Emanuel Cleaver

Mr. Speaker, it is with great pleasure that I extend my congratulations to the Northland Neighborhoods, Inc. (NNI) on its 30th anniversary. For three decades, NNI has demonstrated what can be accomplished when neighbors come together under a shared commitment: to make a community a better place for all who live there.

Since its founding in 1996, NNI continues to play a crucial role for those living in the Northland, covering a diverse range of efforts to build upon the foundations of their community. One key way this has been done is by supporting vulnerable homeowners through the Home Repair Program. The program, which allows homeowners to cover potentially costly repairs at critical moments, allows neighbors to maintain their community pride and lessen the possibility of deterioration or vacancies of communities.

As a result, homeowners can directly invest in their future as members of their streets and subdivisions. These efforts have culminated in $1.4 million dollars spent on 103 home repairs in the last year. Whether it be a plumbing issue, roof leaks, or the thousands of other home repairs that can occur and start to snowball, the Northland knows it can turn to NNI for help.

In celebrating this milestone, it is worth focusing on how NNI has kept residents connected and engaged over the past three decades. NNI's engagement through public meetings and service has been directed at the chief cornerstone of what makes communities strong and unique, providing a shared space for people to unite and share their concerns and beliefs. Your continuous advocacy and core mission has demonstrated the significant impact of housing and its role in constructing a healthy community. Local progress begins in the homes where the lives of those young and old unfold. NNI has shown that its commitment to the people they serve is enduring and strong no matter their stage in life, from being brought home from the hospital, buying one's first house, to new families introducing children into the world.

Commemorating these 30 years of service, we must recognize the people who have made NNI's accomplishments possible. To the leadership, contractors, and community partners, thank you for your contributions that have placed the voices of the Northland at the center of all you have done. Their dedication represents the time, energy, and talents of an organization built in service to others.

As the Northland continues to grow, your work will have played no small part in what makes the area special. I am confident that the new opportunities and new challenges that this growth brings will be met by the same

spirit and dedication that has defined NNI since 1996. Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues today to join me in celebrating this anniversary. We thank them for making the Northland a stronger, safer, and more connected place for future generations of residents and families and we wish them all the best in their future endeavors.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor Prairie View A&M University as it celebrates its 150th anniversary. Since its founding, this university has served countless individuals, bringing its historic legacy, academic excellence and enduring service to the nation.

Prairie View A&M University's rich history begins in 1876 when the Texas Constitution created an agricultural and mechanical college that would then turn into Texas's oldest public HBCU. In spring 1878, the university would welcome its first eight students. Originally designed to be a teaching college, the university expanded its curriculum to include agriculture, nursing, arts, sciences, and mechanical arts by 1887. Furthermore, as the university continued to grow and succeed, it became a land-grant institution by 1890, offered baccalaureate degrees in 1919, and finally added graduate studies in various academic fields by 1937, as a testimony to its achievements.

The university's longstanding history of supporting the higher education of Black students has played a transformative role in fostering academic excellence, civic engagement, and postgraduate employment for historically underrepresented communities. This institution has time and time again demonstrated its commitment to teaching and service, strengthening communities and improving lives throughout the state of Texas and beyond.

With President Dr. Tomikia P. LeGrande leading the university forward with its ``Journey to Eminence'' plan, the university plans to further establish itself as a premier HBCU and blueprint for other universities across the country. As a Carnegie-classified high-research (R2) university, it has further cemented itself as a distinguished research institute and is home to the National Center for Infrastructure Technology and the Texas Juvenile Crime Prevention Center.

As a member of the NCAA Division I Southwestern Athletic Conference, students can compete in a high-sports level environment which in turn, can enable future athletic careers. With more than 170 student-led organizations, students have a wide range of interests and topics to engage with in addition to the academic opportunities available.

Since its inception, this university has not only developed a reputable history in the state of Texas but in the country as a whole. With generations upon generations of educated graduates, Prairie View A&M University has helped bring educators, engineers, military leaders, elected officials, scientists and public servants at all levels of government into the world. Notably, this institution leads in graduating Black students with degrees in architecture and engineering and is highly ranked for increasing the number of Black nursing graduates in Texas through its clinical training. The access to quality education is key to a thriving community and this institution delivers this opportunity.

Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues to join me in celebrating Prairie View A&M University's 150th anniversary. This is an accomplishment deserving of recognition in our Nation's Capital, and I am honored to extend my congratulations as the university celebrates this milestone. I anticipate many more monumental anniversaries, for I know this university will continue to be a fountain of knowledge and joy for our community, continuing its outstanding contributions to higher education for generations to come.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today as the proud co-chair of the Defend the 14th Amendment Task Force because I believe in one simple truth: The 14th Amendment is now under siege.

For more than 150 years this amendment has stood as one of the greatest promises our Nation has ever made: That every person born in this country is entitled to equal protection under the law and that no government may deny anyone due process simply because of who they are or where they were an immigrant from.

It was born from one of the darkest chapters in American history. After slavery ended, our Nation faced a choice: We could preserve injustice under a different name, or we could expand the promise of freedom.

The 14th Amendment was our answer. It declared boldly that citizenship could not be rationed, equality could not be optional, and liberty belonged to all of us.

Today, that promise is being tested. This administration has made no secret of its willingness to chip away at the constitutional protections generations of Americans have fought, marched, bled, and even died to secure.

They are using every tool at their disposal to weaken the very rights that safeguard us all. For me, this fight is deeply personal.

I was born in the Jim Crow South, little place called Waxahachie, Texas. I came of age in a nation where equal protection existed only on paper long before it existed in practice.

I marched with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference starting when I was 15 years old. The SCLC was led by a young preacher by the name of Martin Luther King, Jr. I marched because I believed America could become what it claimed to be. I believed that the Constitution should protect every citizen equally. I witnessed firsthand what happens when governments decide some people deserve fewer rights than others.

The progress we celebrate today did not happen by accident. It happened because brave Americans demanded that the 14th Amendment finally be honored. It was the Equal Protection Clause that became the constitutional foundation for Brown v. Board of Education, ending legally sanctioned segregation in our public schools.

It was the 14th Amendment that strengthened the fight against discriminatory voting laws, housing discrimination, and unequal treatment in employment.

It was the 14th Amendment that has protected interracial marriage, expanded equality for women, safeguarded the rights of people with disabilities, and affirmed the dignity of LGBTQ Americans.

Time and time again, when our Nation has taken a step toward justice, it has done so because someone stood up and insisted that the words of the 14th Amendment actually meant what they say. That is why attack of any kind on equal protection and due process are not isolated legal disputes. They are attacks on the very foundation of modern civil rights.

They are attacks on the constitutional principle that tell every child they matter before the law. They are the attacks on the guarantees that protect workers from exploitation, families from discrimination, religious liberty, voting rights, and the simple expectation that government must treat people fairly.

When government weakens these protections for one group, it weakens them for everyone.

History teaches us that constitutional rights are rarely lost all at once. They are chipped away slowly, one exception, one excuse, one precedent at a time until Americans wake up and discover that what once seemed guaranteed has quietly disappeared.

We cannot allow this to happen.

Our constituents know what is at stake. They understand that the promise of America has been bigger than politics. They know that the Constitution belongs to every American, not just those in power.

As the co-chair of the 14th Amendment Task Force, I stand with my colleagues in defense of one of the most important guarantees ever written into our Constitution. We will defend equal protection. We will defend due process. We will defend, yes, birthright citizenship. We will continue fighting until the promise of the 14th Amendment is not merely something we celebrate in history books, but something that every American can experience in their daily lives.

The struggle to perfect our Union has never been easy, but every generation is called to protect the freedoms it inherited. Now, it is our turn.