Floor Statements

Madam Speaker, I rise today for an issue that I have wanted to address for several weeks. I want to thank the voters of New Jersey's 10th Congressional District for reelecting me to Congress.

It is a tremendous privilege to represent my district, one that I honor

every day when I take actions to better the lives of the people in my district.

The district will look different for the 118th Congress. I will miss representing the communities of Bayonne, Bloomfield, Glen Ridge, Maplewood, Rahway, and South Orange. But I welcome the communities of Caldwell, Cranford, Essex Falls, Garwood, and Kenilworth into my district.

Now that the election is over, Congress must work together with President Biden to lower inflation and gas prices. Americans are struggling, and we must do everything we can to help them.

Again, I thank the voters of my district for their trust and confidence as I continue to represent them in Congress.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to acknowledge the outstanding accomplishments of Roselle Women on the Move, a volunteer organization making positive impact in the lives of young women in my community that came to see me yesterday here at the Capitol.

I was impressed with the mentorship Roselle Women on the Move provides. Their mentoring has undoubtedly equipped the young women and girls in my community with the tools they need to achieve their dreams.

I commend Borough of Roselle President and Councilwoman At Large, Denise Wilkerson, for spearheading this group and the other women and leaders that joined her yesterday for their mentorship. I am grateful to each of them for using their life experiences to improve the lives of our children in my community.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to discuss an issue that is very troubling. It is an issue that needs to be addressed.

You see, I rise today because of the outrage and shock that Brett Favre stole money that was supposed to be used to buy formula for babies in Mississippi to build a volleyball stadium at the school his daughter played at.

Today, I join the calls of millions of Americans demanding that he and the corrupt Mississippi Republican Governor be held accountable for this action.

Brett Favre is a millionaire. In a 20-year football career, he made over $100 million. It would take an average Mississippian 20 years to make just $1 million.

Instead of coming out of his own pocket, he used his power, influence, and relationships with corrupt Republican lawmakers to steal the money from those in Mississippi who need it the most. His actions were criminal, shameful, reckless, and irresponsible.

Brett Favre is from Mississippi. One might think he should have cared that his home State is one of the poorest in the Nation and suffers from one of the highest rates of child poverty in this country.

He should have cared that one in every five Mississippians lives in extreme poverty. One might think that he should have cared that in Jackson, Mississippi, the capital, almost 25 percent of the households depend on minimum wage. In these families, most earn less than $15,000 a year.

One might think he should have cared that hundreds of thousands of Mississippians often have to boil their water due to the corruption and the neglect by the leadership in Mississippi, the Republican leadership, neglect that Brett Favre was a key and influential factor of, neglect that he and the corrupt Governor benefited from, but Brett didn't care.

In July 2019, Brett texted Governor Bryant, telling him how much he loved Nancy New and John Davis for what they did for him and Southern Miss.

He called the theft of funds amazing.

Governor Bryant knew that the money could have been used to provide thousands of low-income families with a year's worth of rent. He knew that it could have covered the cost of their electricity and their childcare bills. He knew that it could have provided thousands of Mississippi families with as many as nine meals a day.

But they didn't care. They didn't care that year after year many of Mississippi's most vulnerable people can't shower, cook, or bathe for weeks on end due to the systemic neglect in their water system.

In a report released earlier this month by Vox, Benji Jones explained the water crisis in Jackson, Mississippi, perfectly. He wrote: ``However, infrastructure is often poorly maintained or intentionally overlooked in particular places, leading to a lack of access, affordability, and safety for many communities of color.''

Brett and Governor Bryant intentionally overlooked the needs of Mississippi's poor people for a volleyball stadium. Perhaps this New York Times headline says it best: Brett Favre's most memorable stat may now be the $8 million he helped steal from the poor.

Mr. Speaker, this is a travesty in this country to take from the poorest of the poor and to neglect what they have done. Brett Favre and that government should atone and pay for what they have done.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to highlight the urgent need to address freight rail delays.

Across the Nation, manufacturers and farmers are finding it impossible to get their goods to market via rail. Rail service delays cause disruptions to flour and feed mills, livestock producers, power companies, and many other industries.

To make freight rail a truly competitive and stable industry, we need to make sure that shippers can address these service disruptions without government intervention.

I have introduced the Freight Rail Shipping Fair Market Act to establish a level playing field for freight rail. My subcommittee solicited feedback from shippers, the freight rail industry, and railway workers.

Mr. Speaker, I am committed to working with Members from both parties, and I encourage all Members to work with us to pass this bipartisan bill that will help freight railroads, their customers, and the American consumers.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to commemorate September as Peripheral Artery Disease, or PAD, Awareness Month.

PAD is a disease of the arteries that can cause blockages in the arms and legs, and it could lead to limb amputations. There are more than 160,000 PAD patients who lose limbs to this disease every year. African Americans are three times more likely to have a limb amputated than other Americans. That is because these patients are less likely to receive proper screenings and treatment for PAD.

That is why I created the Congressional PAD Caucus and serve as its co-chairman. I wanted to create awareness of this disease in Congress so we can provide resources for better screenings and treatments. Once we do that, we can save limbs and lives every year.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor New Jersey State Senator Ronald L. Rice after his retirement on August 31 of this year.

Senator Rice served the people of New Jersey's 28th District for 36 years. He was the longest serving Black legislator in our State's history.

Senator Rice was first elected to the Newark City Council in 1981. Then, he was elected to the State Senate in 1986 and won reelection 11 times before he retired.

His service extended beyond politics. Senator Rice was a sergeant in the Marine Corps and a decorated Vietnam veteran. He spent 8 years as a police detective in the city of Newark and 4 years as its deputy mayor.

He was known for his strong support and advocacy for social justice and civil rights. Recently, Newark renamed a street in his neighborhood in his honor for his commitment and service to the city of Newark.

Mr. Speaker, I congratulate State Senator Ronald L. Rice on his tremendous career as a public servant. His work for Newark and the people of New Jersey will be missed. But I am sure this will not be the last we hear from our hero and our fighter, Senator Ronald L. Rice.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor a great mayor from my district, Robert Bowser, after his passing recently.

Mayor Bowser served as mayor of East Orange, New Jersey, from 1998 to 2014. He was the first African American to win a third and fourth term in office in the history of East Orange, and he founded the New Jersey Conference of Black Mayors and served on the board of the National Black Conference of Mayors.

But his legacy in East Orange is more than his time as mayor. He started a small engineering firm that became one of the largest minority-owned consulting firms on the East Coast. He was a board member for the local Girl Scouts organization and was active with the Lions Club and the Kiwanis Club. He even founded a local touch football league.

As we mourn his passing, we remember Mayor Bowser as a dedicated public servant, great businessman, and strong community leader.

Madam Speaker, I rise today in recognition of Dr. Joel Stuart Bloom upon his retirement as the eighth President of the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT).

As a premier public university, NJIT plays a crucial role in shaping the economic trajectory of our state. It is also a school with the highest student mobility and, therefore, exemplifies the American Dream. I recall attending President Bloom's inauguration in 2012 when I served as the President of Newark's Municipal Council. At the ceremony, I voiced my optimism that the university would flourish under President Bloom's vision and forward-thinking ideas.

As he now steps down and begins the next chapter of his life, I can confidently express my pride in President Bloom's leadership. Under his leadership, the school accomplished numerous significant feats, including a two-fold increase in enrollment, the expansion of research, the improvement of minority students' access to STEM education, and the formation of numerous commercial and industry partnerships. His notable contributions will leave a long-lasting imprint for generations to come.

Madam Speaker, I respectfully ask that you join me in expressing gratitude to President Bloom for his esteemed commitment to the growth and development of NJIT, the city of Newark, and our great Nation.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to recognize the 50th Anniversary of the Pell Grant Program.

In 1972, Congress amended the Higher Education Act by creating the Basic Educational Opportunity Grant to provide direct financial aid to low-income students so they would have the same access to higher education and opportunity for success as their higher income peers. But this process was not without its trials and tribulations. It is not lost on me the incredible tenacity of the late Lois Dickson Rice--the ``mother of the Pell Grant''--whose work with the College Entrance Examination Board was instrumental in the creation of the Basic Education Opportunity Grant later named the Pell Grant for its original sponsor, the late Senator Claiborne Pell, Democrat from Rhode Island.

I want to take a moment to speak about a constituent of mine who is spending her summer working in my office, Fatimah Toure. She is a rising senior at Seton Hall University studying political science and Africana Studies. She is one of over 27,000 Pell Grant recipients in New Jersey's 10th congressional district and a scholar of the campus- based Equal Opportunity Program (EOP). As a first generation American and low-income student, the Pell Grant has allowed Fatimah to achieve and complete her higher education without financial worries. She told me that ``College was always part of my plan, but I didn't know how to pay for it. I didn't want to burden my parents and be the reason they couldn't retire, but I also didn't want to take out thousands of dollars in loans. The Pell Grant assisted me and my family in ensuring we can achieve our American dream.'' By virtue of qualifying for the Pell Grant, Fatimah and 49 other low-income students were admitted into Seton Hall's EOP, where they were enrolled in intensive academic courses and formed long-lasting bonds over a 6-week period before they began their freshman year. Not only did the Pell Grant and Educational Opportunity Program provide financial assistance for Fatimah, but she was also afforded academic support: tutoring, structured study, academic advisement, summer courses, community service opportunities, internships, and counseling services throughout her college experience.

The program leveled the playing field, so Fatimah was not financially, academically, or socially isolated. The benefits of the Pell Grant have not only served Fatimah, but also two of her siblings, one of whom is a graduate from Rowan University, and the other a rising senior at Rutgers University. To date, more than 80 million students have received a Pell Grant to go to college since the program's creation. Currently, nearly 7 million students are going to college with Pell Grants, or about 40 percent of undergraduate students.

In New Jersey's 10th district, 27,085 students receive nearly $121 million to pursue their higher education goals at our local colleges. Rutgers University, with one of its campuses located in Newark within my district, has more than 18,000 Pell recipients, providing over $91 million in aid each year to students. Roughly 60 percent of Rutgers-- Newark students receive Pell Grants, which is instrumental in their pursuit of higher education.

During this month as we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Pell Grant program, I encourage the United States to celebrate ``National Pell Grant Day,'' recognizing the current students and successful graduates who have benefited from the program by telling their student success stories and encouraging the same access for future students.

Madam Speaker, I look forward to Congress continuing the bipartisan support for low-income student access to college through the Pell Grant for another 50 years. I am proud to join many of my colleagues on the bipartisan resolution declaring June 23, 2022, National Pell Grant Day this year, and in many years in the future.

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

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

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to encourage everyone to support adding our bipartisan amendment, the text of the bipartisan Payment Choice Act, to the bill.

Recently, the bill passed the Financial Services Committee on a bipartisan vote. I thank Chairwoman Waters for her work in helping to advance my legislation. I thank the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Garcia) and the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Smith) for their leadership and support of it.

The Payment Choice Act guarantees that every consumer has the choice to pay cash for goods and services. Right now, there is an attack on American currency. Companies are trying to ban cash in their stores, but cash is simple, common, and anonymous. And it is the necessary form of payment for 55 million Americans. That is right, 55 million Americans in this country.

The bill does not prohibit digital or other payments. Instead, it protects cash as a payment in this Nation, as it has been throughout our history. It protects Americans from being rejected from stores because they can only pay in cash.

Several cities and States have enacted their own laws to protect the right to pay cash already. This bill would provide a single law to protect cash nationwide. More important, the bill would protect the privacy of Americans. There is no data collection with cash transactions. Cash is a private transaction.

Customers should have the right to refuse to hand over their personal information for a simple purchase. It is not a partisan issue because Democrats and Republicans support this bill. Therefore, it is an American issue to protect American currency. I encourage all Members to support my amendment.

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

Mr. Speaker, I really appreciate the gentleman's wonderful summary of my bill up until the point where he raised the issue around preferential businesses, such as ATMs. There is no preferential treatment for any industry in this bill. All retail transactions are treated the same.

As the gentleman speaks on businesses being able to charge a higher price, I don't know about North Carolina, but in New Jersey, when I go to the gas station, there is a higher price charged for credit, not cash. So I think he kind of had that in reverse.

Mr. Speaker, this is an opportunity for 55 million Americans who don't have banking accounts or are underbanked, to continue to be a part of this economy. There is a population in this country, believe it or not, who would rather not be in the banking system.

I am just trying to protect the underserved and the underbanked. I don't know the makeup of the gentleman's district in North Carolina, although I think his attire is splendid with the bowtie. But back in his district, I don't know if they are affluent or not. I have some of the poorest Americans in my district, and they are reaching out to me saying: What do I do?

What happens to the grandmother who lives in a two-flight walkup and the store that she uses is on the first floor? Mr. Speaker, now, this business decides that they are not going to accept her cash anymore. You are asking this woman to walk another three or four blocks to find someone, like a pauper: ``Who will take my cash? Who will take my cash? Will you take my money? Will you take my cash?''

``No, no cash allowed here. Be gone.''

That is what we are looking at. That is what we are trying to prevent.

Mr. Speaker, I just say that we are here to fight for the underserved, the underbanked, and the unbanked.

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

Madam Speaker, yesterday, I opposed the Supreme Court Police Parity Act.

I fully support expanded security for Supreme Court Justices and their families. I also firmly believe that those expanded protections must apply to all Federal judges and their families--that is right, all Federal judges and their families--who face similar threats with less protective resources.

The safety of our Federal judiciary is a very personal issue for New Jersey. Two years ago, the only child of U.S. District Judge Esther Salas was murdered by a man who had previously appeared before her court.

This bill was an opportunity to improve protections for all Federal judges. Sadly, the Senate abdicated its responsibility when it ignored calls for the inclusion of the Daniel Anderl Judicial Security and Privacy Act, introduced by my colleague Mikie Sherrill and Senator Menendez, in this bill.

Democrats are committed, as is every member of the New Jersey delegation, to ensuring that all Federal judicial officials and their families are safe.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 903, the Transportation Security Administration Workforce Act of 2022.

This bill would provide the TSA workforce with opportunities to increase pay, engage in collective bargaining, and appeal disciplinary actions. It gives TSA workers the same workplace rights and protections as other Federal workers.

Currently, the TSA workforce suffers from low employee morale and high turnover. This bill would allow the TSA to better recruit and retain high-skilled workers.

Most importantly for me, it gives a COVID-19 hazard bonus pay to employees who had substantial contact with the public during the initial pandemic, and it gives them resources to keep them safe on the job.

This bill requires coordination between the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention with other leading medical agencies to provide TSA proper guidance on how best to protect its workforce. I have been a strong supporter of more protections and benefits for our critical TSA workforce.

The chairman made it clear early on in my arrival here in Congress that this issue needed to be addressed. So, I introduced a bill, the Hazardous Duty Pay for Frontline Federal Workers Act, to give this hazard bonus to TSA workers during the pandemic.

In addition, I helped pass the Rights for Transportation Security Officers Act to provide TSA workers full collective bargaining and whistleblower protection.

I cosponsored the Rights of the TSA Workforce Act to provide them the same protections as other Federal workers. I also supported President Biden's efforts to increase pay for TSA employees and hire more officers at airports.

TSA workers are critical to the safety of American passengers, our transportation network, and our Nation. We need to make sure they get the same rights and protections they deserve to keep us safe and continue to keep our Nation safe for the traveling public.

Mr. Speaker, I don't understand why this one group of Federal workers has been pointed out not to deserve the same rights every other Federal worker has in their position. It makes no sense.

For whatever reason that it was not initially there, it is time for them to be brought into the system that the rest of our workforce is protected by.

I would like to respond to my colleague's argument that TSA should not move to title 5 because the system is somehow antiquated or imperfect. I understand that the prior administration stood up the blue-ribbon panel that recommended against moving the TSA workforce to title 5, arguing that it would deny the Administrator the flexibility to make TSA's personnel system better. Is it worth noting that the blue-ribbon panel did not include a single labor representative or expert with a labor background? This omission is very telling.

The truth of the matter is, title 5 offers structured rules for pay, raises, bonuses, collective bargaining rights, disciplinary actions, and grievances that TSA currently lacks in the system. Why? Why should they be omitted?

Title 5 is time-tested and has been developed and tweaked carefully over the decades. While not a perfect system, title 5 is significantly better than TSA's current system in which TSA makes up its own rules as it goes along.

TSA has had more than 20 years to develop a system that delivers better benefits, protections, and compensation than title 5, and it couldn't do it. How much longer should they wait?

Notably, even the TSA Blue Ribbon Panel recognized that TSA has only used its statutory authorities to benefit management and not the frontline workers.

That said, I am pleased to hear interest from my colleagues in improving title 5. I would be happy to work with them in a bipartisan way to address the issues for workers across the Federal Government.

In the meantime, we should put TSA under the time-tested system that has worked so well for most Federal workers.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to address a serious problem on the U.S. Supreme Court. Justice Clarence Thomas refuses to recuse himself from cases where he has a clear conflict of interest.

Thomas' wife, Ginni Thomas, is a conservative, rightwing, zealot activist, and she is reported to have worked to stop the legitimate election of President Joe Biden. Now, Justice Thomas will rule on cases that protect our elections and strengthen our democracy, the same democracy that his wife wants to overthrow.

Unfortunately, the Constitution was not written for such conflicts of interest. It was written by men who never imagined the Justices would put personal interests over the interests of our Nation.

So, I ask Justice Thomas to make the patriotic decision to recuse himself from cases involving the January 6 criminal insurrection, the 2020 election, and topics that conflict with his wife's far-right personal work. Every day he refuses lowers the credibility of the Court for more and more Americans.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to praise a great man of faith, Pastor Douglas L. Williams, III.

For the last 11 years he has been the pastor at Zion Hill Baptist Church in Newark, New Jersey.

In that time, he has done tremendous work to help his community. He was a strong supporter of vaccinations to protect members and residents from COVID-19. He worked to provide social services to people who were suffering due to COVID-19-related job losses and other hardships.

His goal as the pastor of Zion Hill has been to love people and grow an active community church, and he has done that.

I had the honor of attending his installation 11 years ago along with my father, the late Congressman Donald Payne, Jr., as I was a city councilman at the time. And recently to celebrate the 11 incredible years he has given as the head of Zion Hill. I can say, he is truly succeeding in his goal.

So congratulations again to Pastor Douglas L. Williams, III, on 11 exceptional years as the pastor of my neighbors, Mr. and Mrs. Johnson, from across the street, who for 60 years have gone to that church, and also for the rest of the congregation at Zion Hill Baptist Church.

He is truly a man of faith who is a blessing to our community.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to talk about how proud I was to support the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement Act last week. It decriminalizes marijuana and expunges marijuana arrests from the books.

Marijuana laws have been devastating to minority communities. African and Latino Americans are four times more likely to be arrested for marijuana offenses than are White Americans, and they receive longer prison sentences for the same crimes.

Today, minorities are in prison for offenses that are no longer crimes in most States. This bill would give these Americans a fresh start.

In addition, the bill has an opportunity trust fund to create opportunities for minority marijuana businesses.

It is time we passed this bill and ended the gross injustice of marijuana law enforcement in this country.