Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, this week is National Teacher Appreciation Week. My gratitude for teachers far surpasses 1 minute of time.

Our Nation is a better place because of the work teachers do every day to teach the next generation and arm them with the skills that are needed to succeed.

My favorite teacher was Rayella B. Heely, who taught my eighth grade algebra class in Mount Vernon, New York, in 1966. She was tough, and she did not give out easy grades. I did not get a particularly good grade, but she taught me concepts that I remember to this day.

Teachers are increasingly asked to do more in addition to teaching. They check in on the well-being and mental health of their students. They make sure that students get enough to eat during school meals and have notebooks and pencils and crayons. They are advocates in front of school boards to prevent cuts to funding and to resources.

There is a famous saying: ``To teach is to touch a life forever.''

Mr. Speaker, I thank teachers for the lives that they continue to touch and shape. As former students and parents of students, we are forever grateful.

Mr. Speaker, I have been a Member of this body for just over 120 days. It was clear in November that the American people voted for their family economics. They wanted to see lower costs.

Mr. Speaker, I am perplexed that this House has yet to vote on any legislation that lowers costs for the average family. In fact, we will be voting this week on a bill that renames the Gulf of Mexico.

No one is clamoring for a newly named body of water. They want lower grocery bills. House Republicans' proposals to cut Medicaid and SNAP to pay for tax breaks for billionaires will make life more, not less, expensive for people in Westchester and the Bronx.

The President's thoughtless red light-green light tariffs are making it harder and more expensive to import goods. Those increased costs are paid for by Americans, not foreign countries.

Mr. Speaker, instead of mind-bending tariffs, giveaways to billionaires, and renaming bodies of water, we should be voting on bills that lower costs for the average family. I know many of my colleagues agree. Let's get to real work on behalf of our constituents.

Mr. Speaker, new Federal economic data came out yesterday, and it showed that in the last 3 months, the U.S. economy shrank by 0.3 percent. This is a sharp reversal from the 2.4 percent growth the economy experienced in the last quarter of 2024. This now is the worst economy that a President has had in their first 100 days since President Nixon.

Despite promises candidate Trump made that he would lower costs on day one, prices remain high, and, in fact, it is expected that prices could rise by 6.5 percent by year's end. Trump policies are why prices remain high, even though he has tried to pin this on former President Biden.

The red light, green light tariff policies have caused uncertainty in all sectors of our economy as well as internationally. Wall Street and Main Street alike have been sending signals for weeks that they do not like or trust those economic plans. The stock market has dropped almost 9 percent and lost $4.5 trillion in wealth. This is hurting everyday Americans, including people in Westchester and the Bronx.

President Trump is the President now. It is his economy to own and fix.

Mr. Speaker, 100 days: irresponsible tariff imposition, confusing businesses, and tanking the stock market; illegal seizure of citizens without judicial process; dramatic cuts to the delivery of Social Security benefits and veteran benefits; abandoning environmental protections for clean air and clean water; destabilizing families, hospitals, and nursing homes with pending Medicaid cuts; and siding with a ruthless aggressor, Russia, rather than the victim, Ukraine.

Mr. Speaker, 100 days: exonerated violent criminal behavior from the January 6 insurrection; unethical efforts to end investigations on allies and donors; firing talented, career-committed professionals and replacing them with blind loyalists; insulting Canada, Mexico, Denmark, and the European Union; disruption of programs; threats to universities, law firms, State and local governments, the Federal workforce, and the media; and threats to elected officials.

The American people gave the MAGA movement a narrow majority 6 months ago, but now they are having second thoughts. There is no golden age ahead, just a recession. Contrast this with Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who, in 100 days, saved America.

Mr. Speaker, it is with great appreciation that I rise to recognize Dr. Stephen A. Ferrara, DNP, FNP-BC, FAANP, FAAN of White Plains, New York for his outstanding leadership and contributions as President of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners (AANP).

Dr. Ferrara is a dedicated health care leader with over two decades of experience, including extensive work as a practicing nurse practitioner, health policy advocate, and academic leader. In addition to his role as President of AANP, he also currently serves as Associate Dean of Artificial Intelligence and Professor at the Columbia University School of Nursing where he has focused on health information technology and the implementation of evidence-based practice. Dr. Ferrara previously served as the Executive Director of the Nurse Practitioner Association New York State, where he played a key role in removing state barriers to NP practice. Dr. Ferrara has been recognized for his leadership as a Fellow of AANP, the American Academy of Nursing, the National Academies of Practice and the New York Academy of Medicine.

The American Association of Nurse Practitioner is the largest professional membership organization for nurse practitioners, representing the interest of the over 431,000 licensed nurse practitioners in the United States who are delivering care in nearly 1 billion patient visits per year. As President of AANP, Dr. Ferrara has played a pivotal role in amplifying the voice of nurse practitioners at the national level. He has worked to ensure that policymakers recognize the essential contributions of NPs in improving access to comprehensive, patient-centered care across all health care settings.

I urge my colleagues to join me in honoring Dr. Stephen Ferrara for his distinguished term as President of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners and in expressing our gratitude for his exceptional service to patients, students and the nurse practitioner profession.

Mr. Speaker, I recently visited the Bronx VA Medical Center in the Bronx, New York. This center serves many in my district, and I am grateful for the quality care they provide and for the groundbreaking research happening at this facility.

When a young person signs up to join the military, Americans make them a promise that we will take care of them for the rest of their lives because they have put on the uniform of this country and risked their lives for all of us.

That is why it is perplexing and unconscionable that this administration has proposed devastating cuts to VA healthcare and benefits, eliminating 80,000 staff who provide healthcare and benefits to veterans who have earned them.

More than a quarter of VA staff are veterans themselves. Cuts to the programs that provide home loan assistance to veterans, even cutting staff of the suicide crisis line that saves lives--for what? This message does not say: Thank you for your service. This is a slap in the face for those who have served.

My Democratic colleagues do not support these cuts, and this is an ideal moment for bipartisanship, where our Republican colleagues can join us in pushing back.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the life of Evelyn Paula Nelson Young, a respected and beloved member of the Mt. Vernon community who passed away at the age of 102 earlier this year.

Born in 1922 in Charleston, South Carolina, Evelyn excelled academically

as an honor student and athletically as a standout member of the girls' basketball team. Her academic success led her to the profession of teaching, first in Charleston, then at the prestigious Alabama State University Laboratory School, and, finally, in Mt. Vernon, New York.

She dedicated 40 years of teaching Mt. Vernon's elementary school children, making sure that they could read, write, and comprehend before they were promoted to the next grade.

Our thoughts are with Evelyn's family, including her son, Clinton Jr., and her daughter, Mary, who have both dedicated so much of their lives to our community in public service.

Evelyn once said: I can't complain, thank the good Lord. He has been so good to me. I am truly blessed.

Mr. Speaker, we are all blessed to have known Evelyn and the Young family. May we all aspire to live such long and rewarding lives as she did.

Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Morelle for yielding me the time.

Mr. Speaker, the American people in my district and in my State have spoken clearly. This bill is voter suppression, pure and simple.

It is brought to us under the guise of stopping illegal voting. When we analyze voting in Westchester County, where I was the county executive for a million people, we found no appreciable illegal voting.

This is an opportunity for this majority to try to impose their will on the States that they don't already control.

They want to end mail voter registration in my home State to satisfy other States' regressive laws.

They want to require people who have voted legally for years to prove their citizenship if they not only change their name but if they move. A simple move requires them to drive to a county board of elections and prove that they are an American citizen when they have proven that over the course of 20 years or more of voting.

This bill subjects local officials to hefty criminal fines if they register someone outside of these rules. This is an expensive unfunded mandate in Westchester, New York City, and all the States involved.

Mr. Speaker, House Republicans just passed their budget plan, President Trump's big, beautiful bill, again. The first version didn't cut enough from critical programs like Medicaid and SNAP. This budget is a direct attack on the working and middle classes, all while handing more than $7 trillion in tax breaks to billionaires.

Over 196,000 residents in my district are at risk of losing Medicaid coverage, including 73,000 children and 27,000 seniors in one district.

Approximately 74,000 people who count on SNAP may not be able to put food on the table.

People who are covered through the Affordable Care Act will see premiums rise by an average of almost $3,000 a year.

This is what President Trump called beautiful? It is anything but. This budget won't lower costs. These cuts, coupled with the President's thoughtless tariff policies, will make life more expensive for our neighbors. We are making a beeline to a MAGA recession and perhaps a MAGA depression.

This is reverse Robin Hood. Stealing from the lower and middle classes to benefit the wealthiest is un-American.

Mr. Speaker, Elon Musk said recently in a Joe Rogan podcast: ``The fundamental weakness of Western civilization is empathy.'' He further said that empathy has been ``weaponized.''

This is consistent with his statement that Social Security is a Ponzi scheme, not the program that has saved the lives and the livelihood of countless Americans. This is the philosophy of the world's richest man, Elon Musk.

Let me contrast that philosophy with that which was expressed in Matthew 25:

``For I was hungry, and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you took me in, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you ministered to me, I was in prison, and you visited me.

``Then the righteous will answer, `Lord, when did we see you hungry, thirsty, a stranger, naked, sick or in prison?' And he will answer, `When you did this for the least of my brothers, you did it for me.' ''

Empathy: Not the weakness of Western civilization; the bedrock of Western civilization.

Mr. Speaker, 2 months ago on this House floor, I spoke

against the foolishness of the President's proposed tariff schemes. I spoke knowing a bit about corporate reaction from my own business career.

Now, the top financial minds of this country have spoken, in consecutive days of stock market tumbling, losing values for investors, including pension funds and 401(k) holdings. When is enough enough?

When will the Republican majority stand up and tell him for once: ``Mr. President, you are wrong. Your policy is misguided.''

He has imposed tariffs on Canada, Mexico, Japan, and the EU, our friends. He has not imposed tariffs on Russia, arguing they are negotiating with Ukraine, but he imposes tariffs on Ukraine.

We are now looking at the self-inflicted likelihood of a crippling recession, which could lead to a dramatic depression, all because of these policies that create chaos in financial markets across the globe.

Mr. Speaker, $11 trillion has been lost in the stock market since January 20.

This is a self-made problem based on the misguided impulses of one man. Unfortunately, we will all pay the price.

Mr. Speaker, yesterday in Mount Vernon, New York, a packed congregation came together to honor the 50th pastoral anniversary for Rev. Dr. W. Franklyn Richardson, the senior pastor of the largest African-American church in my home county, Grace Baptist Church. It is hard to grasp that Dr. Richardson has led Grace from the pulpit for one-half century, leading his flock through both good and difficult times.

His pastoral reach goes beyond the congregation, across the city of Mount Vernon, the county of Westchester, New York State, and, indeed, the Nation. Grace Baptist has sponsored churches in Florida and overseas; his preaching and teaching has reached thousands more through social media. He is a leader, as well, in the National Action Network and the Conference of National Black Churches.

There will be many more celebrations honoring Dr. Richardson throughout this pastoral year. Let me add my voice with so many others to congratulate Dr. Richardson and First Lady Inez Richardson for their lifelong achievements in Westchester, the Bronx, and all across our land.

Mr. Speaker, this past Sunday I had the great pleasure of attending the ceremony celebrating Reverend Lamont S. Granby's 15th pastoral anniversary. As the esteemed reverend of Bronxville's First Baptist Church, he serves as the first African-American pastor in the church's 160 years.

During the service, we heard a reading from Jeremiah 3:15: ``Then I will give you shepherds after my own heart, who will lead you with knowledge and understanding.''

Reverend Granby is one of those shepherds. He has led his flock at the First Baptist Church with patience and understanding for these 15 years. He is well known throughout the Bronx and Westchester communities and has been a role model for the young people in our community with a steady, guiding presence. He is the dynamic leader of the 47th Precinct Clergy Coalition bringing together faith leaders from across the North Bronx.

At a time when there are many wolves in sheep's clothing claiming to be leaders, it is an honor to celebrate a true community leader, Reverend Lamont Granby. Here is to many more years serving the community of Westchester and the Bronx.

Mr. Speaker, Elon Musk's so-called department of government elimination is closing the Social Security hearing office in White Plains in May, just like that.

Westchester County Executive Ken Jenkins offered the Federal Government county space that would be more cost-effective. The offer was turned down because this isn't about saving the government money. This is about thoughtlessly cutting critical services in the name of ideology.

This weekend, Commerce Secretary Lutnick said his 94-year-old mother- in-law wouldn't miss her Social Security check if it didn't show up. Mr. Lutnick is a billionaire who can easily provide for her, while most seniors rely on their monthly payments.

This weekend, more than 250 people in my district voiced their concerns at a rally to save Social Security. I will take their words over a billionaire's mother-in-law.

More than 10,000 of my fellow boomers become eligible every day for Social Security. This is not the time to be closing offices, cutting staff, and ending phone service.

There are ways to make Social Security more efficient. This ain't one of them. Scaring seniors and threatening to end their economic lifelines isn't about efficiency. It is a mockery of efficiency.

Remember, we told you so.

Mr. Speaker, at a time when food prices are rising and it is harder for families to make ends meet, we should not be cutting food assistance programs, but that is exactly what is happening. Earlier this month the administration announced a billion-dollar cut to local purchasing for schools and food banks.

Local farms who rely on these programs for consistent purchases of their food no longer have an important market, and it means that locally grown, more nutritious food is no longer available for food banks and schools.

Just yesterday, USDA announced that it was ending part of the Farm to School Program. This program for years incentivized local food procurement for school meals. Dozens of schools in Westchester and the Bronx rely on these programs as a way to provide healthy food to students. Similarly, Feeding Westchester and City Harvest do yeoman's work to provide food for families and kids in need at the best value. If fresh food is no longer available, our community will suffer.

These cuts must be reversed and quickly. Time is of the essence when it comes to our children having enough to eat.