Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, I was unavoidably detained. Had I been present, I would have voted ``nay'' on rollcall No. 162.

Mr. Speaker, I was unavoidably detained. Had I been present, I would have voted ``yea'' on rollcall No. 140.

Mr. Speaker, I was unavoidably detained. Had I been present, I would have voted ``nay'' on rollcall No. 83.

Madam Speaker, as the House begins consideration of H.R. 7, I rise in solidarity with the women of the world. I rise in outrage at yet another attempt to control our bodies and our access to quality care.

Madam Speaker, it is my body. It doesn't belong to this House. I alone bear the burden, pain, and joy that it brings. Please stop trying to regulate my reproductive organs. They belong to me.

Have you ever had a menstrual period? Have you ever felt the unbearable pain in every bone of your body during childbirth?

Madam Speaker, there are millions of mothers living in inadequate public housing and trailer parks, raising their children alone. And we are here to consider anti-choice bills that restrict access to women's care?

If the Republican House passes H.R. 7, will it support universal pre- K and Head Start? Will this House reform foster care and stop greasing the prison pipeline with unwanted children?

It seems to me that this Republican House cares about babies right up until the minute they are born into the world, and then they disappear and desert the children forever. It is time to stop the cradle-to-grave neglect.

How many more anti-choice bills do we need to put on the floor before we do what is important to build a society?

Madam Speaker, we need to give women and their families and their doctors the ability to make decisions for their bodies. Leave my body alone.

Mr. Chair, had I been present, I would have voted ``yea'' on rollcall No. 57.

Mr. Speaker, had I been present, I would have voted ``nay'' on rollcall No. 26.

Mr. Speaker, last April I was horrified when hundreds of girls were kidnapped by Boko Haram in Nigeria because they attended school.

To this day, Boko Haram continues their reign of terror. In early January, thousands of Nigerians were slaughtered by these terrorists; and these attacks continue, with thousands and thousands of civilians killed since then as well.

With all of the attention focused on ISIS and al Qaeda, do not continue to neglect this issue. Mr. Speaker, we can not and must not forget about the unspeakable horrors being perpetuated by Boko Haram.

Mr. Speaker, Black lives matter. That is why I am supporting the Jubilee Campaign's Education After Escape initiative, which provides scholarships to the young girls that escaped Boko Haram.

I am working to support these brave young girls who, despite the horrors they witnessed, maintain dreams of success. They still want and deserve an education.

Mr. Speaker, we have to support the victims of Boko Haram just like we support the victims of other terrorist groups.

Mr. Speaker, we have to continue to tweet so that the world will know and understand that we are supporting those victims. Tweet #BringBackOurGirls and #JoinRepWilson. Tweet, tweet, tweet.

Mr. Speaker, since last year's kidnapping of over 200 Nigerian schoolgirls, Boko Haram's violence and attacks have not stopped. Instead, they have become more violent, more deadly, and more frequent.

Mr. Speaker, last week Boko Haram attacked the Nigerian town of Baga, killing 2,000 men, women, and children. Furthermore, as recently as Sunday, there have been reports of young girls as young as 10 years old being used as suicide bombers and sent into crowded markets by Boko Haram militants.

Mr. Speaker, we can no longer stand by idly and watch as innocent little girls are strapped with explosives and civilians are slaughtered by the thousands. Too many lives have been lost and innocent people murdered at the hands of those who use religion to propagate hate and oppression. My heart goes out to the victims and their families.

Mr. Speaker, I call on my colleagues to join me and members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee in condemning the devastating actions of Boko Haram. We must keep fighting those that would use terrorism and fear to oppress us, and we must keep tweeting, as I have for 273 days-- #BringBackOurGirls and #JoinRepWilson--to show that we have not and we will not forget.

Tweet, tweet, tweet, tweet.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 23. This legislation would reauthorize the National Windstorm Impact Reduction Program, or NWIRP.

The Federal Government has an important role in helping Americans prepare for and recover from natural hazards. H.R. 23 directs four Federal agencies--NIST, NSF, NOAA, and FEMA--to conduct coordinated research and development on the nature of windstorms, their effects, and on ways to mitigate their impact. The legislation also ensures that this research is translated into practice through improved building codes and emergency planning.

I was born and raised in south Florida, and I am a survivor of Hurricane Andrew, so I have seen my share of severe weather. I know firsthand that natural hazards are a leading threat to American lives and America's economy.

While we cannot stop a hurricane or tornado from happening, this Congress can act to make sure our communities have the tools they need to respond and recover from these disasters.

We must begin by investing in preparedness and resilience. Studies of FEMA's pre-disaster mitigation program have shown that for every dollar we invest in mitigation activities we save $3 to $4 in recovery costs.

I was pleased that this bill was considered in the Science Committee last Congress, and we worked in a bipartisan manner to make several improvements to the bill. I want to thank my colleagues, Chairman Smith and Mr. Neugebauer, for working across the aisle in a smooth and productive process.

We worked together to increase the authorization for FEMA, the NWIRP agency tasked with taking the research conducted at other agencies and developing mitigation techniques and public outreach. Mr. Neugebauer was the lead, and I appreciate his inclusion.

Additionally, we added several social science-related provisions to the bill. We cannot design effective disaster strategies without knowing how people make decisions and respond to disaster warnings.

Often in a compromise, like this one, you do not get everything you would like. I would have liked to see increases in the authorization levels across the board. Unfortunately, this bill includes a lower total authorization level than what was authorized for this program in fiscal year 2008.

When the last few years have been devastating years for windstorms, including Superstorm Sandy and the tornado outbreak last May, it is difficult

to understand why we would cut the total authorization level for this important program.

I do hope that if this bill moves forward, we will continue our bipartisan efforts and work with the Senate to perfect this bill. Nevertheless, I understand the need to reauthorize this important program that can help minimize the number of Americans who are harmed or killed by windstorm disasters and reduce the costs associated * * *

I support H.R. 23 and urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to support the bill.

Mr. Speaker, I thank Congressman Welch for yielding me time as well as Chairman Issa and Ranking Member Cummings for their support in bringing this bill to the floor.

I rise today in strong support of H.R. 4030, a bill to designate the post office at 18640 NW 2nd Avenue in Miami Gardens, Florida, as the Father Richard Marquess-Barry Post Office Building.

The Reverend Canon Richard Livingston Marquess-Barry was born on November 14, 1940, in Miami, Florida, to Bahamian immigrants. Raised by his grandparents, Reverend Barry attended the Miami-Dade County Public Schools system while working as a garbage collector every morning before school and as a dishwasher after school.

Reverend Barry earned his Bachelor of Arts at St. Augustine College in Raleigh, North Carolina, in 1962. That same year, he married Virla Rolle, his college sweetheart. The couple has been married for 52 years and has one daughter and two grandsons.

Reverend Barry's lifelong devotion to the church began in 1965 when he became the only person of color enrolled at the Virginia Theological Seminary. Three years later, he earned a master's in divinity, and in 1989, he was the youngest person to earn a doctor of divinity degree in the 200-year history of the Virginia Theological Seminary. He has been a visiting fellow at the University of Munich in Germany as well as at Oxford University in England.

In 1977, Reverend Barry took a pay cut in order to lead the Saint Agnes Episcopal Church, the largest and oldest Episcopal congregation for people of color in south Florida. Not only did he transform Saint Agnes and leave it with an endowment upon his retirement, he also worked tirelessly to improve the Overtown community where Saint Agnes is located.

As a young priest, Reverend Barry served his community religiously and also dedicated himself to furthering civil rights despite numerous assassination attempts. He led the effort to integrate the St. Lucie County public school system. He also pressured the city of Fort Pierce and St. Lucie County to adopt fair hiring and promotion practices within the police and fire departments and within all other government agencies. He has also been a champion of improving housing options for underprivileged people in our community.

Among his many awards, Reverend Barry is currently the holder of two keys to Miami-Dade County and of one key to the city of Miami for his many years of devotion and advocacy to the south Florida community. He has been recognized for his work by Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, the NAACP, the Florida State Senate, and President Obama.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank Reverend Barry for his decades of service to our community, and I ask all of my colleagues to join me in supporting this bill to designate the Miami post office the Father Richard Marquess-Barry Post Office Building.

Mr. Speaker, on rollcall No. 520, had I been present, I would have voted ``yes.''

Mr. Speaker, while the world and mainstream media focuses on other world events, the Boko Haram terrorists continue to bomb, pillage, rape, and behead innocent men, women, and even children in Nigeria. Yesterday, I met with some of the girls who bravely escaped from their captors.

As the girls relived their nightmare, the trauma of this experience was visible on their faces. I reassured them that Congress has not forgotten them and that I will be reintroducing legislation to help safely return their friends and family members and to eradicate Boko Haram.

Mr. Speaker, when I visited Nigeria, a young woman, Abuja, told me that Boko Haram beheaded her husband and put his head on the bed next to her as they raped her.

Mr. Speaker, Boko Haram is using kidnapped girls as suicide bombers. Boko Haram is beheading men, women, and children--let me repeat--and children. They must be stopped.

Tweet today: #bringbackourgirls and #joinrepwilson.

Tweet, tweet, tweet, tweet. Tweet all day, tweet all night, tweet all week, and tweet all month. Tweet, tweet, tweet.

Madam Speaker, Boko Haram's attacks on the people of Nigeria have become more vicious. Their wicked deeds are devastating men, women, and children, Christians, and Muslims. Everyone is a target. Like ISIS, the terrorist organization they align themselves with, Boko Haram, has beheaded hundreds of innocent people, including a 6-year-old Christian boy in June.

Madam Speaker, this week, I am introducing a bill to help combat Boko Haram, and today I am meeting with five of the kidnapped girls who escaped from the terror of Boko Haram.

Madam Speaker, we have a major international crisis to deal with in the Middle East and in Nigeria. Boko Haram has the potential to explode any day, like ISIS. They have killed hundreds, including elected officials.

We shall tweet every day #bringbackourgirls to raise alarm over the kidnapped Nigerian schoolgirls. We must not forget these girls, and we must stop Boko Haram.

Tweet, tweet, tweet: #bringbackourgirls. Tweet, tweet, tweet: #followrepwilson.

Thank you, Representative Horsford, and to all the Members of the Congressional Black Caucus, who are here tonight to contribute to this conversation regarding an issue that is oh so prevalent in our communities and has been there for generations.

I just want to say to the President of the United States that I am extremely grateful for his vision in creating an initiative called My Brother's Keeper. My Brother's Keeper hopefully will address some of the issues that our young boys of color face.

I want to say that there is so much friction between police and black boys. That friction has been there for generations, almost since slavery. And it is a conversation that black parents have to have with their young boys as soon as they probably get a driver's license. They have to talk to them about dealing with the police. And I want to say, in my hometown of Miami-Dade County, I founded a program called the 5000 Role Models of Excellence 22 years ago.

We must realize that everyone just doesn't have a parent, they just don't have a responsible parent that can have that conversation with them. So we recruit mentors across this Nation to deal with these young men and try to teach them how to deal with some of the issues that impact especially boys of color but more specifically when it comes to the police black boys. The pamphlet starts out by saying if the police stop you, freeze, don't move, unless you are told to do so. Never run from the police. Always remain calm. Think, cooperate, speak clearly, ask questions if you have to, and it goes on and on.

It is sad that we have to do this. We are not trying to break the spirits of young black boys, but we are trying to keep them alive.

This is how the pamphlet looks. And it was really orchestrated by our State attorney, our public defender, and the Miami-Dade County Association of Chiefs of Police. And they put it together and put it in all of the schools for all of the children and members of the school's police to teach these children how to respond if the police ever stop them.

I have a real concern with Michael Brown's case, and that concern is with the State attorney. I really have a real concern that the grand jury may not get all of the evidence that they need. My father served on the grand jury for many years. I do know that the State attorney has so much sway over the grand jury.

My heart broke even worse than it did when he was killed, when we realized that the State attorney would be the one that would send the case to the grand jury that would oversee the case. He had a history that no one wants to have.

His father was a police officer, and he was killed by a Black youth. If that is not enough to recuse yourself from the case in general, to my colleagues, I cannot understand what else could be the case.

You remember Trayvon Martin, who came from my district. He was killed. The first thing that happened was the State attorney didn't want to recuse himself, but the Governor removed him, so I am really counting on Governor Nixon tonight to remove the State attorney, to remove the prosecutor from this case because, otherwise, Michael Brown may not get a fair trial, and he deserves justice under the law.

Thank you so much for this opportunity. I will continue to pray for his family because this is not a good time in America for young Black boys. They are watching. They are paying attention to this case. People all across the world are watching what is going to happen in Ferguson. I am afraid of what will happen if the verdict or if the police, Wilson, is not even indicted.

Mr. Speaker, over 100 days have gone by, and the kidnapped schoolgirls in Nigeria are still not home. The consequences of their absence and the lack of formal action to find the girls is unimaginable.

Eleven parents of the abducted girls have died--died from the heartbreak, died from fighting for their girls, died from international silence. A father slipped into a coma, repeating his daughter's name until he passed away. These stories are real.

In the meantime, Boko Haram has continued to kidnap more girls. Last week, they took over a whole town. This issue is real. We cannot ignore Boko Haram and the plight of these missing girls.

Mr. Speaker, with a tweet and a hashtag, you are showing the Nigerian people, Boko Haram, the missing girls, and the world that we have not forgotten. We have to keep tweeting. We have to keep talking. This is not an African problem. This is a world problem. These are our girls, and we will bring them home.

I urge you every day to join my Twitter storm and tweet: #joinrepwilson and #bringbackourgirls.

Tweet, tweet, tweet. Tweet, tweet, tweet.