukrainian heritage.

We have a rally every week. We have everything that you can possibly have, with the hope and with the faith that our President, that our country, will stay on the course. We have no doubt that we will continue to protect Ukraine as a part of the humanity that this country, ``My Country, `Tis of Thee,'' needs to express, because we know that so goes Ukraine, so goes the other countries nearby, and, ultimately, so will go the United States of America.

Ukraine is a part of us. We are a part of Ukraine. Together, I think we will beat back the murderous, cowardly pact. We will be pressed to the wall, but always, as Claude McKay would say, always, always fighting back.

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

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 6968, suspending energy imports in response to Russia's barbaric, inhumane, and unprovoked attacks on Ukraine and the Ukrainian people. These imports include crude oil, petroleum, coal, coal products, natural gas, and other products.

On March 8, President Biden issued an executive order to prohibit energy imports from Russia, which I totally agree with. Mr. Speaker, I support and urge passive of H.R. 6968.

Madam Speaker, I commend the chairwoman of this committee and ranking member for bringing this very important bipartisan bill to the floor.

I associate myself with many of the comments that have been made by colleagues on both sides, but I also remember when Chicago, the third largest city in the United States of America, believed that its Postal Service was the best thing it had going. We took great pride in it. That has not been the case for the last several years.

And so we are coming to this point today where we can restore the viability of our Postal Service. I also worked at the post office. It was my first real job. And we had a saying: ``Clean hands, gentle touch, surely we owe a letter that much.'' We will restore that.

Madam Speaker, life is precious, even if you live it for only a brief period of time. When you are blessed to live 110 years, one hundred and ten productive years, and be in relatively good health, good enough to talk several minutes with a Congressman who called your daughter to get some information, you are truly blessed.

Mrs. Juanita Mitchell was born December 15, 1911 in Nestor, Louisiana to Acklin and Cinderella Carrere. She remembers her grandmother cooking and people working in the field and harvesting the crops. She describes her grandfather as White, and remarks his family distanced themselves from him after he married a black woman, her grandmother.

Mrs. Mitchell and her family relocated to Chicago in 1919 following the death of her father. Her father left home going to New Orleans in preparation for war service. During his time in New Orleans, he took sick, was diagnosed with pneumonia, which became known as the plague. It was the loss of her father that prompted her mother to come to Chicago with her two girls. Mrs. Mitchell's relocation to Chicago was unsettling, when she came to Chicago in 1919 as race riots erupted. Mrs. Mitchell has vivid memories of these experiences and shares the events and how it felt as an 8-year-old child. She recalls hiding behind the piano in her uncle's home with her mother and younger sister. Juanita Mitchell lived through the Chicago race riots, the depression and segregated neighborhoods. She went on to marry and raise two children. Juanita Mitchell lived on 35th and Giles in Chicago. Her aunt and uncle, Dr. Carl White had a grocery store and his medical office across the street from Olivet Baptist Church.

Mrs. Mitchell attended Sunday School and church at Olivet Baptist Church. She attended Drake Elementary and Hyde Park High School. She then went on to business school and Washburn Trade where she studied Tailoring. Juanita and Morant Mitchell were married May 3, 1934. They celebrated 50 years of marriage in 1984. Mr. Mitchell died in 1987. Mrs. Mitchell was always civic minded. She is a life-long Eastern Star and is a past worthy matron.

In moving to Flossmoor at the age 85, she continued her community engagement, serving on the beautiful Action Committee for her subdivision and attending village and association meetings at the age of 110 years old, and she continues to be a member of the ``Belles of Ballantrae''.

Congratulations to Mrs. Juanita Carrere Mitchell, on living a long and outstanding life.

I thank Mary for bringing her mother to our attention. Mary, John, and other members of the family have been truly blessed to have her with them for all of their lives. May she continue to live and enjoy life.

Madam Speaker, I rise in strong support of passage of H.R. 5665, and commend its sponsor, Representative Omar, and my colleague from Illinois, Representative Schakowsky, for its introduction.

I was taught early in life to accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative, and don't mess around with Mister-In-Between.

This resolution reaffirms many of the principles in practice that we have been taught and learned that religion is sacrosanct, that religion is sacred, and every person deserves to have their religious thoughts, ideas, and ideology protected.

I urge support and passage of this legislation.

Madam Speaker, I thank the chair for yielding me time.

I rise in strong support of H.R. 5314, Protecting Our Democracy Act.

Democracy generates the notion and the idea that people will get and be engaged, involved, heard, and have their wishes met.

I agree with my colleague from Illinois when he said voters all over the country vote for us and they send us here. They vote for our colleagues in the Senate and send them there. We make laws. Then they expect those laws to be adhered to. No one is above them. No President.

And we are not obsessed with the former President, but we are obsessed with the idea and the hope that we will never have another administration like that one. And that is what this legislation is designed to do.

Madam Speaker, I urge support of this legislation.

Madam Speaker, fifty years ago this fall, Congress overwhelmingly passed the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) that would ensure equality for women and prohibit discrimination based on sex, gender identity, and sexual orientation. In 2020, the ERA crossed its final hurdle to becoming a constitutional amendment when Virginia ratified it. Consequently, the ERA now meets the legal threshold for a constitutional amendment--to be ratified by 38 states. Without haste, the ERA must be certified and published.

Since WWII, women have been the backbone of the U.S. economy and nurturers to the nation, yet they do not enjoy equal protection under the law from discrimination based on sex. As the former Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia once commented, ``Certainly the Constitution does not require discrimination on the basis of sex. The only issue is whether it prohibits it. It doesn't.'' Today, women hold the majority of jobs in the nation, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Yet their pay lags their White male counterparts. Analysis by the American Association of University Women found that White women earn just 79 percent compared to White men. The pay gap disparity is even greater for women of color, with Black women earning just 63 percent and Hispanic women earning a mere 55 percent compared to White men.

The structural disparities for women in the workforce go beyond simply lower pay. Regardless of the industry, women's labor continues to be undervalued, Studies show that once women enter an occupation in large numbers, wages for the occupation as a whole decline, particularly in the service industry which blatantly devalues women's contributions. And again, women of color are disproportionality impacted, with structural disparities for women of color in the labor force dating back to the end of slavery. Economic growth--both business and personal--boomed based on the exploitation of women of color. For Black women, they were forced laborers under slavery and then forced into low-paying, exploitive jobs. Similarly, Native American women experienced land theft and indentured servitude, robbing them of their economic power. These historical systems created the occupational segregation that persists today, where women of color get tracked into undervalued careers with little power and pay. The government has long failed to mandate that business owners extend basic protections to occupations dominated by women, all while relying on them to do the hardest, dirtiest, and most dangerous work--a trend that has been magnified by the COVID-19 pandemic.

It is long-past time to recognize the equal value of women and enact a constitutional amendment to address discrimination based on sex, sexual orientation, and gender in our country. The ERA is necessary to remedy structural inequalities for women. The ERA would cause public and private industry to address pay inequalities, equal access to health care, and equal treatment under the law. The ERA would give women the right to demand equal protection via the courts.

Fifty years after passage, the vast majority of Americans support the ERA. Specifically, a recent poll by the National Opinion Research Center found that three-quarters of Americans back the ERA, including 90 percent of Democrats and 60 percent of Republicans. The House has passed legislation to eliminate an administrative barrier to certification and publishing of the ERA by removing the arbitrary deadline for the archivist to certify and publish the ERA. Now the Senate must do the same.

As we mark the 50th anniversary of the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment, I reaffirm my resolute commitment to certification and publishing of the ERA to make our country stronger by guaranteeing that women as a class are equal to men. Certifying the ERA is not just symbolic. It is a legal anchor to dismantle systematic discrimination based on sex, giving women and all marginalized genders another tool to achieve equality. The Senate must take action now to remove the arbitrary deadline for the archivist to certify and publish the ERA; pass S.J. Res. 1 now.

Madam Speaker, I ran for Congress to help people in Chicago, in Illinois and across the country achieve the American dream. The Build Back Better Act represents a transformative investment in children, families, workers, businesses, and the planet that will improve health and well-being, advance economic and environmental justice, meaningfully address climate change, and grow our economy while asking the wealthiest and most secure to pay their fair share. The pandemic has harmed tens of millions of Americans-- disproportionately hurting African Americans and other communities of color, women, seniors, and children. This bill meets immediate needs for food, shelter, medical care, and child care as well as long-term needs for quality education, good-paying jobs, safe roads and water, and a healthy environment. I am deeply proud that many priorities that I have championed are included in this historic bill.

It provides 4 weeks of paid family and medical leave for workers so that they do not face the inhumane choice of caring for loved ones or financial ruin. Lower-income workers and workers of color are much less likely to have any paid leave, yet are more likely to need it due to greater health challenges and less savings to weather caregiving without pay. As Chair of the Subcommittee with jurisdiction over paid leave, I have worked closely with Ways and Means Chairman Neal and advocates to shape this equity-generating, universal benefit.

The bill enhances the Earned Income Tax Credit to improve the economic well-being of millions of childless workers and noncustodial parents--with new help for younger workers, foster and homeless youth, and seniors. I've fought for these improvements for over a decade via my Responsible Fatherhood Act. These changes will help 17 million adults nationwide and over 600,000 in Illinois.

It provides $2 billion to train workers with barriers to employment-- including people with records--for careers in the allied health professions. This provision will help Chicago State which has a stellar Health Profession Opportunity Grant program and expand programs like those offered by the Safer Foundation to help people with records become successful healthcare professionals.

It helps vulnerable students by making Pell non-taxable and removing the lifetime ban on the American Opportunity Tax Credit for past felony drug convictions.

It incents substantial private investment in solar energy that will reduce electricity costs for tens of millions of low-income individuals while making the air they breathe safer.

It contains strong labor provisions so that our investments in green energy benefit workers as well as businesses.

It includes $1 billion for to help justice-involved individuals obtain employment and training services via the Reentry Employment Opportunities Program. It makes sure that people leaving prison have Medicaid coverage to improve health and successful reentry.

It includes $2.5 billion for public health approaches to reduce community violence and

advance trauma interventions, which I have championed via the RISE from Trauma Act.

It helps restore fairness to the tax code by rolling back the Republicans' punitive limit on the State and Local Tax deduction to hurt citizens in blue states like Illinois.

The pandemic hit Black renters with children especially hard, with 29 percent reporting that their household is not caught up on rent. Further, in 2020, Black and Latino families with children were more than twice as likely to suffer food insecurity as white households. The Build Back Better Act addresses racial and economic inequities for communities of color and rural and underserved communities. It dramatically reduces child poverty via a substantial Child Tax Credit, raising a projected 4.1 million children above the poverty line and cutting child poverty by more than 40 percent. In October alone, the advanced CTC gave caregivers in my Congressional District over $30 million to provide food, shelter, and other necessities for 121,000 children. This bill makes the largest investment in affordable housing and community development in half a century--over $145 billion--and it feeds the hungry with $10 billion for nutrition.

It makes Americans healthier by decreasing the cost of health insurance and medication, expanding medical services, investing $1 billion in community health centers, and providing tremendous funding to reduce health inequities.

It makes the largest investment in child care in our Nation's history, saving most families more than half of their spending on child care. Further, it makes historic investments to care for seniors and individuals with disabilities so that they can receive care in their homes and communities, recognizing the need to care for our aging population.

It makes the largest expansion of free education since our country established public high schools a century ago. It provides universal and free preschool for all 3- and 4-year-olds, promoting racial equity in education. In addition, it expands access to affordable higher education by increasing the Pell grants by $550 for more than 5 million students, creating grants to close the college completion gap, and investing in Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Minority Serving Institutions, including Predominantly Black Institutions like Malcolm X, Olive-Harvey, and Chicago State.

This legislation invests billions in small businesses, including $1.6 billion for minority owned businesses and $105 million for education and financial assistance for the formerly-incarcerated to form businesses to create jobs in their communities. Further, it ensures the largest effort to combat climate change in American history.

I am honored to vote for this once-in-a-generation legislation. I came to Congress to make this type of momentous change. I urge my colleagues to pass it.

Madam Speaker, in late September, leaders of the National Baptist Convention USA and the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (or the Academy) announced a strategic partnership aimed at reducing health disparities for African Americans.

African Americans suffer disproportionately from COVID-19 deaths and other nutrition-related health disparities. Increasing access to healthy foods and addressing nutrition as a social determinant of health that prevents diabetes, heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure and obesity are the cornerstones of this partnership.

The joint initiative will consist of developing print and media resources that can be used in faith-based health ministries on issues such as diabetes, obesity, high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, eating on a budget, and living with kidney disease. The National Baptist Convention USA will encourage member churches to incorporate these resources into new and existing programs and services, including workshops and seminars focused on biblical connections to food and nutrition.

I want to commend and thank Patricia Babjak, Chief Executive Officer of the Academy, Evelyn Crayton, a past president of the Academy and the current Chair of the National Baptist Convention Task Force on the joint nutrition partnership that is comprised of members from the National Organization of Blacks in Dietetics and Nutrition, as well as religious interest groups for their commitment and leadership to addressing health disparities. The Academy has worked closely on this significant initiative with National Baptist Convention USA President Rev. Dr. Jerry Young and Vice President Rev. Dr. William H. Foster, Jr.

This partnership recognizes the importance of enhancing the lives of African Americans and every racial and ethnic group by improving nutrition security. In my Congressional District, there are too many food deserts and places where it's easier to get access to guns than fruits and vegetables.

I urge us all to get behind this initiative, and I applaud the Academy and the National Baptist Convention USA for their lifesaving work.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to express my strong support for the Build Back Better Act and commend all of those who played a role in making it happen, especially Speaker Pelosi and chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, Richard Neal, and all of the members and staff on that committee.

Build Back Better seriously reduces longstanding poverty among children. Which children? All children; poor children, Black children, Brown children, White children, children of disadvantaged families. It reduces poverty for 4 million children.

Build Back Better will provide pre-school programs for children of working families across America. It even provides help for individuals who have prison records so that they can get jobs and go to work.

It is good for America. It is good for every community in America.

Mr. Speaker, I strongly support it, and I urge its passing.

Madam Speaker, today I cast my vote in support of this once-in-a-generation bipartisan infrastructure bill. While the bill does not contain as many resources as I feel are needed nor is it as robust as initially envisioned, the legislation makes a momentous investment in infrastructure that Chicago and our nation desperately need.

Chicago needs the largest federal investment in public transit ever.

Chicago needs the largest investment in passenger rail since the creation of Amtrak.

Chicago needs to improve its bridges, highways, and schools.

Our neighborhoods need clean drinking water, our lead pipes need replacing, and our wastewater infrastructure requires substantial improvements. Parents should know that the water they're kids are drinking is safe from lead leaching out of old pipes or contaminated brownfields.

Chicago needs the good paying jobs--union jobs--with an expected 2 million jobs per year with critical labor protections, buy America provisions to support manufacturing here at home, and jobs in the growing clean energy industry.

Chicago needs the historic investment in highspeed internet to every American household to erase the digital divide and improve equity in technology access. Students, workers, and seniors on the West Side of Chicago shouldn't be locked out of education, applying for jobs, and accessing services by limited internet.

Chicago needs the cleaner environment that comes with electric buses and renewable energy. African American children experience higher rates of asthma, and diesel air pollution hurt our communities.

This legislation advances economic and public health opportunities for people of color. The effects of decades of disinvestment have fallen hardest on communities of color. Through substantial investments in good-paying jobs, affordable high-speed internet, public transportation, safe drinking water, and modem bridges and roads, this bill works to improve racial and economic equity.

I wholeheartedly support the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act because doing so guarantees tens of millions of dollars and thousands of jobs for Illinois, helping revitalize my community and communities across the country.

Madam Speaker, I ran for Congress to help people. To help people in Chicago, in Illinois and across the country achieve the American dream. The Build Back Better Act represents a transformative investment in children, families, workers, businesses, and the planet that will improve health and well-being, advance economic and environmental justice, meaningfully address climate change, and grow our economy while asking the wealthiest and most secure to pay their fair share.

The pandemic has harmed tens of millions of Americans-- disproportionately hurting African Americans and other communities of color, women, seniors, and children. This legislation directly and profoundly helps individuals, communities, and businesses build back better by meeting immediate needs for food, shelter, medical care, and child care as well as long-term needs for quality education, good- paying jobs, safe roads and water, and a healthy environment.

I am deeply proud that many priorities that I have championed are included in this historic bill.

It provides 4 weeks of paid family and medical leave for workers so that they do not face the inhumane choice of caring for loved ones or financial ruin. As Chair of the Subcommittee with jurisdiction over paid leave, I have worked closely with Ways and Means Chairman Neal and advocates to shape this amazing, equity-generating, universal benefit. Lower-income workers and workers of color are much less likely to have any paid leave, yet are more likely to need paid leave due to greater health challenges and less savings to weather caregiving without pay. Paid leave strengthens workers, families, and businesses, and I will continue to fight to enact this provision into law.

The bill enhances the Earned Income Tax Credit to improve the economic well-being and increase the labor-force participation of millions childless workers and noncustodial parents--with special improvements to assist younger workers, foster and homeless youth, and seniors. This provision is expected to help 17 adults nationwide and over 600,000 in Illinois. I've fought for these improvements since the early 2000s as part of my Responsible Fatherhood Act.

It provides $2 billion to train workers with barriers to employment-- including people with records--for careers in the allied health professions, simultaneously connecting people to the labor force and addressing health profession shortages. This success will help Chicago State which has a stellar Health Profession Opportunity Grant program and expand programs like those offered by the Safer Foundation and Johns Hopkins to help people with records become successful healthcare professionals.

It helps vulnerable students by making Pell non-taxable and removing the lifetime ban on the American Opportunity Tax Credit for past felony convictions.

It incents substantial private investment in solar energy that will put money in the pockets

of millions of low-income individuals by reducing electricity costs while making the air they breathe safer.

It contains strong labor provisions so that our investments in green energy benefit workers as well as businesses.

It includes $1 billion for to help justice-involved adults and youth to obtain employment and training services via the Reentry Employment Opportunities Program. It makes sure that people leaving prison have Medicaid coverage to improve health and successful reentry.

It includes $2.5 billion for public health approaches to reduce community violence and trauma interventions. I have championed these interventions with Senator Durbin in our RISE from Trauma Act.

It helps restore fairness to the tax code by rolling back the Republicans' punitive limit on the State and Local Tax deduction to hurt citizens and public employees in blue states like Illinois.

The Build Back Better Act dramatically reduces child poverty via a substantial Child Tax Credit for 2022 coupled with making the credit refundable permanently, raising a projected 4.1 million children above the poverty line and cutting child poverty by more than 40 percent. In October alone, the advanced CTC gave caregivers in my Congressional District over $30 million to provide food, shelter, and other necessities for 121,000 children.

It makes Americans healthier via substantial tax credits to cover health insurance, coverage for millions of people excluded from the ACA because their states failed to expand Medicaid, $1 billion for community health centers, Medicaid coverage for women after giving birth, tremendous funding to reduce health inequities, Medicare hearing coverage, and reduced medication costs. African Americans' risk for diabetes is 77 percent higher than that for non-Hispanic white Americans. This bill limits the co-pay for insulin to $35, which will help so many people I know.

The bill addresses racial and economic inequities for communities of color and rural and underserved communities.

It makes the largest investment in child care in our nation's history, saving most families more than half of their spending on child care. Child care is a fundamental component so that our economy and families can recover. Further, it makes historic investments to care for seniors and individuals with disabilities so that they can receive care in their homes and communities, recognizing the need to care for our aging population.

It makes the largest expansion of free education since our country established public high schools a century ago. It provides universal and free preschool for all 3- and 4-year-olds, promoting racial equity in education. In addition, it expands access to affordable higher education by increasing the Pell grants by $550 for more than 5 million students, creating grants to close the college completion gap, and investing in Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Minority Serving Institutions, including Predominantly Black Institutions like Malcolm X, Olive-Harvey, and Chicago State.

It makes the largest investment in affordable housing and community development in half a century. It addresses the housing crisis with $25 billion for rental assistance, $65 billion for public housing, $15 billion to build or improve affordable homes, and another $40 billion for critical housing initiatives. The pandemic has hit Black renters with children especially hard, with 29 percent--or an estimated 1.7 million renters--reporting that their household is not caught up on rent.

It feeds the hungry with $10 billion for nutrition, including expanding free school and summer meals. In 2020, Black and Latino families with children were more than twice as likely to suffer food insecurity as white households. Hunger has no place in the United States.

This bill invests billions in small businesses, including $1.6 billion for minority owned business and $105 million for education and financial assistance for the formerly incarcerated to form businesses to create jobs in their communities. It invests over $3 billion in capital access for small employers and entrepreneurs. The SBA lending programs have been lifelines to local businesses during the pandemic and these funds will help businesses build back better post pandemic.

This legislation ensures the largest effort combat climate change in American history by: putting money back in people's pockets as they shift to clean energy; promoting the manufacturing of clean energy technology in the US, creating hundreds of thousands of good-paying jobs; and advancing environmental justice to deliver benefits to disadvantaged communities.

I am honored to vote for this once-in-a-generation legislation. I came to Congress to make this type of momentous change to make life better for tens of millions of people. I urge my colleagues to pass it.

Madam Speaker, I am delighted to come to the floor this evening for this Special Order, because I come to pay tribute to an iconic American, John H. Johnson, the founder of the Johnson Publishing Company, the founder of Ebony magazine, Jet magazine, Fashion Fair, three radio stations that he owned, a television station, and lots of other business interests and ventures.

Growing up in southeast Arkansas during the 1950s and coming into contact with a Jet magazine or an Ebony that one of the schoolteachers may have in his or her possession or one of the ministers may have brought to town from wherever they came or the hairdresser may have had one or two, that was an exciting thing for a young African-American boy in the rural South.

Little did I know that the man responsible for those products had grown up just a few miles away, or at least until he was in the ninth grade, John H. Johnson, Arkansas City, Arkansas. Close to McGehee; Dermott; Lake Village; Eudora; Greenville, Mississippi, all of those little towns.

Of course, John H. Johnson was fond of being a storyteller. He used to tell the story of how his mother had told him: Johnny, when you finish the eighth grade, we are going to move to Chicago so that you can go to high school.

Then when he finished the eighth grade, she told him: Johnny, I didn't save enough money for us to move, so you are going to have to go to the eighth grade again. And he told her: No, mom. That is all right. I will just go to work and help you save money. And she said: Nope, you are going to the eighth grade again.

And so as bright as he must have been and as bright as he was, he had to do the eighth grade twice. Of course, eventually they did move to Chicago. He did go to high school. As a matter of fact, he went to high school with Redd Foxx and with Nat King Cole, and Mr. Abernathy, who owned and built a taxi company. He even went to school with Professor Timuel Black, who just died a few weeks ago. Tim was 102. He released his last book 2 years ago when he was 100.

And so John H. Johnson did go to high school at Phillips and DuSable, became president of his class, of course editor of the yearbook, editor of the school newspaper, and he was then offered a scholarship to the University of Chicago.

Well, he wasn't sure that he could go because he wasn't sure that he would have enough money, even with the scholarship. But he made a speech at an Urban League dinner, and the fellow who owns Supreme Life Insurance liked it, and he hired him to come and

work for him. So he was then able to make use of his scholarship and go to school.

After working for Supreme for 2 years, he actually became the president's assistant because he was so industrious and so bright and all of everything that he was.

Then he decided he would go into business for himself, and so he managed to borrow $500 or make use of $500 that his mother let him have or use, and he started his publishing business, a little magazine. He developed it and got so good at it until he did another one.

He developed the Ebony magazine; he developed the Jet magazine; and at the height he had 2,300,000 subscribers. He was zipping and zooming.

Part of what propelled him was the fact that in 1955 when Emmett Till was mutilated, murdered, and killed, he published the gruesome photographs of Emmett Till, and many people proclaimed that that really jump-started in a serious way the modern day civil rights movement because as people saw the gruesomeness of the murder of Emmett Till, they became motivated, engaged, involved.

It was the era that produced Dr. Martin Luther King, John Lewis, civil rights icons.

But at the same time that Mr. Johnson was publishing his magazines, he was really projecting the positivity of African Americans, showing Blacks who were superstars, promoting the idea.

The fact that he had to come to Chicago to high school was not really anything unusual. Many towns in the rural South at that time did not have high schools for African Americans. As a matter of fact, many of them didn't have any schools at all. Julius Rosenwald and Booker Washington teamed up and got with people in communities, and they built 5,000 schools. They are called the Rosenwald schools. As a matter of fact, our iconic colleague John Lewis attended one of those. John went to a Rosenwald school.

But John Johnson continued to develop his business and became so good at it; and he was a great storyteller himself. He didn't work as a journalist. He worked as a businessman. But he had stories that he could tell.

I was so amazed to get to meet him and know him and live in the area where his cousin lived, who introduced me to him. I remember we were in a group, an organization, and somebody said we needed to raise $500 for something, and somebody said, well, why don't we ask Johnny Johnson for it? And his cousin, Miss Willie Miles Burns, who was the head of the subscription department and worked for him, held up her hand, and she said, Johnny Johnson, who is that? The fellow said, Oh, you know, the guy down there at Ebony. And Miss Burns said, Oh, you mean Mr. John H. Johnson? He ain't no Johnny Johnson. He is Mr. John H. Johnson. She said, He is my relative, and I call him mister every time I call his name.

Well, obviously Mr. John H. Johnson continued to develop his businesses and ended up on the Forbes 400 as one of the wealthiest 400 people in the United States of America. He received every accolade, every honor, every possibility of people acknowledging what he could do and what he had done.

He used to tell a story about building a building, owning a building on Michigan Avenue, and he couldn't purchase it because the people who owned it wouldn't sell it to him. So he got a friend of his to purchase it for him. Even to this day, the legend in Chicago is that he has the only building on Michigan Avenue that has a driveway where you can drive in off the street and go through the building.

Notwithstanding any and all of that, John H. Johnson was a very common man. You could walk up to him and talk with him. He went down every day and picked up his newspaper and had a conversation with the person who sold the newspaper.

Of course, he ended up with all kinds of honorary doctorates, degrees from Harvard University, the University of Arkansas.

I was thrilled and delighted to go down to Arkansas City with him when they decided to move the home that he had lived in from where it was located and moved it downtown to make a museum out of it. It was a two-room house, but it's called a shotgun house. Shotgun just meant you could open the front door and open the back door, and you could look all the way through, out into the back. Well, they moved the house from its location down to near the courthouse in Arkansas City, and that is where it currently is located.

Of course, Mr. Johnson was given the Medal of Freedom by President Clinton. He was Man of the Year from the national Chamber of Commerce, the Spingarn Medal from the NAACP, all of this but still being a regular kind of person.

Of course, the Congressional Black Caucus honored him. How could we not? He was obviously an icon who demonstrated that it really wasn't so much where you came from as much as it was where you were going. It didn't really matter what didn't exist. It was what you created. And he obviously was one of the most creative individuals. He had a book publishing company that Lerone Bennett wrote ``Before the Mayflower'' and published it.

After all was said and done, John H. Johnson was an unusual man, an outstanding man that the poet may have been thinking of when he suggested that:

If you can keep your head when all about you

Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,

But make allowances for their doubting, too;

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,

Or, being lied about . . . or being hated . . .

And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise.

If you can dream--and not make dreams your master;

If you can think--and not make thoughts your aim,

If you can meet with triumph and disaster

And treat those two impostors just the same . . . `'

Well, John H. Johnson, a man who will always be a historic figure, who gave so much to America. Two years ago the Arkansas General Assembly decided to make November 1 a State holiday, honoring a native son, as November 1, 1945, was the date John H. Johnson launched Ebony and thats the ideal date to celebrate his legacy.

Madam Speaker, I thank Mr. Johnson for what he meant not just for Arkansas but what he meant for America.

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

Madam Speaker, I rise in strong support of the Family Violence Prevention and Services Improvement Act. The Illinois Coalition Against Domestic Violence and its members have clearly communicated to me the critical nature of the Family Violence Prevention and Services funding and the improvements included in this legislation to Chicago and the state of Illinois.

In 2020, these funds helped provide over 547,287 hours of service in Illinois, assisting 42,886 adult survivors of domestic violence and 8,055 child witnesses. These dollars provided shelter, transportation and parental support, legal advocacy and education, crisis intervention, and connections to community resources. For example, Ascend Justice use these federal funds to support their vital work to obtain Orders of Protection for their clients.

Similarly, Metropolitan Family Services used these funds to provide direct emergency support to their clients to help survivors of domestic violence to find or maintain safer housing, feed and clothe their families, protect themselves from COVID-19, and access lifesaving services remotely during the pandemic. Specifically, here are just a few ways Metropolitan Family Services used these funds:

Provided rent and utility payment assistance of between $500 to $1000 for 32 clients;

Paid for five hotel shelter nights for a client who was unable to access other emergency shelter when she needed it;

Provided grocery gift cards of between $50 to $250 per client for 18 clients experiencing food insecurity;

Provided clothing, toiletries, and/or PPE kits to 50 clients;

Purchased and distributed educational materials about COVID-19 to clients and community members;

Purchased eight Chromebooks to loan to clients to participate in remote domestic violence counseling services to overcome their lack of adequate technology; and

Purchased four laptops for the Domestic Violence Court advocates, allowing them to continue assisting clients with Orders of Protection, legal referrals, and courtroom support while the Centralized Domestic Violence Courthouse in Chicago was operating remotely.

These funds and services mean the difference between safety and harm, and I applaud this House for improving the Family Violence Prevention and Services program. I urge my colleagues to vote in favor of this legislation.