Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize John Drew, Regional Representative for the United Auto Workers (UAW). John Drew is retiring from the UAW after 44 years of service. Originally from a large Irish Catholic family in Waukegan IL, John Drew started working at the American Motors Corp. (AMC) plant in Kenosha . He began as a spot welder on the line at the American Motors' Kenosha plant and quickly became a union activist.

He has served as the elected steward, chief steward, and executive board member in UAW Local 72 including Vice President and President. During a large portion of his tenure at Local 72, it was the largest and most influential labor organization in the state. John Drew was a part of and later led the UAW Local 72 Bargaining Committee which brought Renault vehicles to Kenosha as well as Chrysler car and engine production. He worked with local, state and federal government officials to help keep new engine lines at that plant as long as possible. John was elected Vice President of Local 72, serving with the legendary Rudy Kuzel. Then in 1996, John became President of the Local and continued to fight to keep the Kenosha assembly plant open. In 2004, John went to work for the UAW Regional office representing workers in plants throughout the Milwaukee, Racine, and Kenosha area.

John Drew has consistently fought for social and economic justice issues. In fact, John formed a caucus in the local called ``the Fighting Times'', with his colleagues Jon Melrod and Tod Ohnstad and exposed racist and sexist practices of management in the plant. AMC financed a multimillion dollar lawsuit to try to squash their voices but the Fighting Times prevailed. John has also been a major force organizing UAW members and retirees to support progressive candidates that would fight for working peoples' interests. John's community engagement led him to an appointment by former Governor Jim Doyle to the UW Board of Regents.

John has a Bachelor's Degree from the George Meany Center in Labor Studies and a Master's Degree in Industrial and Labor Relations from UW Milwaukee. He is also an avid sports fan and a soccer player. He coached soccer for many years and still plays occasionally.

John is married to Lauren Baker, a union and community activist. They have one son, Nick who graduated from Milwaukee Public Schools and UW Madison. He is a professional videographer and union member, in Chicago.

Mr. Speaker, I am proud to call John Drew my friend for over two decades. I am pleased to recognize his unwavering commitment to uphold the labor movement and its mission. I have sought his valuable counsel on many occasions and found him to be both honest and sincere. He and his wife Lauren have opened both their hearts and home to me and many others who share their passion to assist people from all walks of life. I have many stories of driving through inclement weather with John and Lauren to reach Martin Luther King Day celebrations in Kenosha. John Drew has left a legacy of strong leadership and has touched many lives in a positive way with his dedication, passion, enthusiasm and motivation. The citizens of the Fourth Congressional District, the State of Wisconsin and the nation have benefited tremendously from his service because he has always been a voice for those who have the least, a voice for working people, a voice for justice and fairness. I am honored for these reasons to pay tribute to John Drew.

Mr. Speaker, had I been present, I would have voted YEA on Roll Call No. 167.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from California. I rise in opposition to S.J. Res. 57. This is a resolution to disapprove of the CFPB auto lending rules. I oppose this, Mr. Speaker, because I believe U.S. markets should be free from fraud and from schemes like the auto lending scheme to which we have been subjected as Americans. I oppose because I don't think Americans should be discriminated against; and then, when they are discriminated against, the guilty parties have no consequences. I think they need to be caught, punished, and the victims made whole.

The gentleman from Texas talked about the research that went into cross-matching ZIP Codes and surnames as if these technologies don't benefit all of us. We know down to the block where our voters are, who they are, what race they are, what gender they are, and who they are likely to vote for. So it is no great technological feat that these auto dealers could figure out who to discriminate against.

I oppose this because I, too, was one of those Black people who lived in one of those ZIP Codes, and I was discriminated against in my car loan. The CFPB thankfully pursued justice and got my money back, which I needed.

This resolution is everything wrong with the GOP agenda: rewarding fraudsters, hooksters, charlatans, and donors while ignoring the needs and the will of Americans.

We are seeing a buildup of subprime auto loans. Haven't we learned our lesson? Why would an entrepreneur go into inventing something or innovating something when they can just make their money with these predatory lending practices. Why invest in infrastructure and transportation when you can use opaque financial markets and dirty practices to turn people's desperation into misery-fueled profits.

They say history rhymes, Mr. Speaker. And it will be like the housing crisis but with cars. Voting for this resolution is a vote against good financial market practices, fairness, and against Americans.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to Nathan Conyers a veteran, media professional, publisher, entrepreneur, activist, mentor, faith leader and trailblazer. Nathan Conyers passed away on April 27, 2018 at the age of 72 years.

Nathan Conyers was a South Carolina native and was the youngest of seven children. He attended public school in Paxville, SC in Clarendon County. The Conyers family would later move to Sumter, SC, where Nathan graduated from Lincoln High School in 1964.

He enlisted in the U.S. Army and after completing basic and advanced training in communications, he was sent to Germany where he served for the duration of his military career until being honorably discharged. After his military service Nathan Conyers relocated to Atlanta, Georgia graduated from Clark College (now Clark Atlanta University) where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science. He held down full time employment while attending college; he worked at Time Magazine's Atlanta bureau for 6 years. He was quite industrious; attending classes at Clark in the morning, working at the Times in the afternoon and studying at night.

Nathan Conyers relocated to Milwaukee soon and found work with The Milwaukee Community Journal as a writer and reporter. Nathan Conyers also worked for State Senator Monroe Swan, Wisconsin's first African American State Senator. He served as a legislative aide during a nearly 10 year tenure utilizing his strong journalism and political skills.

In 1981, Conyers joined forces with Mrs. Johnson, local realtor Luther Golden, and Lynda Jackson, to establish a bi-weekly newspaper entitled The Christian Times devoted to church news within the city's African American faith community. The paper expanded to cover more general community news and was renamed The Milwaukee Times Weekly Newspaper within the year, while The Christian Times remains as a standing feature section to this day. He opened the first Econoprint franchise in Wisconsin owned by an African American.

In 1985, the Milwaukee Times publishing team launched the annual Black Excellence Awards program as a way to pay tribute to the good works of ordinary people from Milwaukee's black community who were accomplishing extraordinary things, yet going unnoticed. To date, nearly 1,000 black Milwaukeeans have been named as Black Excellence Awards honorees.

Nathan Conyers promoted education of youth and at the third Black Excellence Awards program in 1988 assisted his co-founder, Mrs. Louvenia Johnson in launching The Louvenia Johnson Journalism Scholarship Fund. While the scholarship began to assist college-bound high school graduates to pursue careers in print and broadcast journalism, it has expanded to offer financial support to graduating high school seniors seeking a degree in any major. To date, the 501c3 nonprofit, charitable organization has awarded more than half a million dollars to area students through the scholarship fund.

Nathan believed in promoting journalism for youth, the newspaper sponsored The Milwaukee Times Weekly Newspaper High School Journalism Workshop. This internship program beginning in 1991 operated for three years. The program gave area students hands-on, paid experience in news writing, editing, photojournalism, printing and publishing skills.

Nathan Conyers believed in economic development, job creation and giving back to the community. In fact, The Milwaukee Times Weekly Newspaper and its parent company, NCON Publishing and Printing Company has been a prolific creator of jobs within Milwaukee's central city for more than three decades. Further, he served as an advisor or board member to many community organizations including: the interdenominational faith group Pastors United; the Milwaukee Chapter of Operation PUSH; and Independence First, an advocacy organization for people with disabilities, Discovery World, Milwaukee Urban League, the NAACP Milwaukee Branch, and Miller (Brewing) Ride for the Arts.

Nathan was the beloved husband for 35 years of educator, Lynda Jackson Conyers and the loving father of daughters Morgan and Deloris. As a man of faith, he and his family attended Community Baptist Church of Greater Milwaukee. He leaves a strong legacy of leadership for all people to model.

Mr. Speaker, Nathan was my friend. I am blessed to have worked with him on many projects that assisted the community. Also on personal level, he and his wife Lynda, have been so helpful to me and my family as we grappled with the loss of family members. They were both so patient, thoughtful and kind. Nathan devoted his life to serving the community with a positive spirit. Milwaukee and Wisconsin have been made better as a result of his service to the 4th Congressional District. I urge my colleagues in the U.S. House of Representatives to join me in a salute to the late Nathan Conyers.

Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Evans for yielding to me.

Mr. Speaker, I do appreciate having time here on this Congressional Black Caucus hour to discuss so-called welfare reform and efforts on the part of the majority to shred the safety net.

Mr. Speaker, I think you just have to sort of sympathize with the majority, given the conundrum that they have put themselves into. What they did, in an effort to have some sort of win and to take advantage of having the majority in the House of Representatives, in the United States Senate, to be holding power in the White House with the new President, even seizing the Supreme Court, this was a very opportune time to do what the majority thought, and I give them credit for thinking that they wanted to implement and execute their greatest policy imperative, and that was to provide tax cuts to the wealthiest Americans and to corporations. They wanted to take this one opportunity to do that because, in their opinion, that is what would move our economy forward.

In December, they were able to accomplish it over the protests of economists, over the protests of the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office that said if, in fact, these $1.9 trillion in tax cuts are given to the wealthiest Americans and corporations, that we would see deficits for the next decade at about $1.5 trillion, and that would add to the deficit we are already experiencing.

Of course, that is the conundrum for the majority party, which out of one side of their mouth they have always been concerned about deficits, and now they were implementing a policy that would add to the deficit. Well, the explanation for that was that somehow this $1.9 trillion would materialize in a brand-new concept called trickle down; that somehow by cutting these taxes for the wealthiest Americans, that somehow this would create jobs, that wages would be raised, that there would be new capital expenditures; and although trickle down had not worked for 30, 40 years, that somehow this was going to happen.

Well, the supposition is that these tax cuts would just sort of magically pay for themselves and that we should just give it a little bit of time. So when these tax cuts were put into place, we saw companies immediately lining up to provide bonuses, one-time-only bonuses--not raising the wages of workers, not building new factories.

Now we see one of our favorite companies, one of my favorite companies--we all own a nice Apple phone--they just paid $100 billion buying back shares. Of course, shareholders are not Americans who live on Main Street. They are the wealthiest people not only in America, but all over the world. You don't know who the shareholders are. They are probably not your next-door neighbors.

Well, you have to empathize with the majority party, because they now have to figure out how to pay for these tax cuts. They have got to pay for them.

We don't have to guess how they are going to pay for them. The Speaker has told us how he plans to pay for them. The President has told us how they plan to pay for these tax cuts.

I was so happy that the gentlewoman from Alabama was here earlier, and I just want to remind you of what she shared with us. She reminded us that the President, in his budget, his proposed budget, proposed cutting $1.4 trillion--that is ``trillion'' with a T; that is like 12 zeros after that 1--out of Medicaid.

I know from sitting on the Budget Committee with the Speaker for so many years that this is a dream come true for our Speaker, who has always wanted to block grant--as in put on the chopping block-- Medicaid, a program that provides security mostly for our seniors for them to have a dignified end-of-life experience instead of living like a dog in the back room somewhere living out their last days.

We know from what they have put on paper--you can't make this stuff up--they want to cut $500 billion--that is ``billion'' with a B--out of Medicare, the program that has reduced and almost eliminated poverty, between that and Social Security, for our elders.

You have heard it said time and again that a nation is judged by how it treats its young and its elderly. We know now that the White House and our President is fuming because this $1.9 trillion problem that they have created has now got to be solved.

Well, that is just not enough money. That is only $2 trillion between Medicare and Medicaid. So they said, ``Wait a minute. We can cut some out of Social Security,'' this so-called sacred

cow. They say, ``We can cut, from Social Security Disability, $72 billion,'' but that is not enough.

We have in front of us a farm bill, and proposals in that bill would cut $23.8 billion out of it, pushing 9.5 million people deeper into poverty, food insecurity, and hunger.

That is the framework for paying for the wealthiest people, for these poor corporations that we have got to provide a safety net for, for these poor 1 percent of our population rich, the wealthiest 1 percent who need relief from the government. We are going to pay for it by cutting Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, and food stamps.

Well, it doesn't sound like that is enough for the majority. The President has said we are going to just review any program that targets, aids, and supports low-income or hardworking people.

How about housing vouchers? So many Americans--there was a book written about my community by Mr. Matthew Desmond, titled, ``Evicted,'' and it pointed out how so many Americans work hard, but 50 percent, 60 percent of their income has to go toward housing because, in fact, we haven't seen a raise in the minimum wage for over a decade. People are working two, three jobs.

I have known people who have gone to work and go home at night to the homeless shelter. People cannot afford to pay 50 percent of their income, so there are hardworking Americans who have benefited from housing vouchers, Section 8, subsidized Community Development Block Grant funds.

But, of course, we have heard from our Secretary of HUD that we want to reform that program and require disabled folks, elderly folks, perhaps some of our veterans who live in subsidized housing, to pay 35 percent of their income versus 30 percent of their income.

This doesn't increase the pool of people who are eligible for housing. It does two things: It reduces the number of people who are eligible for subsidized housing, and then it raises the costs for those who are squeaking by every single day.

So I just am inflamed about this, and I guess I want to ask the gentleman from Pennsylvania some questions because I might have the wrong perspective on this.

I am a person who has benefited from these programs. I have fed my family with SNAP, food stamps. I have used Medicaid to take my children to the doctor and to give birth. I have paid my rent using welfare benefits.

I am wondering if the gentleman doesn't think that vilifying poor people is an insidious and nefarious effort to create the atmosphere where Americans would be much more willing to take these programs away from them.

I mean, there is this notion, somehow, that there are just lazy people who refuse to go work who need SNAP; that there are just lazy people who are ne'er-do-wells, and they are fraudulent, they have 80 Social Security numbers, and they are welfare queens.

I was just wondering if the gentleman could just get it straight for me, share some things with me:

How many families receive Temporary Assistance to Needy Families?

Are people eating lobsters on SNAP?

Are these homes filled with able-bodied people who refuse to work and they just want to get SNAP?

Can the gentleman just give me a profile of the kind of people who we are trying to help.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for that.

I just want to tell him how outraged I am by the propaganda against poor people. I am outraged by it.

If you look at a family that uses SNAP, formerly called food stamps, this program works perfectly well in a capitalist society, in a countercyclical economy. When we almost had a depression in 2008, the food stamp rolls went up, and now they are coming back down because people are more connected with work.

Two-thirds of these families that receive SNAP have at least one working person in it. And guess what. They have veterans in them and elders, children and disabled people. Eighty percent of the people who receive SNAP, someone has worked the year before or the year after, so it is not an issue of people not wanting to work.

And think about it: we now have given $1.9 trillion in tax cuts to the wealthiest people. We hear the White House bragging about how we have increased those jobs, we have increased jobs by 164,000 people. Let me tell you, I happen to know in my own community people got two or three of those jobs because that is what they need to hold it down.

Before I finish, I will just say that we ought not fall for the okeydoke, because poor people are not those other people. They are you; they are your cousins; they are people who go to your church; they are your kids' classmates; they are people who worked every day and lost their jobs due to technology or downsizing. And when you are 50 years old, it is not because you don't want to work. You can't work.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to commemorate the life of a phenomenal woman, Vel Phillips, who hails from my hometown, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Vel Phillips passed away this month at the age of 95, but not before she led a phenomenal life. She was the first of so many things: the first African American and the first woman to become an alderman in the city of Milwaukee; the first African American to graduate from the University of Wisconsin-Madison; the first African-American judge in Milwaukee County; the first and only African American to win election statewide.

Members may have heard of Father James Groppi, who led 200 days of marches for open housing. That was in support of Vel Phillips' open housing ordinance in the city of Milwaukee on the Common Council, where it was defeated, repeatedly, 18-1. That led to the signature of open housing legislation nationwide.

She was the first Black person to serve on either the DNC or RNC.

I hope the House will join me in honoring the great life of Vel Phillips

Mr. Speaker, I rise again today to decry the majority's war on the poor, especially those women who get up every single day and struggle as mothers, often are caretakers for elderly parents, who are juggling two and three minimum wage jobs at $7.25 an hour to take care of their families, and then being told that they are welfare cheats because they need assistance from programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program in order to meet basic food needs. The last time I checked, Mr. Speaker, food was not a luxury, but a basic life necessity.

In a few weeks, this House will take up a bill which has been designated H.R. 2, an enumeration which reflects the majority's priorities. Now, as you recall, Mr. Speaker, H.R. 1 was reserved for the over $1 trillion tax giveaway we gave to corporations and to the wealthy. And as has been noted earlier in our morning hour, we are facing a sovereign debt crisis because that bill will thrust us into trillions of dollars of debt in the future.

So what does H.R. 2 do?

H.R. 2 makes very harmful changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, cutting $23 billion in funding, reducing eligibility, and to generate resentment against the poor so that these draconian cuts will be tolerated by the public. After all, we have to pay for H.R. 1 some kind of way, so H.R. 2 is the solution. The numerous ideological and unproven policies that simply stigmatize and punish the poor are what constitutes H.R. 2, along with the $23 billion cut.

Now, just let me say, Mr. Speaker, I want to remind you that the majority of SNAP participants are children, seniors, and people with disabilities. These are individuals who will not be part of any workforce. No matter how mean-spirited you decide to be, Mr. Speaker, and no matter how many of these ill-advised work policies you put in place, a 7-year-old cannot work; someone disabled cannot work; someone 68, 69 years old may not be able to find a job that an employer will provide for them.

And of the rest of those who receive SNAP, let's talk about the facts. More than half of SNAP households have at least one working age disabled adult in it while receiving SNAP. More than 80 percent work in the year before or after receiving SNAP. Work rates are even higher for families with children where more than 60 percent work. Work, Mr. Speaker, while receiving SNAP.

Yet, we have H.R. 2, which requires work requirements. And yet, we talk about how to extend and make the

safety net better for farmers in our farm bill. But here comes more proposals to restrict eligibility, reduce benefits, cap or reduce funding, and alter SNAP's core purpose--to help struggling Americans when tough times hit--and tough times are right now, Mr. Speaker.

The fact is that for low-income families, every single dollar counts, no matter where these families live. If they are urban families, they are rural families, tens of millions of Americans who are old and young, hunger sees no gender, race, religion, or culture. And, Mr. Speaker, there are hungry Republicans as well.

I just want to send a reality check to our colleagues who are running around the country praising their tax cuts for the wealthy. Poverty and joblessness remains a stark reality in our country, and the populations that have the highest levels of poverty and unemployment, including older Americans, are the ones most affected. Punishing disadvantaged families will not break the grip of poverty.

Mr. Speaker, I urge us to reject these cuts.

Mr. Chairman, I rise in support of my amendment to H.R. 4 to ensure that the FAA is helping businesses that have been historically discriminated against when it comes to government contracting. And I thank the chairman and the ranking member for their support.

Adoption of my amendment is a good start, but much more needs to be done to address discrimination and related barriers that still exist. This includes addressing the exclusion of any Federal DBE participation requirements or goals for Passenger Facility Charge-funded projects. It is critical that we don't miss the opportunity to address these barriers.

I want to remind everyone that billions of dollars of transportation contracts are at stake in this reauthorization. And for businesses that have been historically discriminated against in transportation contracting, they just want a chance to compete for these dollars.

In this reauthorization, Congress must continue to ensure that qualified minority and women-owned businesses in every congressional district can fairly compete for work.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to Vel Phillips a public servant, judge, civil rights activist, mentor, stateswoman and trailblazer. Vel Phillips was born and raised in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and like me was a graduate of North Division High School. She graduated from Howard University and graduated from the University of Wisconsin-- Madison Law School. Vel Phillips passed away on April 17, 2018 at the age of 95 years.

Vel Phillips' life has been a series of firsts: the first African American woman to graduate from the University of Wisconsin--Madison Law School; the first woman and African American to win a seat on the City of Milwaukee's Common Council; the first woman and African American to win statewide election by becoming Secretary of State of Wisconsin; the first woman and African American to become a judge in Milwaukee County. She was the first African American in the country elected to the National Committee of a major political party, and knew three presidents on a first-name basis: John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, and Jimmy Carter. Vel realized all of these accomplishments at a time when many African Americans were not allowed to exercise their civil rights.

Vel ran for elected office to improve the lives of people and in 1956, she won a seat on the City of Milwaukee's Common Council. The heart of Vel's district was known as the Inner Core which consisted of poor housing stock, ill equipped schools, and few jobs. This was further exacerbated by several other facts: city leaders who refused to provide funds to repair roads and schools in the Inner Core; white landlords who would not rent to black people outside of the Inner Core; and Black families who were denied access to buy homes in other parts of the city. Vel knew something had to be done and introduced a Fair Housing Law in 1962 that would make it illegal not to rent to black people. It was not fair to tell people where they could and could not live, work and go to school because of the color of their skin and Vel began marching with Catholic priest, Father James Groppi to bring change. They led people, including me, on 200 consecutive nights of marching from the Inner Core across the 16th Street Viaduct to a destination on the Southside of Milwaukee. Angry white men and women lined the streets and swore and threw rocks and bottles at the marchers. Finally, in 1968, the Fair Housing Law that Vel had written six years earlier passed the city council.

In addition to the positions previously mentioned, Vel taught at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee and was appointed ``Distinguished Professor of Law'' at Marquette University School of Law. In 2006, Phillips founded the Vel Phillips Foundation which supports the work of people who are engaged in projects of social justice and change including opposing voter ID and other attacks on voting rights.

Vel was the beloved wife for 38 years of the late W. Dale Phillips and the loving mother of Michael Damon Phillips and of the late Dale Franklin Phillips. She was the proud grandmother of Elijah Thomas Phillips, Nathaniel Douglas Phillips, Rachael Velvalea Phillips and Robin Dale Phillips; great-grandmother of Tianna, Mya, and Phoenix and dear aunt of Shaune Maria Curry. She leaves a strong legacy of leadership for all people to model.

Mr. Speaker, Vel was my friend, champion and mentor. She cheered me on through every victory in my life and taught me to always keep the faith. In fact, she chaired my successful congressional campaign in 2004 at eighty years young. I draw strength from her unshakable spirit and she will live on forever in my heart. Vel is a Milwaukee and Wisconsin treasure and I not only valued her service to the 4th Congressional District but to the entire nation. I urge my colleagues in the U.S. House of Representatives to join me in a salute to the late Velvalea ``Vel'' Hortense Rodgers Phillips, may she Rest in Power.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to proudly represent all of the welfare queens in the United States of America, all those women who get up every day and struggle as mothers, often caretakers for elderly parents, who are juggling two and three minimum wage jobs, $7.25-an- hour jobs a day, and then being told that they are welfare cheats because they need food stamps, SNAP, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, in order to meet the basic food needs of their children.

I rise, Mr. Speaker, to decry your, Mr. Speaker, agenda and the agenda of the majority party to beat up on these poor, hard-working people because they are poor, people who find themselves in the predicament of having more month than money and need just a little bit of assistance to meet those basic nutritional needs.

We are sick and tired of people exaggerating and claiming that people are

gaming the system to the tune of $65,000, $70,000 a year, and that they don't want to work. People want to work, but they are constantly in competition with foreign workers who earn $3 a day. We are in a postindustrial economy, and often people cannot find work and cannot find enough work to meet their needs.

Often people find work, but those jobs do not provide them, Mr. Speaker, with healthcare. But they are being told that they need to provide a urine specimen and have a drug test to get healthcare simply because they don't have an employer that is able to provide them or willing to provide them with healthcare.

Although the claims, Mr. Speaker, have been refuted time and again with facts and research that poor people have dignity, poor people love their children, but poor people are just not getting a fair shot despite all of this.

Republicans continue to perpetuate this propaganda and these talking points that impose even more obstacles on people who are poor. They continue to promote policies that are humiliating, like the ration or harvest boxes or peeing in a cup and eliminating basic rights of Americans because they are financially poor in the richest country on the planet. We are sick and tired, Mr. Speaker, of being sick and tired.

And why do we think this is happening, Mr. Speaker? We think this is happening, Mr. Speaker, because you yourself, Mr. Speaker, declared that we are going to pay for the $1.5 trillion tax cut that we just gave to the wealthiest Americans, corporations, shareholders, all over this planet, we are going to pay for them by cutting Medicaid. We are going to pay for them, Mr. Speaker, by cutting Medicare. We are going to pay for them by cutting Social Security. We are going to pay for them by cutting food stamps, thus the need to vilify people who are poor.

Mr. Speaker, how about if we really want to help people escape poverty and reduce dependency on the safety net, how about trying to raise the minimum wage so that people who are having trouble putting food on the table will actually earn enough money to be able to afford to pay for basic food needs?

If we really want to help people escape poverty, why don't we recognize that basic healthcare is a human right? And we should be trying to fortify the Affordable Care Act as opposed to 60, 70 attempts to repeal it.

Mr. Speaker, I urge Americans to wake up.

Mr. Speaker, on April 11, I missed Roll Call votes No. 132, 133, 134, 135, 136, and 137. Had I been present, I would have voted AYE on Roll Call 132 and Roll Call 136. I would have voted NAY on Roll Call 133, Roll Call 134, Roll Call 135, and Roll Call 137.

Mr. Speaker, on April 12, I missed Roll Call vote No. 138. I would have voted NO on H.J. Res. 2, the so-called Balanced Budget Amendment.

Mr. Speaker, on April 10, I missed Roll Call votes No. 130 and 131. Had I been present, I would have voted YEA on Roll Call 130 related to the End Banking for Human Traffickers Act of 2018, and YEA on Roll Call 131 relating to the Combat Online Predators Act.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize Guy Johnson, a public servant and administrator. He has retired from public service in April, 2018. Guy Johnson was the Village President for the last twelve years of his 20 year tenure on the Village of Shorewood's Board of Trustees. He has resided in Shorewood for over 34 years.

Guy Johnson grew up in Milwaukee and graduated from Marquette University with an Engineering Degree and from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee with a Master's Degree in Business Administration.

He has tirelessly worked on behalf of the Village of Shorewood. Guy was the treasurer of the Shorewood Booster Club and served on the committee that raised the funds for the Shorewood Fitness Center. He is proud of the burgeoning business district, neighborhood initiatives, capital improvements, and access to the lake in the village. Further, Shorewood was the first community in Wisconsin to receive AARP's Age- Friendly Designation because of its safe, walkable streets; better housing and transportation options; access to key services; and opportunities for residents to participate in civic and community activities. I know for all these reasons and more Guy Johnson regards the Village of Shorewood as a true gem.

He and his wife Mary have been together for over 50 years and share a love of service to the community. She is a retired nurse manager and president of the Milwaukee Chapter of the Ladies of Charity, a 400 year old organization started by St. Vincent de Paul that works to clothe underprivileged school children. She graduated from Shorewood High School. They have two sons who attended Shorewood schools from kindergarten through high school. They also have four grandchildren.

Although he will no longer be at the helm serving as Shorewood Village President, he and Mary will remain living in Shorewood as active members of the community. Mr. Speaker, Guy Johnson has left a legacy of strong leadership. I am honored to have had the opportunity to work with him over the years in ways to improve the quality of life of those residing in the Village of Shorewood. I am proud to recognize and pay tribute to Mr. Guy Johnson. The citizens of the Fourth Congressional District, the State of Wisconsin and the nation have benefited tremendously from his dedicated service.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize Lee Schulz, Chief Executive Officer of lndependenceFirst in Milwaukee. Lee Schulz is retiring from lndependenceFirst in April, 2018 after serving in this position for over 32 years. He has led the organization with dedication, passion, enthusiasm and motivation.

When Lee Schulz assumed this position in 1986, lndependenceFirst was a small organization of seven people with an annual operating budget of $260,000. Under his guidance, the agency grew to 106 in-house staff and 1,600 Personal Care Workers with a budget of $31 million. Lee Schulz has developed several innovative programs while at lndependenceFirst, such as: the statewide Women and Abuse Program; Alternative Financing Program, Home Ownership Program; the Try a Gadget Resource Center; and the Personal Assistance Program. He also led the relocation of lndependenceFirst into its current, owned facility which is a model of accessibility. I have had the opportunity and pleasure to utilize the lndependenceFirst's facility on many occasions; it is a welcoming environment for all.

Mr. Schulz has served several terms on the National Council for Independent Living's (NCIL) Board of Directors, served on the State Independent Living Council (SILC), co-founded Wisconsin's Coalition of Independent Living Centers (WCILC), served on several research and training center advisory committees on disability related issues, and served on several local non-profit board of directors.

Mr. Speaker, I am proud to recognize Lee Schulz for his unwavering commitment to uphold lndependenceFirst's mission to effectively facilitate the empowerment of individuals with disabilities. Under his leadership, this multi-dimensional agency, lndependenceFirst, has assisted thousands of individuals with disabilities to live with dignity and independence. Next year, IndependenceFirst will celebrate their 40th year anniversary, without Lee Schulz at the helm but we know he has left a legacy of strong leadership there. The citizens of the Fourth Congressional District, the State of Wisconsin and the nation have benefited tremendously from his dedicated service. I am honored for these reasons to pay tribute to Lee Schulz.