Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, here we go again. Donald Trump lost the 2020 election. He is aggrieved about that, and so now he is peddling claims of fraud as a pretext to take over our elections and disenfranchise millions.

He tried to extort Minnesota into handing over their voter files. Fulton County was raided. He has sued Wisconsin and other States for their voter data. This bill would provide Kristi Noem access to all the voter files in every State and upend the authority and the independence of States and counties.

Why? It is so they can rig the elections and save Republicans. We have to reject the so-called SAVE America Act and save our free and fair elections and save our democracy.

Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record a news article titled: ``Child care providers reporting unnerving stakeouts'' by Kristen Taketa.

[From the Union-Tribune, Jan. 21, 2026]

Child Care Providers Reporting Unnerving Stakeouts

(By Kristen Taketa)

Some San Diego child care providers say they are being

harassed and fear for their safety amid a campaign by

conservative activists and the Trump administration over

broad but unsubstantiated suggestions of fraud.

Meanwhile, billions of dollars in child care funding is up

in the air after the Trump administration last week moved to

freeze $10 billion in funding for social services, including

child care and cash assistance for low-income families, in

five Democratic-led states until it investigates.

A New York federal judge temporarily halted the freeze on

Friday, a day after the five states challenged the freeze in

court.

The states called it a politically motivated,

``extraordinary and cruel action'' and said the

administration has shown neither evidence of fraud nor the

legal authority to withhold mandated program funding.

The freeze could affect $5 billion in funding due to

California that helps pay for state child care subsidy

programs serving more than 300,000 children of low-income

families. The subsidies come in the form of vouchers that

families use to pay child care providers.

In the past week, conservative activists have been posting

on social media the names and phone numbers of child care

providers, including in San Diego County, suggesting without

evidence that they are benefiting from public funding but not

actually providing child care.

Several local providers say that since then, they have

begun seeing people loitering outside their homes or sitting

in parked cars with cameras, watching them.

One San Diego child care provider whose name and phone

number were posted online by a local activist said that ever

since then, her phone has been ``flooded'' with calls, and

she has seen people loitering around her home with recording

devices. The San Diego Union-Tribune is not identifying her

due to safety concerns.

``This has raised serious safety concerns for my family and

my business. It's not right!'' she wrote in a text message.

The harassment is also racist, providers say--those in San

Diego who have been targeted are overwhelmingly of African or

Middle Eastern descent.

Samsam Khalif, a Somali American who has been a family

child care provider in San Diego for 18 years, was frightened

last week when, as she was driving children to her home for a

day of child care, she saw two men with a camera sitting in a

car outside her home.

She circled the block a few times, but they didn't leave

until she got out of her car and walked the children to her

home. They drove away, she said, after they saw her with the

children.

Khalif said she is so scared that she avoids going out

unless she has to go shopping. She reactivated her home

security system last week.

The safety concerns are especially acute for family child

care providers, who run child care businesses out of their

own homes. Some providers have their own children or other

family members living at their place of business.

Yessika Magdaleno, a family child care provider of 25

years, said last week she hasn't faced harassment yet but

worries she will, considering she is an officer with a child

care providers union.

She counseled her young-adult children last week on safety,

telling them to look out for anybody who may be watching or

following them, and to be ready to call 911 if anyone

threatens them.

``You do your work with fear. You don't know who's going to

show up at your place, and you have all of these little

children in your care,'' said Magdaleno, who lives in Orange

County and is the United Domestic Workers union president for

the district that includes San Diego County.

``They're doing things that, as a child care provider, you

will never think will happen to you. Because all you're doing

is taking care of the children and educating them, right?''

The harassment has drawn attention from local Democratic

leaders.

``What the hell are we doing here where children, at day

care, might be subjected to extremists showing up at the door

of the home that they're receiving care, to investigate

whether or not there's actually child care happening?'' San

Diego City Councilmember Sean Elo-Rivera said at a UDW news

conference Thursday. ``Child care should be universal and

should be affordable for everyone, and it sure as hell should

be saved from extremists.''

The targeting--plus the potential loss of funding--has

shaken an industry in California that has been historically

underpaid, understaffed and run almost entirely by women,

most of them women of color and many immigrants.

Government subsidies for child care cover only some of the

cost of care, despite California's recent additional

increases in subsidy rates for providers and funded child

care slots.

Child care providers frequently make personal sacrifices to

run their businesses, often putting in long days, enlisting

family members to work unpaid or forgoing adequate pay and

benefits, such as time off for themselves.

In 2024, the median annual wage for a child care worker in

California was $38,220, according to the Bureau of Labor

Statistics.

``Child care providers are some of the most hardworking,

selfless, incredible humans that are raising our future

generation,'' said Kimberly McDougal, senior vice president

at YMCA Childcare Resource Service in San Diego County. ``The

fact that they're even having to go through this is sad.''

Child care leaders now worry that losing funding could

force some child care providers to close their doors, which

would exacerbate California's child care shortage.

``It's very fragile. Child care providers operate . . . on

a very, very razor-thin line, subsidies being so low,'' said

Max Arias, chair of Child Care Providers United, a union that

represents more than 40,000 family child care providers in

California.

The harassment comes as the White House targets child care

providers and Somali communities, part of a growing

conservative focus following years of state and federal

investigations into allegations of fraud in Minnesota's child

care system and social services, some involving Somali

American business owners.

That has culminated in what the Trump administration has

called its largest immigration enforcement action, with

thousands of officers deployed last month to Minnesota in

part to investigate the child care fraud allegations.

That crackdown led to last week's killing of Renee Good by

an ICE officer Wednesday.

In early December, Trump shocked observers with his

comments during a Cabinet meeting in which he called Somali

people ``garbage'' and said, ``They contribute nothing. I

don't want them in our country.''

Weeks later, a conservative YouTuber named Nick Shirley

posted a video in which he recorded Minneapolis Somali-run

child care businesses and accused them of fraud, claiming

they got public funding but did not serve children.

Afterward, Minnesota investigators visited 10 businesses he

identified and found that nine were operating normally; the

10th had not yet opened for the day when officials arrived.

Shirley's video prompted other conservative activists

around the country, including in San Diego, to follow his

lead.

In San Diego, one proponent of unfounded fraud allegations

has been activist Amy Reichert, who founded Restore San Diego

in 2020, an organization whose stated goal is to ``get the

government out of our lives.''

In the past week, Reichert has promoted her claims on Fox

News and identified by name more than a dozen San Diego

County family child care providers on the social media

platform X, saying they do not actually serve children.

Her posts contained excerpts from publicly available state

reports, with providers' names and phone numbers listed, that

noted if there were no children present at the time of their

unannounced visits; some reports also noted violations of

state regulations, such as missing child or employee records.

Child care providers have called the claims reckless and

based on false assumptions. ``There are many reasons why

children may not be present when an inspector is on-site,''

said McDougal of YMCA's Childcare Resource Service.

Providers identified on social media said children weren't

there at the time of inspection because they serve children

after school or at night; others had kids absent due to

illness.

Not all children who are enrolled are present in child care

at the same time, depending on their families' schedules.

``They (are) just accusing us. And that's lying. And that's

wrong for you to put lie(s) out there,'' Khalif said.

Reichert told the Union-Tribune she had not contacted any

of the providers; she said she ``didn't want to give any

appearance of harassment.''

The child care subsidy system has several procedures in

place to protect against fraud, McDougal said. Her

organization and Child Development Associates are the two

nonprofits that administer subsidies to providers in San

Diego County.

The nonprofits check providers' enrollment with their

licensed capacity, review thousands of monthly attendance

sheets, validate signatures and verifications of employment

and eligibility and compare providers' rate sheets to

invoices, among other things, McDougal said.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to H.R. 6945.

Despite the grandiose title, Supporting Pregnant and Parenting Women and Families Act, this bill carves out--let's keep the main thing to main thing. What it does, it carves out an earmark for an industry with a narrow ideological mission to provide, I guess what I call anti- abortion, but Mr. Chairman over there, he called it pro-life counseling services.

Actually, this just does not fit within the four core purposes of the TANF bill, which is why the Biden administration prohibited this. No more that we provide moneys for abortion counseling, which if you stop and think about it, it would fit more neatly into the core provisions of the TANF bill, and that is to prevent unwanted pregnancies. We don't provide abortion clinics with TANF moneys nor should we provide it to these clinics.

Mr. Speaker, I hear the tortured explanation of how this fits into the core duties of the TANF bill, and I hear them talking about the diapers and the formula and all the wonderful things. The March of Dimes provides all that stuff, too, but we don't provide them with TANF funds.

No. This is a diversion from the already underfunded TANF program which has been flat funded for 30 years at $16.5 billion and now we have, according to the chairman, millions of women, 2 million, and 7,000 centers that are now going to be able to access TANF dollars.

These TANF dollars were meant not to provide baby wipes and diapers for babies up to 6 months old, but to help a woman navigate her way into the workforce to get job training, to have cash assistance until she can get on her feet, not to provide moneys to stand up this ideological and, quite frankly, religious organization.

That is why I oppose this bill. Mr. Speaker, I am going to later on offer an amendment that would allow States to use TANF dollars, again, not undermining this bill, but adding a section that would allow States to use TANF dollars for security at childcare facilities and to be able to gather evidence of harassment of childcare providers and to give local law enforcement the ability to secure a place for children because one of the core responsibilities of the TANF funding is to provide childcare.

This all comes because there have been vigilantes showing up at childcare centers.

These are people who are not Health Department officials, not auditors showing up and harassing TANF recipients who need childcare as we deny

States' moneys for childcare, but we have vigilantes, right-wingers that are showing up and they are creating safety concerns in our daycares.

Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record my amendment.

Ms. Moore of Wisconsin moves to recommit the bill H.R. 6945

to the Committee on Ways and Means with instructions to

report the same back to the House forthwith with the

following amendment:

Strike all after the enacting clause and insert the

following:

Mr. Speaker, I have a motion at the desk. I am closing. I have an amendment at the desk, Mr. Speaker.

As I indicated, my amendment, Mr. Speaker, would be added onto section 2 of the bill and would just enable childcare centers--TANF to fund childcare centers, which are now under siege and really compromising the security of our children.

Yes, Mr. Speaker, I ask for unanimous consent.

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 gentlewoman from Connecticut for yielding. It is so good to be here with her.

I want to focus a little bit on the importance of bringing this to the floor and perhaps even entering into a sort of dialogue with Mrs. Hayes about it.

I am thinking that the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act came around 50 years ago. Long before that time, people recognized that education was a game changer for anyone.

Frederick Douglass said that knowledge is the ``pathway from slavery to freedom,'' and, ``Once you learn to read, you will be forever free.''

We found that Brown v. Board of Education really challenged the Equal Protection Clause under the 14th Amendment and made sure that little Black children would be able to get an education. Even before the Department of Education was established, even before that, the IDEA was written into law.

I bring all of that background up to say that the Department of Education was critical because when you think of all the various laws that need to be administered to make sure that there is equal protection, the IDEA just being one of those laws, it is very disturbing to see that the Department of Education has been stripped down to its bare bones.

I would like the member of the Committee on Education and Workforce to help me walk through it.

Am I right about this, that the administration has tried to illegally move the IDEA office and funding from the Department of Education to the Department of Health and Human Services?

I yield to the gentlewoman for a colloquy.

In the middle of the shutdown, was it true that the Trump administration tried to fire nearly everyone in the Department of Education's Office of Special Education and Rehabilitation Services?

The Office of Civil Rights was put in there through the Civil Rights Act of 1964. This office is responsible for investigating thousands of allegations of discrimination each year, which includes enforcing Federal laws, ensuring equal educational access, and preventing discrimination.

Gentlewoman from Connecticut, am I wrong about this? I think it is very important because what we have seen is that so-called disabled people or differently abled people have made such tremendous contributions to our culture and to our society. I am thinking of very famous people like Thomas Edison, Franklin Roosevelt, and Fannie Lou Hamer, people who have had polio, who have been in wheelchairs, and physicists who have contributed.

It is important to leave nobody behind because the education of everybody is important to our national security interests and our economic interests.

I am so happy that Mrs. Hayes has raised this in this Special Order hour, and I thank her for allowing me to participate.

Madam Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from Alabama for yielding me time.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to urge my colleagues to vote in support of renewing the African Growth and Opportunity Extension Act.

AGOA is a critical program to advance prosperity for the people of sub-Saharan Africa and to maintain United States' leadership in the region. It is a program that has bipartisan support.

AGOA is far from perfect, and so I understand concerns raised by a wide range of stakeholders, including labor, environmental, and other trade groups, about proposed changes to make this program better, stronger, and more effective moving forward.

This is a straight reauthorization for 3 years, providing a runway for all stakeholders to weigh in on needed improvements. To appropriate the sage words of Frederick Douglass: ``Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.''

The U.S. must not cede power to China or any other world power by not curing the lapse of this vital, soft power tool.

Madam Speaker, I urge support of the bill.

Madam Speaker, let me just thank the gentlewoman from the Virgin Islands for yielding.

Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of the reauthorization of the Haiti-specific U.S. trade preference programs. Haiti, of course, is suffering from grave instability and security risks.

As we know, the ransom that Haiti paid to colonial France for its freedom continues to be at the cornerstone of its instability. I am telling you, Madam Speaker, that the least and the minimum that the United States can do to help stabilize the incredibly precarious situation in a land a stone's throw away from our shores, is to reauthorize these programs.

President Trump has lifted up the need to fortify economic and security interests in our hemisphere, and I can think of no better way to buoy these interests than support the bipartisan HOPE/HEALTH programs.

These programs are not without need of reform. However, reauthorization is crucial to the economic growth and stability and to protect our economic security and interests in our hemisphere.

Mr. Speaker, I urge support of this legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Neal for the time.

Mr. Speaker, time is up. The ACA tax credits are expiring December 31.

The ACA premium tax credits have provided healthcare access for 15 years to over 20 million people who were previously uninsured. The ACA has saved lives, but time is up. America can't wait another 15 years for Republicans to offer a real healthcare proposal that provides full coverage to all Americans.

``Lowering healthcare costs'' may be in the title, but it is nowhere in this proposal today.

I know that my own Senator, Ron Johnson, a millionaire, has told me he would be just fine reverting to the pre-ACA world of high-risk pools and plans with limited benefits. This bill carries us back to a time when millions have an insurance card in their wallets that covers little to nothing.

The one big, beautiful bill transferred healthcare dollars--

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I am really happy to see the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, and I am certainly happy to support this 5-year extension of the hospital at home program, which, of course, includes a critical study to ensure additional information about the program. I am also happy to hear about the success of this program as people experience it.

Mr. Speaker, the provisions, as the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee has pointed out, get extended every single year. Sometimes they get extended in short increments. Sometimes they move as a kind of tax package. As a matter of fact, this was just extended in the continuing resolution that we just passed and in previous funding bills before that. I am so delighted to be here this evening to see that my Republican colleagues are in the mood to extend current law.

I will offer them the opportunity to maybe extend the Affordable Care Act to the 24 million Americans who are facing unprecedented enormous health insurance premium hikes since we are extending healthcare stuff today.

In my own State of Wisconsin, Mr. Speaker, 279,000 people receive credits to help make insurance coverage affordable. In my State, for a 60-year-old couple not yet eligible for Medicare, earning $85,000 a year, they will see their premiums increase by $23,281 a year. A family of four earning $133,000 a year would see their premiums increase by $14,000 next year.

Families are going to be asked to pay 20, 30, 40 percent of their income for health insurance premiums, and the majority just wants to ignore it. My constituents and your constituents, Mr. Speaker, Americans from coast to coast are going to be staring down these massive amounts of medical debt, massive insurance premiums, or the inability to access healthcare. If they are unable to afford it, they will just drop it.

We have to act. It is December 1. We have to act.

I am reminded, Mr. Speaker, of how fast the Ways and Means Committee and the majority moved to give tax breaks to the wealthy, but when it comes to regular families, we just don't seem to have the time. We could be doing that here on the floor now. This is a marvelous bill we are passing today, but I would much rather be securing the time for that purpose.

Those hikes in healthcare premiums are not isolated, Mr. Speaker. They come on the heels of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act that slashed more than 10 million Americans out of healthcare through the Medicaid program, cut over a trillion dollars in Medicare, and a half-trillion dollar liability in the Medicare fund. Hospitals will close, patients will suffer, and millions of American families will become uninsured all because the majority is refusing to act.

Mr. Speaker, the majority was more than happy to make a whole host of tax breaks permanent for the billionaire business class, but not for these entrepreneurs and families who are facing these tremendous hikes in their premiums. This is part of a Republican economy, I think. Help the billionaires. It will all trickle down. We are going to heap the costs onto middle-class families from every angle. Rising numbers of Americans are falling behind on their utility bills. There is a recent uptick in mortgage delinquencies and a rise in serious delinquency rates for the first time in years. Consumer bankruptcies are on the rise, up 15 percent since last year.

What are we doing? We just passed a $4.3 trillion tax break overwhelmingly for the wealthy.

What else did the majority do, Mr. Speaker?

They found $40 billion for certain people in Argentina, but no healthcare for American families. They found $300 million for a new gilded ballroom where the East Wing of the White House used to be. The ballroom keeps getting bigger and bigger, so I can't describe the dimensions of it, but it is going to have a marble bathroom in it and a fancy new patio, but no healthcare for families.

We have higher electric prices, grocery prices, and housing prices. Half the people in my State who are renting are paying more than a third of their income for housing.

These prices are going through the roof. American families, unless they are billionaires, are struggling to stay afloat in this economy. While President Trump and his family use the White House to haul in billions of dollars to line their own pockets, people will not be able to access healthcare.

Mr. Speaker, while I support this bill, I object to how the majority and the President are making life worse every single day for most Americans.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time to close.

I congratulate Mr. Buchanan and Mr. Evans on bringing forth this bill. I certainly agree with them that people do better at home in many instances and ought to have this as an option.

I look forward to the study that is involved in this iteration of the bill that will inform us about ways to improve the bill.

As we look at healthcare as a whole, it is one of those sort of broken markets that we have. We have 60 percent

of folks who get healthcare through their employer or government or labor unions. We have another group of people who are disabled who get healthcare. We have another group of people who are elderly, thank God they get Medicare, but then there is the rest of us out there.

In a broken system of healthcare, we have got to be concerned about those people. We have talked a lot about children with cancer. What if you are 27 and you have cancer, and you are not getting healthcare through an employer? You don't have one of them good government jobs. You are not elected to anything. What do you do?

While we are passing legislation, I hope that before we adjourn, we will not ignore the thousand-pound elephant in the room, and that is the Republican Party standing in the way of doing it.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 5284, the Claiming Age Clarity Act. I thank my colleagues, Mr. Smucker and Mr. Beyer, for their leadership on this important legislation.

As Mr. Smith has described, these changes will better help seniors understand the advantages and disadvantages of claiming at different ages. I certainly know folks among my constituency who are faced with this confusion. This bill addresses that.

I want to quote Mr. Beyer, who is not with us. He is an author of the bill, along with Mr. Smucker. He noted, in our committee report, this bill ``doesn't solve the big picture on Social Security, which this committee presides over, nor does it fix the data privacy, customer service, or staffing disaster that DOGE and this administration have put on this agency, but it will help on the margins, and I am glad that this little bill is seeing the light today.''

Mr. Speaker, this bill passed the Committee on Ways and Means with overwhelming bipartisan support. I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to support this commonsense legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I think this is a commonsense bill, and I am so happy that our colleagues thought it appropriate to bring it forward to help older Americans make better-informed decisions.

As I indicated, I have had friends who retired at age 62 and thought that that would be a better time based on the misinterpretation of the language.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to support this bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I certainly support H.R. 5345, the Improving Social Security's Service to Victims of Identity Theft Act, and of course, this passed the Ways and Means Committee with overwhelming bipartisan support.

I think having a single person to deal with at the Social Security office is common sense, and it will enable a victim to unravel their problems a lot sooner.

I just want to make note of the fact that, like some other Social Security bills that are under consideration today, this bill does not fix the crisis that this Trump administration has inflicted on Social Security when it comes to data privacy and customer service. Thumb drives went into our central data computers by DOGE employees, people who had not been confirmed by any Senate or anything else, and our Social Security information was captured--captured indeed--on thumb drives.

Democrats are going to continue to fight to protect Americans from having their personal Social Security information politicized or bought and sold to the highest bidder or their Social Security benefits put at risk. It is very, very frightening, so frightening, Mr. Speaker, that as soon as our current Treasury Secretary was brought into office, I wanted to know what DOGE was doing and where the information was going. I don't think we have had any conversations of any substance regarding the location of that data.

While this bill will have a modest but meaningful improvement to Social Security's customer service to the victims of identity theft, and I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to vote for this legislation, I want them to think more deeply about what we need to do in the atmosphere that we are in now to protect Americans' Social Security data that was mined by DOGE.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I have no further speakers, and I yield myself the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I just want to thank my colleague for introducing this very important piece of legislation. I am always happy, as are other Democrats on the Ways and Means Committee, for any initiative to protect our data, to protect and secure it, to protect people's privacy, and to streamline their ability to resolve their problem.

I would hope that the authors of this legislation and the chairman of the committee would recognize that this will mean that they will have to stop taking the appropriations away from the Social Security Administration. We have shut down scores of offices. Many people have been fired, and that data and AI will not resolve the issue of having a single point of contact or a person to deal with.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this legislation. It did pass out of committee with a strong bipartisan vote. I hope that there is bipartisan interest in protecting our data which, like I said, has been DOGE'd and stored somewhere in the cloud. I hope that this urgency around protecting data will continue to be a priority of the committee.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I certainly think that H.R. 5348, the Social Security Child Protection Act of 2025, which passed the Ways and Means Committee with overwhelming bipartisan support, deserves to be supported by this body.

As has been indicated, this legislation would direct the SSA to issue a new Social Security number to a child under 14 if it was stolen in the course of being mailed.

The current policy brings nothing but misery upon a child and a new family, and I think that this is a commonsense effort to mend this grievous bureaucratic conundrum that parents have to face.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time for closing.

Mr. Speaker, this is a commonsense bill, and it will strengthen customer service for children whose Social Security card has been lost or stolen in the mail.

While Mr. Smucker described this as a very simple, commonsense bill, I think the importance of this is it demonstrates that on a bipartisan basis we can solve problems. You always start with the little things and work yourself forward.

If providing greater customer service through the Social Security Administration is a goal that has strong bipartisan support, I think that that really gives us a runway to do bigger things.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleagues in the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) for organizing this Special Order.

As we get ready for Thanksgiving, families across our Nation are coming together. It's a time to celebrate and express gratitude for family. It's a time of reflection too.

But as Americans gather, they are also worried about the family budget too. That Thanksgiving meal is going to be more expensive this year. For millions of families, individuals, small business owners covered by the Affordable Care Act (ACA), so is their health care. Which is why I am today with my colleagues. So we can lift up these voices as we work to help bring them relief and pass legislation to extend those ACA premium tax credits.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to stand in the gap for my constituent Wesley and his family from Milwaukee. Like millions of Americans, Wesley and his family depend on the subsidies provided through the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Wesley wrote to me explaining that the extension of ACA subsidies has allowed him to afford healthcare for his entire family. Without them, he would likely be forced to make the difficult decision to insure only his daughter.

He's one of over 300,000 Wisconsinites covered by the ACA.

Another is Jeffrey from Milwaukee:

I am self-employed and completely count on these credits in

order to afford my own health insurance, without them I may

be uninsured. The anxiety that I, and I'm sure others are

feeling the same.

Or Robert from Milwaukee:

I was on Medicaid until I made just $200 too much, at which

time I was kicked off.

However, I was able to find a plan on the Marketplace that

met my needs. After looking at all the options, I found out I

could afford a silver plan because the monthly $900 premium

was reimbursed by the government. Without the stipend, I

cannot pay this premium and I would have to look at the

bottom bronze plans. Very little is covered. My premiums

would be lower but my deductibles would be astronomically

high.

I am an in-home senior caregiver working part-time so I can

take care of my aging parents.

Or Dennis from Milwaukee:

For thousands of Americans like me, the ACA is not a

political talking point, it is the wall between a bearable,

if difficult, life and complete financial and medical ruin. I

relied on the ACA's Marketplace for my health coverage, the

only way I could secure a policy that didn't deny me for my

age, that capped my out-of-pocket costs, and that allowed me

to maintain my own health. Now, with funding cuts and

legislative actions targeting the core of the ACA, that

coverage is dissolving. The fear is a cold, suffocating

blanket. My wife's cancer care is a complex, costly, and

continuous reality. With the protections and financial

assistance of the ACA gone, her medical bills--for

chemotherapy, hospice, hospital stays, and medication--could

easily become astronomical, costs that studies show quickly

bankrupt families even with good insurance.

This blatant assault on Americans' healthcare must stop. President Trump and Republicans have had over a decade to develop an alternative healthcare plan--ever since they began proclaiming their intent to dismantle the ACA. Well, guess what, America: They still have absolutely nothing. President Trump famously said he has ``concepts of a plan.'' Mr. President, and to my Republican colleagues, the American people cannot rely on a concept that exists only in your imagination.

House Democrats stood firm for more than 40 days to support a budget that addressed the rising cost of healthcare. Now we stand on the precipice of a crisis caused by President

Trump and Republicans who seem determined to make the livelihoods of the American people worse, not better. Again, they have no plan to help them.

Across the country, stripping healthcare access from millions of Americans and driving up costs for everyone else. This is especially prevalent in minority and rural communities. So I ask my colleagues on the other side of the aisle: Why do you want people to suffer?

The ACA tax credits ensure that families, seniors, young adults, and workers have access to quality healthcare. These tax credits provide critical financial relief for millions who rely on health insurance coverage.

Affordability remains a top concern for Americans, and it baffles me that Republicans would cause such unnecessary harm to low- and middle- income households.

I will continue fighting to protect your pocketbooks as we defend your right to affordable healthcare. We cannot claim to be the greatest country on earth when one side is willing to watch millions suffer or be kicked off plans they have relied on for years. Our Nation is already facing challenging times, and stripping away healthcare for political gimmicks only causes further harm. Therefore, we must continue working to extend the ACA tax credits to ensure Americans have access to affordable, reliable healthcare.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in agony about the severe flooding that recently struck southeastern Wisconsin, hitting my district and my constituents hard.

On August 9, the so-called 1000-year flood dumped record rainfall across Wisconsin, bringing flooding and sewage backup that cost millions of dollars in damage, left thousands without power, and forced many from their homes.

Recent reports indicate that this flooding has been responsible for a loss of life. I have no doubt that many more lives would have been lost were it not for the tireless work of our brave first responders.

The fire department from Milwaukee, for example, responded to over 600 calls, rescuing people from their cars who were trapped by the surging floodwaters.

At Governor Tony Evers' request, FEMA teams have worked alongside

State and county authorities to fully assess the damage wrought by this flooding. With that work largely done now, the Governor has requested a major disaster declaration that would unlock Federal assistance for many households, businesses, and the public.

We are still trying to put this all together and figure out how to pay for this. I urge our President to immediately approve Governor Evers' request for a Federal disaster declaration, a request supported by the entire delegation on both sides of the aisle.

Mr. Speaker, this just shows us the irreplaceable role of the Federal Government in helping to put victims' lives back together.

Mr. Chair, I rise in support of my amendment No. 233 to the FY 2026 Defense Appropriations bill. I thank Chairman Calvert and Ranking Member McCollum for including it in the Amendments En Bloc No. 3.

Our world is facing numerous water challenges. Climate change is making those challenges worse.

Our military is not exempt. The Defense Department has previously identified water services failures as a growing risk, as they impact a military facility's ability to execute missions and maintain warfighter readiness. That is where my amendment comes in.

My amendment would increase funding for ongoing research and work being done by the Army, with the help of some leading institutions of higher education like the one in my district, Marquette University.

These partnerships with the Department of Defense (DoD), Marquette, and other institutions of higher education are being used to study technology and other solutions to water challenges facing our military and our service members that can also benefit our communities like improved sensing/monitoring of water pollution, and advanced water/ wastewater treatment technologies to facilitate reuse of pollution- impacted water resources.

Thus, collaboration between DoD and civilian researchers on water contamination and resilience issues has the potential for many benefits, including positive public health impacts.

With these additional funds, we can help unleash researchers to explore water sustainment and resiliency technologies that increase readiness and safety of military personnel in contingency bases and at military installations, that can address and improve water efficiency, and improve the conservation of water resources, and the resiliency of water infrastructure.

I urge support for my amendment.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the ranking member for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, if you are a Republican with misgivings about the massive debt that this bill creates or if you are worried about stripping 17 million Americans of healthcare access, I tell you that now is your moment.

``A coward dies a thousand times before his death, but the valiant taste of death but once.'' That is a quote from Shakespeare.

Vote your constituents. Vote your conscience. This is how you will be remembered.

Better to vote your conscience today and face an angry tweet than have your legacy be one of equivocation and cowardice.

``By their deeds you will know them.''

I urge all of my colleagues to oppose debt, death, and hunger. Oppose this cruel legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I rise this morning with a heavy heart to mourn the recent passing of Private First-Class Anna Mae Wilson Robertson of Milwaukee, a World War II veteran, devoted mother, and a truly revered figure in both our city and our Nation. I extend my heartfelt condolences to her loving family, dear friends, and the many individuals whose lives were touched by her remarkable spirit.

Just a few weeks ago, I had the honor of joining the Speaker of the House, the Senate Majority Leader, the House Minority Leader, and the Senate Minority Leader in a ceremony in Emancipation Hall in the Capitol Visitor Center to bestow the Congressional Gold Medal on the Women's Army Corps 6888 Central Postal Battalion, in which Mrs. Robertson served during WWII. This was a woman of service to her country, to her community, and to her family. Her impeccable performance deserves to stand the test of time.

Mrs. Robertson's life was nothing short of historic. Born in 1924 in Mississippi, she came into a world marked by segregation and injustice, yet she chose to rise above it all with courage, purpose, and a steadfast commitment to service. After the death of her mother, both Mrs. Robertson and her brother answered the call to service in the midst of World War II. On March 12, 1943, Mrs. Robertson entered active-duty service in the United States Army and was assigned to the Women's Army Corps 6888 Central Postal Directory Battalion, known today as the legendary ``Six Triple Eight.''

This battalion, composed of 855 pioneering women, was the only all- Black and multi-ethnic unit in the U.S. Women's Army Corps deployed overseas during WWII. Upon their arrival in Birmingham, England, the Six Triple Eight were tasked with sorting through a daunting backlog of undelivered pieces of mail. These letters and packages represented a vital lifeline between American servicemembers and their families. Facing harsh working conditions and a severe lack of recognition, these women developed an innovative system and cleared the backlog in just three months, an achievement that was three months ahead of schedule.

After the Birmingham backlog was cleared, the Six Triple Eight continued their work in Rouen and Paris, France, where they tackled similar backlogs and ensured that communication between soldiers and their loved ones was restored. In doing so, Private First-Class Robertson and her fellow soldiers lifted the spirits of millions, reminding us that even in war, love and connection endure. Their contributions were critical not only to the war effort but to the very fabric of American morale.

After returning to the United States, Mrs. Robertson and her fellow soldiers of the Six Triple Eight received no welcomes, recognition, medals, or acknowledgment of their service. Both while deployed and returning home, they faced the harsh realities of racial and gender discrimination, segregated housing, separate dining facilities, and unequal treatment. Yet in the face of systemic injustice, Mrs. Robertson remained steadfast in her sense of duty, dignity, and quiet resilience. Her legacy is defined by grace under pressure and strength and resilience amid silence.

After the war, Mrs. Robertson went on to continue her service to the community as a nursing assistant at Wood Hospital, renamed the Clement J. Zablocki VA Medical Center. She also worked for the Milwaukee County Hospital and St. Camillus Health Care in similar positions, caring for the sick. She was widely respected for her compassion, leadership, and tireless dedication to others. Her marriage to John Robertson, which spanned 38 years until his passing in 1983, and her role as a devoted mother to eight children grounded her in love and purpose. Mrs. Robertson drew strength from the deep love she shared with her family, especially her many cherished grandchildren.

I first became aware of Mrs. Robertson's incredible story and that of the Six Triple Eight in 2013 when her family contacted my office for assistance in obtaining her service medals. My staff and I worked with the National Personnel Records Center to verify what awards she should have received. Nearly seventy years after her service, I was honored to present Mrs. Robertson with the Woman's Army Corps Service Medal, the American Campaign Medal, the European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal, the World War II Victory Medal, and the World War II Honorable Service Lapel Button.

In 2021, I was proud to help shepherd the House bill that enshrined her legacy and that of her battalion by supporting the Six Triple Eight Congressional Gold Medal Act, alongside my colleague, Representative Jake LaTurner, finally awarding these sheroes the highest civilian honor bestowed by the United States Congress. I had the incredible privilege of awarding the Congressional Gold Medal to Mrs. Robertson's family, honoring her legacy and the sacrifices of the Six Triple Eight. This long-overdue recognition serves not only as a symbol of their valor but as a rectification of justice, restoring to the public record the full measure of their sacrifice, service, and

achievement. Their story is further cemented into our Nation's collective memory through the 2024 American film, The Six Triple Eight, which honors the legacy of Mrs. Robertson and her fellow soldiers.

Mrs. Robertson lived over a century, and throughout it all, she exemplified service, humility, and quiet heroism. I am proud to say that Mrs. Robertson and her battalion's service is now secured in our Nation's law and tradition. Mrs. Robertson's life reminds us that the fight for justice does not cease, even when justice is long overdue.

Mr. Speaker, it is for all these reasons that I am deeply honored to pay tribute to this American trailblazer, Private First-Class Anna Mae Wilson Robertson. The people of the Fourth Congressional District, the State of Wisconsin, and the entire United States stand in gratitude for a lifetime of courage and selfless service. Her legacy will continue to inspire future generations, and her story will remain forever etched into the conscience of our Nation.