Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the extraordinary life of Gwen Robinson, a dear friend of mine, an incredible leader, and an incredible human being.

She was one of the first people I met when I arrived in Cincinnati, and she welcomed me in the way she did with almost everyone, immediately kind and immediately generous.

There is a real argument to be made that much of what I have accomplished, what so many of us accomplished in southwest Ohio wouldn't have happened without her. She fought so hard for the children in the Bond Hill Head Start program that she helped lead, making sure each one of them had the highest quality preschool. It was part of what convinced me that every child in Cincinnati deserved 2 years of quality preschool, and when we said we wanted to do that, she was there every step of the way. She poured everything into helping us get the Preschool Promise passed. She did the same with the public transit levy a few years later.

There aren't enough words to capture her impact. Gwen was a giant and will be missed by all of us.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in honor of an extraordinary individual, Mr. Kenny Bierschenk.

Kenny has dedicated 30 years to enriching our community through music as a conductor and director of the Westside Community Band. Kenny has brought a joy to countless individuals across our community.

Kenny has led the group to national recognition as a top ten community band in the 2024 American Prize competition.

Under his leadership, the band performed nearly 250 free concerts, uplifting audiences at senior centers, festivals, and community events.

He is not only a great conductor, but a great person. He and his band have done so much community work on behalf of our children. Kenny represents the best of our community, and we thank him for his leadership and his lasting impact.

Mr. Speaker, the Social Security Fairness Act, which we passed a few months ago, is now in effect, and 3.2 million Americans will see a big increase in their monthly Social Security checks.

We are talking about retired public schoolteachers, retired police officers, retired firefighters, and retired letter carriers. They paid into Social Security for years but weren't getting their full benefits. They were missing out on hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars a month.

The bill was introduced in every Congress for the last 25 years. It had the most bipartisan support of any bill in the last Congress.

We had to force a vote on the bill with a discharge petition, and within 2 days, we got 218 signatures. We fought very hard to get this done, and now, our public retirees will finally start to see the benefits they were owed each month.

We could not have done this without the advocacy of thousands of public servants and retirees. I hope it can help restore some faith in our government that this institution does still get things done.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today on behalf of one of my constituents, Debbie. Up until 1 week ago, Debbie worked at the Cincinnati VA, responsible for finding and hiring doctors with the skills needed to treat very sick veterans.

Debbie loved her job, she was good at her job, and she went to work every day to serve her community and to help our veterans. A week ago, Debbie received an email telling her she no longer had a job. She wasn't fired because veterans were suddenly cured or because her work was no longer needed. Donald Trump and his unelected tech billionaire, Elon Musk, fired Debbie and slashed services at VA facilities nationwide making it harder for millions of veterans to get the services they need.

It is simply wrong. Our veterans deserve better. Debbie and her family deserve better, and we need Republican Members of Congress who control this body to stand up for our veterans and our public servants and stop this madness.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to also talk about Elon Musk and to ask the Speaker and my colleagues to follow the money.

Elon owns six companies, two of which are Tesla and SpaceX. SpaceX alone has received something like $20 billion in Federal contracts. That is Federal taxpayer dollars. Tesla, when it was struggling to get off of the ground, got a half-a-billion-dollar loan from the Department of Energy.

This is in addition to the billions that they have received in tax credits and other supplements from the Federal Government. He is not just the world's richest man, but Elon Musk is trying to become the first trillionaire in the history of the world.

Mr. Speaker, during the 2024 election, Musk gave over $200 million to Trump and Republicans. That is a lot of money. Trump wins, and Elon, just weeks--not months--after the election, generates several hundred billion dollars in new wealth, making his way to that trillion-dollar number.

He generated all of that new wealth because the markets knew that, with Trump, he was going to have access to even more of our money. They knew he was going to get billions more in contracts, billions more in Federal subsidies, and he is well on his way.

To expedite these efforts, Trump empowers Musk, moments after he is inaugurated--Musk, an unelected tech billionaire. He empowers him to take access of our personal data, all of it. He gives him access to the Federal payment system. He gives him power to purge as many Federal workers as he possibly can, all in the name of waste, fraud, and abuse, which, in the end turns out to be somewhat accurate.

By the way, what happened with the data breach and the fact that he now has access to all of our data is arguably the greatest data breach in the history of the United States of America.

Mr. Musk has defunded Federal programs, purged public servants, and stripped resources away from government oversight, all while getting richer and richer at the expense of the rest of us.

Today, the State Department said they plan to spend $400 million of our tax dollars to purchase Tesla Cybertrucks.

Why in the world would the Federal Government buy one Tesla Cybertruck, let alone $400 million of Tesla Cybertrucks: waste, fraud, and abuse.

Every day, Elon Musk makes $8 million from government contracts. That number just went up. In comparison, seniors on Social Security get $65 a day.

The question that so many are asking is: How do you fight back against this waste, fraud, and abuse?

There is a playbook, Mr. Speaker. It is the Constitution of the United States. Article I does not lay out the powers of the Presidency or the Supreme Court, the Judiciary, Article I lays out the powers of the Congress of the United States.

This Congress is responsible for appropriating funds and oversight of the Federal Government and holding the President accountable. The Founders envisioned this moment. They didn't know that it would come with a billionaire tech donor, but they envisioned this moment. With Republicans in control of both the House and the Senate, they have to step up and deal with this waste, fraud, and abuse.

Mr. Speaker, for personal reasons, I was unable to make votes today. Had I been present, I would have voted YEA on Roll Call No. 36 and YEA on Roll Call No. 37.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to support our Federal workers. These are public servants who live and work all over the country. The vast majority of our Federal workers do not live in the Washington, D.C., area. It is a big misconception. People think, well, these are Federal workers. They are just here in D.C.

They are in our districts. Each one of us has probably tens of thousands of Federal employees in our congressional districts, meaning that we serve them. It just so happens that they serve us.

Trump and Elon Musk have been setting these fires all over the Federal Government. They have launched this reckless trade war with China. They tried to stop Federal funding from going into our communities. These are our tax dollars. Trump gave an unelected tech billionaire access to our Social Security data, to all of our data, to our Federal payment system, and empowered him to purge as many public servants from our Federal agencies as he possibly could.

One of those public servants is a constituent of mine in southwest Ohio. She lost her job. For 20 years, she worked at USAID leading the agency's famine early detection efforts. Her work ensured food reached children, families, and communities in crisis. She saved lives.

It is not just about food. Hunger fuels instability. When people are desperate, terrorism thrives. When the U.S. pulls back, it creates a vacuum for China to step in. This administration's actions are just cruel, and they are making our country and our world less safe.

Why are they purging our Federal workforce? They have got to find $4 trillion--$4 trillion that won't go to you or me or our communities. They are planning to use these dollars to pay for tax giveaways for the uberwealthy, for the Elon Musks of the world. They are stealing from our workers, our country, and our allies all so the uberwealthy can get wealthier. It has to be stopped. This Congress can stop it, but the majority has to step up.

Mr. Speaker, I thank Congressman Himes for doing this Special Order and including us. I appreciate his leadership.

Mr. Speaker, I was legitimately shocked. I am certain that this is the first time ever the President of the United States, certainly in my lifetime, released hundreds of violent criminals from jails and sent them into our communities. These are people who have now said that they are determined to buy weapons to pursue more violence.

These are convicted criminals. They conspired to overthrow their own government. They stormed this Capitol. They destroyed property, sacred property. They attacked police officers.

On day one, a day that was supposed to be about fixing the economy, lowering prices, actual border security, and real immigration reform, the focus was on releasing these violent criminals.

Mr. Speaker, it is a betrayal to the American people, to law enforcement, and it has made us all less safe.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to celebrate the 215th anniversary of Lebanon, Ohio. Lebanon is the birthplace of The Western Star, Ohio's oldest weekly newspaper, the home of the historic Golden Lamb Inn, Ohio's oldest hotel, which has hosted 12 United States Presidents and literary giants like Mark Twain, Charles Dickens, and Harriet Beecher Stowe.

After walking on the Moon and seeing the Earth from space, Neil Armstrong could go anywhere, and he chose Lebanon as his home for 23 years. It is that special.

Today, Lebanon continues to bring people together, including one of my favorite events, the Warren County Fair. It is a place where neighbors gather to celebrate community and tradition. We have an office there, and it is one of my favorite places. It is still remarkable 215 years later.

Congratulations to all my friends in Lebanon.

Mr. Speaker, I hate bullies. This bill is about bullying children. Children struggle with identity, gender, and otherwise. As a parent of two and a former teacher, I need all adults, including politicians and lawmakers, to help my wife and I protect our children, to support them, to give them a sense of purpose and belonging.

This bill does the opposite. You are just picking on children.

Our government is not supposed to be this intrusive. Your government has become incredibly intrusive. You are in our doctors' offices banning reproductive freedom. You are in our classrooms banning books and telling teachers what they can and cannot say. Now you are in my daughter's locker room requiring physical exams of children.

It is so profoundly disgusting and inappropriate and un-American. We have an economy to fix, a border crisis to address, a budget to balance. My request to my colleagues is to focus. Stop bullying children.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to oppose the bill, not because I don't want to see a whole host of reforms as it relates to helping our small businesses but because it does not exclude the big corporations from exploiting this bill to seize more and more of our power and wealth. I think people are very frustrated with just how much wealth and power has been consolidated among a sliver of Americans and a few big corporations.

For that reason, at the appropriate time, I will offer a motion to recommit this bill back to committee. If the House rules permitted, I would have offered this motion as an amendment to focus the same kind of thinking on our veterans.

As part of the VA Committee and working with our veterans and our VA back home, I have become increasingly frustrated with the layers of bureaucracy that slow down care for our veterans or prevent care for our veterans. My amendment would provide an exemption to this bill for rules that are determined to have substantial beneficial effects on veterans and veteran programs.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to insert the text of this amendment into the Record immediately prior to the vote on the motion to recommit.

Mr. Speaker, I hope my colleagues will join me in voting for the motion to recommit.

Mr. Speaker, I have a motion to recommit at the desk.

Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for hosting tonight.

It is crystal clear that people are frustrated. They are frustrated with politics. They are frustrated with the economy, and they want costs down and an economy that is built for working people, the middle class, and our small businesses. I think it is really important for us to have this conversation and to start with the reality.

The reality is that the system is rigged, and it has been rigged for decades. It works for the superwealthy while everyone else is left behind, facing higher prices and a tax system that helps the rich get richer.

This started in the 1980s with huge tax giveaways to the wealthy while gutting oversight and regulations.

The result is that the system is producing the outcomes it was designed to produce. The top 1 percent in the United States now holds 12 times the wealth of the bottom half of American households. That is what this system produced.

Think about that: 1 percent of Americans own more wealth than half of all American families combined.

When people look at their bank accounts, they are frustrated and when they get their grocery bill and their tax bill and they are wondering where all their money went, they know. They see on their phones and on the news how rich the rich have gotten. That is where their money has gone.

The superwealthy and powerful have seized more and more of our money and more and more of our power.

Let me say that again: The superwealthy and powerful have seized more and more of our money and more and more of our power.

Since the pandemic, billionaires have become $3 trillion richer. Their wealth has grown three times faster than inflation. Corporate profits have gone up 54 percent. Wages have only gone up 26 percent.

Mr. Speaker, what is Congress' solution?

The 2017 Trump tax bill was a massive handout to corporations and billionaires. The majority of the benefits went almost entirely to the top 1 percent, and it added $2 trillion to the national debt.

Here in these Halls, folks want to do it again. Members of Congress who have continually bent a knee to billionaires and their corporate PAC donors are now going to take their money, follow their orders, and give them the tax giveaways they want. They are going to gut regulation and allow for more corporate consolidation, which means that consumers lose more and more power in the marketplace and pay more and more for goods and services.

I don't accept corporate PAC money because I know that my constituents expect us to be with them, not the superwealthy.

Most politicians, unfortunately, do take corporate PAC money, and I believe it is one of the reasons why there is so much pushback to Medicare negotiating lower prescription drug prices or attempts to privatize Medicare or any effort to pursue commonsense gun reform. Think about how much the gun manufacturers make. It is billions and billions of dollars.

Mr. Speaker, many of them are all in on spending trillions on the superwealthy through tax reform because it helps their own interests. It is not what people want.

People are struggling, and they want change. They are tired of the status quo. They are saying that over and over. For decades, that is what they have been given. We have appeased billionaires and big corporations while leaving working people, the middle class, and small businesses behind.

In the next Congress, we have an opportunity to pass a new tax bill. What if 100 percent of all tax reform benefits went to working people, the middle class, and small businesses?

The last time Congress passed a big tax bill, almost 90 percent went to the top 1 percent. What if 100 percent of any tax cuts went to working people, the middle class, and small businesses? It should be paid for by making the superwealthy just pay all their taxes, just like the rest of us.

Big corporations and the superwealthy don't need our tax cuts. The middle class, small businesses, and working people need them. By giving people enough money to support their families, pay for their groceries, and contribute to our economy, we are all better off.

Everyone at the top should pay all of their taxes so every American can pay all their bills.

Mr. Speaker, I thank everyone who has worked so hard on this bill for as long as they have. It has been years, way too long.

Tonight is a bill vote. This is one of the most significant votes as a new Member I have been a part of because of the impact it will have on millions and millions of working people and public retirees. It is a huge win for them.

Mr. Speaker, the bipartisan Social Security Fairness Act will help over 160,000 people in Ohio alone. As has been said, these are people who served us. These are retired teachers, retired police officers, retired firefighters, retired nurses, and our letter carriers.

They have paid into the system like everyone else, but they don't get all of their benefits. As has been said, this is theft.

Mr. Speaker, I am going to tell one quick story about a woman named Melissa from my district. She has been teaching kindergarten at a public school.

The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. D'Esposito). The time of the gentleman has expired.

Mr. Speaker, she has taught public school for 20 years.

When she retires next year, she is set to lose $2,000 a month that she has earned because of this provision.

She is not alone. As I mentioned, there are over 160,000 others in Ohio and millions across the country.

Mr. Speaker, this is the most cosponsored bill in the United States Congress. There are more than 60 Members of the Senate who will pass this bill or at least have said that they will pass this bill.

With our vote tonight, it will get sent to the Senate. It will become law. It will make an enormous difference in the lives of working people, public retirees, so that they can pay all of their bills.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to talk about our retired teachers, police officers, firefighters, letter carriers, and nurses, and the fact that, for decades, Congress has kept or stolen the Social Security benefits that they paid for and earned but have yet to receive.

The Social Security Fairness Act will fix this. Millions of retired public servants will get their benefits each and every month moving forward.

This bipartisan effort is the most cosponsored bill in this 118th Congress. Yesterday, we hit a major milestone with 218 signatures on a discharge petition, forcing a vote on the Social Security Fairness Act.

Mr. Speaker, I am ready to vote ``yes'' when this bill comes to the floor. Let's get it done.