Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, it is my privilege to recognize the David Chapel Missionary Baptist Church's celebration of its 100th anniversary this year.

In 1924, 28 African American members founded the Church out of a former blacksmith's shop in Austin, Texas. David Chapel would move twice, landing in its current site at MLK and Chestnut in 1958. Its membership continued to expand, and the need for larger accommodations became clear. At the height of racial segregation in the American South, White-owned banks refused to provide the loans necessary for the building of a new space of worship.

Undeterred, David Chapel pursued the funds, development, and construction they needed for the structure, becoming a truly community- driven project. Additionally, the building was designed by John Chase, the first Black graduate of the University of Texas at Austin's School of Architecture. Through the commitment and dedication of many, the construction of the current David Chapel Missionary Baptist Church building was finished only a year after it started.

Since 1992, David Chapel has been led by its Senior Pastor, Rev. Joseph C. Parker, Jr., Esq., D. Min. Under Rev. Parker's leadership, David Chapel has increased its community involvement by developing and implementing the Chestnut Neighborhood Plan, and co-founding the Texas Congregations United for Empowerment (TCUE), an organization of Black churches in Central Texas working to increase their economic and community empowerment.

As the Congressman representing the 35th District of Texas, I am honored to congratulate Rev. Packer and David Chapel Missionary Baptist Church on its 100th anniversary of providing spiritual guidance and serving the needs of our community in East Austin and beyond.

Mr. Speaker, it is my honor to call the attention of the House in celebration of a true Texas visionary, Ms. Janie Barrera, for decades of work to provide small business owners and working families with the means to achieve their dreams.

A native of Corpus Christi and a sixth-generation Texan, Ms. Barrera's entrepreneurial spirit began in her youth. At the age of 12, after her mother denied her request to purchase a new bicycle, Janie went door-to-door selling raffle tickets for her old bicycle and used the proceeds to purchase a new one. Later, as a waitress in her parents' restaurant, Ms. Barrera witnessed both the hard work and the great financial risks of running a small business.

After high school, Ms. Barrera became a nun and joined a local covenant. She ran the Telecommunications Center for the Diocese of Corpus Christi for 15 years. When a bishop told Ms. Barrera that she couldn't get a promotion because of her lack of business experience, she pursued a Master of Business Administration from the University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio, Texas. She left the covenant shortly after graduation.

Ms. Barrera's parents ended up with nothing saved for retirement after running their restaurant for 20 years. This motivated her to use her personal experience and academic training to support both small businesses and working families. In 1994, Ms. Barrera founded Accion Texas (later renamed LiftFund) with the commitment to provide small businesses with sorely needed financial support through microloans and ongoing guidance as they navigated complex financial systems.

Today, LiftFund has over 100 employees and has disbursed close to $500 million to small business owners in underserved communities, particularly people of color and low- and moderate-income individuals. Ms. Barrera stepped down as CEO of LiftFund in 2023 after three decades.

Ms. Barrera has been an integral part of the creation and sustainability of countless small businesses. Her work has received high recognition in Texas and beyond, including the ``Small Business Administration Financial Services Advocate of the Year,'' and the ``Minority Enterprise Development Consortium's Corporate Advocate of the Year.'' She received the 2022 Ned Gramlich Lifetime Achievement Award for Responsible Finance, which is the Community Development Financial Institution industry's highest individual honor. Ms. Barrera has also served on boards of directors at various levels, including the Federal Reserve Board's National Consumer Advisory Council. An invaluable leader in her field, President Barack Obama appointed Ms. Barrera to the President's Advisory Council on Financial Capability.

As Texans, we are all forever grateful to Ms. Barrera for her vision of shared prosperity, her decades-long service to creating economic mobility, and her unwavering dedication to our community. As the Congressman for the 35th District of Texas, I am proud to congratulate Ms. Barrera and LiftFund on 30 years of service in Texas, and beyond.

Mr. Speaker, I am Greg Casar, and I represent the heart of Texas. I represent hundreds of thousands of Texans who faced mass blackouts, medical emergencies, and even death 3 years ago during the Texas grid's failure under Winter Storm Uri. Over 10 million people needlessly lost power, and hundreds died, cold, alone, and in the dark.

Texas officials like Greg Abbott have not just failed to fix the grid and to respond to constituents' needs, but they have repeatedly abandoned us in favor of large corporations and the donations that they provide, those corporations that profit off of the misery of Texans.

That is why, yesterday, I announced new legislation, the Connect the Grid Act, to connect Texas to the national electric grids and make a real difference and bring forward real solutions.

If our State were interconnected, we could prevent mass blackouts, save tens of billions of dollars, and help our country meet its climate goals. It is not radical to say that, in the middle of a heat wave or a winter storm, Texans should be able to keep the lights on.

Too many people have already died because of our inaction. With the Connect the Grid Act, we can keep the lights on, and Congress can give power back to the people.

Mr. Speaker, it is my honor to call the attention of the House in recognition of the life and legacy of Belle Ortiz, a legendary San Antonian and the Mother of Mariachi.

Born on February 12, 1933, Isabel ``Belle'' A. Ortiz grew up on the west side of San Antonio, TX. She began her musical journey at the age of four, and as a youth, Ms. Ortiz performed across the city with various orchestras. After graduating from Our Lady of the Lake University, she began her career as a public school music teacher, eventually landing at Lanier High School, her alma mater, in 1970.

At a time when speaking another language besides English was frowned upon, Ms. Ortiz was committed to teaching music that reflected the rich cultural diversity of Texas. At Lanier High School in San Antonio, she created the high school ballet folklorico program, the first of its kind in the country. Through her continued advocacy, thousands of schools,

colleges, and universities worldwide now offer their student musicians a mariachi education.

Ms. Ortiz helped co-found the Mariachi Campanas de America, an award- winning ensemble of musicians that have performed all across the country, bringing the rich history of mariachi to places like the Hollywood Bowl, the Kennedy Center, and performed at the White House for five different U.S. Presidents.

An active member of her community in San Antonio, Ms. Ortiz served on many local boards and committees, and was a recipient of many lifetime achievement awards and honors for her dedication to making mariachi and its rich history accessible to generations of aspiring musicians.

Her life is now being celebrated in the award-winning documentary ``Suena La Educacion: The Story of Belle Ortiz''. This month, the Lanier High School music building in San Antonio, TX, will be renamed in her honor.

In Ms. Ortiz's final days, hundreds of mariachi musicians came to her bedside and played for her, paying tribute to this trailblazing icon. As the Congressman for the 35th District of Texas, I am honored to celebrate the life of Ms. Belle Ortiz, who left behind an incredible legacy that transformed mariachi music from a local tradition into a worldwide cultural phenomenon.

Mr. Speaker, I opposed the tax bill last night. To me it was pretty simple, because whether I am in Austin, Texas, or San Antonio, Texas, whether I am in a group of seniors or with young people, in front of more liberal constituents or conservative ones, one of the most common questions I get asked is: Why is it that I and everyday Americans pay such a higher effective tax rate than some of the biggest corporations in this country?

How is it that FedEx and T-Mobile would pay none, zero, in Federal income tax at all?

And the answer is: Look no further than the bill that we voted to pass last night, which provided tens of billions, if not hundreds of billions, in giveaways in corporate tax breaks.

Importantly, as folks have noted, packaged into the bill is a watered down partial return of the child tax credit, which thankfully, will help thousands of families. But for every dollar going to kids in the bill, $5 goes to corporations.

So in short, instead of helping thousands of kids, we could have helped millions of kids. We have the money to pull kids out of poverty, to ensure that people in this country are housed, fed, and educated. The money is there. In this case, the money was sitting right there in this bill--just in the wrong people's pockets.

We have to be willing to move the money from corporate pockets over to kids and families. We could provide working-class and middle-class tax cuts. We just have to be willing to fight and negotiate harder to end the giveaways to billionaires.

Mr. Speaker, just like the ranking member, I am open to compromise, but instead of a deal where corporations get $5 for every $1 that kids get, what about a compromise where kids get $5 for every dollar that corporations get?

I oppose this bill because we can do so much better. It is such a missed opportunity. We have to be willing to say no to deals that are so lopsided that workers get crumbs while corporate executives get a full steak dinner.

Madam Speaker, I rise today in opposition to this Republican proposal because across our country and across my home State of Texas, working families are struggling to make ends meet while big corporations boast record-breaking profits.

We should all be celebrating this Biden-era NLRB rule to make sure that those same big companies have to bargain for better wages and better benefits with their workers and that those big companies can't throw contractors in the way in order to evade that baseline responsibility.

Nonetheless, unsurprisingly, my colleagues on the other side of the aisle are running to the rescue of those same big corporations and their record-breaking profits. The Republican majority wants to help those corporations be able to deny workers the benefits, the higher wages, the overtime, and the healthcare they deserve.

The most ironic thing that I have heard today from the Republicans who are for this resolution is they keep saying they want to defend small businesses. However, in fact, the Republican proposal today will allow big corporations to throw a small contractor in between themselves and their employees so that they can keep on underpaying their staff and provide fewer benefits than those workers deserve.

I will give you an example from my district, Madam Speaker. In my district, my constituents run YouTube Music which is used by millions of people across the world. YouTube Music, of course, is owned by YouTube and by Google. However, they don't get a check from Google. They get a check from a contractor that otherwise wouldn't exist except for the fact that they are there to essentially pass the check along to workers and shield Google and YouTube from their responsibility to their workers.

That is why these folks who are helping make Google $60 billion in profits just last year make as little as $19 an hour. This Republican proposal is to shield enormous corporations like Google from their responsibility to make sure that the workers who create their profits actually get to share in American prosperity.

Workers have the right to bargain for fair wages and working conditions with every company that controls their terms and conditions of employment, and that is why we should defend this Biden-era NLRB rule to protect workers' rights to bargain.

Workers across the United States are saying ``yes'' to higher wages, they are saying ``yes'' to better healthcare, and they are saying ``yes'' to collective bargaining. It is time for Congress to catch up.

Mr. Speaker, it is my privilege to call the attention of the House in recognition of the Intercultural Development Research Association (IDRA) celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. For over 50 years, IDRA has been steadfast in its commitment to equitable access to high-quality public education for every child and family that needs it. Both their research and advocacy focus on ensuring public schools have the tools necessary to succeed.

Originally founded in 1973 by Dr. Jose A. Cardenas, IDRA quickly established itself as a singular voice for Texas students and parents in the field of education. In the early 1980s, Dr. Cardenas was an expert witness and, alongside IDRA staff, played a pivotal role in the Supreme Court's decision on Plyler v. Doe, guaranteeing equal protection for immigrant children across the country to access education in our nation's public schools.

Since then, IDRA has continued working with lawmakers and policy advocates to help secure critical laws supporting bilingual education, equity in school funding, and the rights of immigrant students. Every year, IDRA supports the training of thousands of teachers and administrators on creating the best environment for our children to succeed, while connecting parents and schools so they have a seat at the table in shaping and supporting their child's education.

IDRA has spent decades working to create a more equitable system for millions of students across the country, including those in my district. As the Congressman for the 35th District of Texas, I am proud to congratulate them on their 50 years of transforming public education and empowering our communities.

Mr. Speaker, it is my privilege to recognize Mt. Zion Baptist Church on the celebration of its 150th anniversary this year.

Founded 1873 in Williamson Creek, this church soon faced its first challenges. Only 10 years after its founding, a flood destroyed the church building. Through resilience and faith, the congregation worshipped and held services in their homes while their community rebuilt what was lost.

In 1948, the old walls of Mt. Zion Williamson Creek were transported and reinstalled at their new home in Austin, where it became Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church. Beginning in 1970, under the leadership of the late Rev. Dr. G. V. Clark, the church experienced a large increase in membership and expanded its facilities on and around East 13th Street. With a deep commitment to his faith and community, Dr. Clark served the congregants of Mt. Zion for five decades. Our whole community is greatly indebted to him for a lifetime of service.

For over 150 years, Mt. Zion has been a pillar of East Austin. Under the current leadership of Reverend Dr. Daryl Horton, Mt. Zion continues a tradition of commitment and service to our community through charity and volunteerism, like housing the elderly, feeding children, and the poor. As the Congressman for the 35th District of Texas. I am proud to congratulate them on their 150 years of faithful service and dedication to improving the lives of so many in Austin.

Mr. Chair, we must stop the dangerous, expensive, corrupt, and ineffective political stunts at the border and instead chart a new path for a safe, orderly, and humane immigration system. Abbott's Operation Lone Star must end, and I urge passage of the amendment of the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Castro), my good friend, to ensure Federal funding does not go to this failed program.

Every day, Texas Governor Greg Abbott violates the rights of asylum seekers and violates the rights of our border communities all to score political points against President Biden. We have seen these inhumane policies in action that have taken the lives of children at the border, and we have lost National Guardsmen to death.

This is not only inhumane, but Operation Lone Star is not effective. Governor Abbott is lighting $25 million on fire every week to cause suffering instead of creating solutions.

Why do my colleagues across the aisle not want solutions? Because they have no interest in a functioning immigration system. They thrive off of keeping the immigration system broken so they can continue to stoke anti-immigrant fears for their own politics.

Operation Lone Star, furthermore, is also unconstitutional. In Arizona v. United States, the Supreme Court ruled the Federal Government, not people like Governor Abbott, have supremacy over the immigration system. Abbott's unconstitutional, abusive, wasteful, and inhumane Operation Lone Star is a disgrace to our State and to our Nation.

I want to be clear: Not one cent of Federal money should go toward caging families, cutting innocent people with razor wire, or drowning children, period.

Madam Speaker, I am Greg Casar, and I represent the heart of Texas.

Thirteen years ago, I stood alongside construction workers as we sounded the alarm at Austin City Hall that workers were dying after being forced to work for hours on end in the sun without rest and without a water break. Our community came together and passed a local protection to guarantee everyone this basic right.

Five years later, families in Dallas were mourning the losses of fathers and sons and brothers and tios who died on the job because they, too, were forced to work without a water break. That community came together to pass protections that guarantee this basic right.

Now, as San Antonio bears the hottest 10-day streak in recorded history and as our globe bears the hottest days in recorded history, this month, people in San Antonio want to pass those same sort of protections, but Governor Greg Abbott signed a priority bill eliminating the right to water breaks for Texas workers beginning September 1.

People are dying, like Eugene Gates and Justin Cory Foster and Felipe Pascual, dying while working in the Texas heat this year. We don't need more Texans dying in the sun. Instead, we need OSHA and the Biden administration to take immediate action in passing a Federal heat protection rule, because bearing the Texas heat is brutal but forcing workers to work in that heat is cruel.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the 110th anniversary of the Alamo Iron Works strike in San Antonio, Texas. Back then, those organizers were fighting for better wages and working conditions, like workers are today. They started a tradition of labor strikes in the summer in the city of San Antonio.

Mr. Speaker, 20 years later in 1933, the Finck Cigar strike began when 400 young Mexican-American women went on strike for better working conditions and won.

In 1936, garment workers at the Dorothy Frocks Company in San Antonio began striking for higher wages. They went to jail that August of 1936, and still won.

The next summer, in 1937, 80 workers at the San Antonio Laundry Company walked off the job. They demanded a 9-hour workday instead of 14 hours and won.

Remember, when rightwing extremists pass antiworker bills, they are arguing that their bills are trying to take us to the good old days of Texas past. We know the truth: The history of San Antonio and the history of Texas is a history or workers organizing and winning.

Mr. Speaker, I am Greg Casar, and I represent the heart of Texas.

Throughout my time in office, I have heard from and spoken with military families about what their greatest needs are. The answer that has most consistently come up isn't about the latest tanks or the latest guns. It is childcare.

In fact, based on a 2021 survey from the Military Family Advisory Network, they found that 78 percent of military families have found it difficult to get childcare for their kids. This need is ever present in San Antonio, Texas, Military City USA.

Military readiness means more than just stocking up on more and more weapons and gadgets. It means investing in the people of the military.

Right now, the extreme rightwing is trying to bring forward a bill to spend more and more money on weapons that the Pentagon hasn't even asked for, and it happens nearly every year.

The NDAA, our annual defense spending bill, provides funds that the Department of Defense is told to spend on obsolete weapons and programs. That is why I am proposing an amendment to the NDAA, alongside Congressman Castro, to provide adequate childcare for our military families.

Mr. Speaker, I was here alongside all of you during the State of the Union when my Republican colleagues stood up and started jeering, booing, yelling, and complaining saying that indeed, they weren't interested in cutting Social Security or Medicare. However, in the weeks since, it has become clear to me that was all talk and no votes, or as we say in Texas, all hat and no cattle.

In fact, this week the Republican head of appropriations just said that she wants to see even deeper cuts to critical Federal programs. That means bigger classroom sizes for our students and our struggling teachers and longer wait times for our veterans seeking healthcare, all to finance bigger tax cuts for billionaires and multinational corporations.

Social Security and Medicare are not safe until we step up and vote to make sure they are safe. That is why I urge my colleagues to defeat the previous question so that we can vote for H.R. 178, which would put our money where our mouth is.

I urge my Republican colleagues to prove me wrong because what we are planning on voting on this week are things like a ludicrous gas stove bill of rights.

Are they kidding me?

What we are talking about voting on this week is deregulating gun accessories that have been used in mass shootings across the country.

Really?

It is disrespectful, it is dangerous, and it is a distortion of our oath and our job that we have committed to doing here today.

So instead of bowing to the gun lobby, we are passing these ludicrous messaging bills. Let's work on solving real problems, or, at a minimum, let's stop these attacks on Social Security and Medicare.

Mr. Speaker, I am Greg Casar. I am a brand new Member of Congress representing Texas, and I am standing over here on the Republican side of the aisle; not because I am a Republican, I am a Democrat. I want the American people to see that there aren't any Republicans in the seats here behind me on the eve of our default.

Where are the Republicans?

This is not a simple political disagreement. This is a dire crisis being imposed on the working people of America.

The American people could lose millions of jobs. You could lose your house. Your kids could lose their jobs. People could lose their savings. They aren't even here.

They want to burn the House down and blame the firefighters for the flames. They are listening to Donald Trump who is saying: Do a default. That is shameful. It is dangerous. There is no patriotism in this. There is no morality in this.

We just need five Republicans to sign the discharge petition with us to save the American people. We need the American people to speak up about why the Republicans are not in these empty chairs.

The American people can save us. The Democrats are aligned and ready to avoid a default and make sure that billionaires pay their fair share and folks aren't kicked off their healthcare or deprived of food.

Mr. Chair, I rise today in opposition to House Republicans' H.R. 2494, which is not about defending police officers, it is about deporting people. This does nothing to defend against assault. This is about discriminating against immigrants. Let me tell you why.

Under Texas law, an unwanted touch can be considered assault. My Republican colleague, Congressman Troy Nehls, a former law enforcement officer himself, pointed out during the bill markup that he had ``mixed emotions'' on that potentially leading to deportation.

This is not theoretical. Just this month we saw this in Texas firsthand. Evan, an Austin resident, was at our State legislature peacefully opposing a bill there. As the bill was being taken up, the speaker of the house ordered the gallery to be cleared.

Hats aren't allowed in the Chamber. As Evan was exiting the gallery, he was carrying his baseball cap in his left hand. An officer grabbed his arm and Evan swung around, surprised. The brim of his basketball cap bumped the officer. Evan was handcuffed and charged with assault by contact, a criminal charge. If Evan wasn't a citizen or had admitted fault, he would be deported under this proposed bill today.

Here is another example from 2019. My constituent, Tania, was in mental health crisis. Her friends, family, and neighbors called 911 for help. The police and an ambulance arrived. The police said they needed to handcuff her to take her to the hospital. She was terrified. She was scared. She kicked as she was being handcuffed.

The police body camera video has on the recording the officers saying: Thank you.

That is now assault on a police officer, a felony charge for kicking. Rather than being taken to the hospital, Tania was booked into the jail. We feared that she would be deported. Because there was time for due process, her lawyers intervened. Members of Congress, such as Congressman Lloyd Doggett, intervened, and Tania was able to get out rather than be deported back to a country that she was brought from as a young child.

If this law today had been in place, Tania instead could have been automatically deported. This law undermines due process and radically expands the ability to deport families from the U.S. who have never been charged or convicted of a crime.

This bill would separate families and send people potentially to a country that they have never known, all for the brush of a hat or for the pinch of an arm.

Mr. Chair, I am sick and tired of preposterous bills being heard in this Chamber. I am sick and tired of hearing the Republicans are for due process, freedom, or individual liberty, when we see bills like this that do nothing to reform our immigration system. This does nothing to increase public safety, and only leaves as collateral damage the freedom, due process, and individual liberties of those who are struggling to make this country a better home for themselves and their families.