Floor Statements

Madam Speaker, I rise today to support a bill I have introduced with Congressman Khanna, the Reward Work Act.

Economic inequality has been spiraling for decades, and since the 1970s, corporate firms have increasingly relied on stock buybacks-- juicing the price of their own stock in order to pay out huge sums to their executives and wealthy shareholders. These buybacks divert investment away from workers, long-term business growth, and research and development.

Since the tax overhaul in 2017, corporations have spent more than $1 trillion on buybacks, while failing to deliver promised wage increases to workers. Wells Fargo was the single biggest beneficiary of the tax bill. Even as they have laid off workers and been exposed for numerous consumer protection scandals, they have bought back $40 billion of their own stock.

Starbucks spent nearly $6 billion on stock buybacks in 2018. If Starbucks reallocated money from share buybacks to compensation, every worker could get a $7,000 raise. If Wal Mart ended its stock buybacks and spent $10 billion on increasing wages instead, 1 million low-wage Wal Mart workers would enjoy an hourly wage increase of $5.66.

Pharmaceutical giants are increasingly diverting money that could be spent on life-saving drugs into stock buybacks. In 2017 and 2018, shareholder payments by the 10 largest pharmaceutical companies increased by 75 percent to nearly $115 billion. Shortly before the tax bill passed, Pfizer announced a $10 billion buyback, then turned around and announced that they were ending research into Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.

Firms like Wal Mart are so committed to paying out their wealthiest shareholders that they'll even take on new debt to do it. Firms are increasingly doing share buybacks with risky leveraged loans, which have been identified by regulators as a growing threat to financial stability.

The Reward Work Act will give workers a voice in choosing how their company is run. Instead of enriching executives and shareholders, directors elected by workers can advocate for better wages. Wages in countries that require worker representation on corporate boards are 18-25 percent higher than wages in the United States.

I am grateful for the support of the AFL-CIO, Communication Workers of America, Americans for Financial Reform, and Take On Wall Street.

I urge this body to swiftly pass this bill and help curb the growth of runaway inequality.

Madam Chair, my amendment shifts $5 million in funding for fossil fuel research and development to Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Research.

Increasing energy efficiency and the use of renewable energy, like wind and solar, are the most cost-effective ways of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. These funds can also fund research in more fuel- efficient passenger vehicles for transit options.

The Trump administration's 2020 budget proposed cutting over $2 billion from energy efficiency programs, and authorized an additional $116 million to fund new oil, gas, and coal projects.

As climate change continues to threaten our future economic prosperity and the lives of billions worldwide, we should be focusing our efforts on clean, renewable energy.

Madam Chair, I thank my colleagues on the Rules Committee for making this important amendment in order. I urge all of my colleagues to support my amendment to further promote energy efficiency and renewable energy research and development.

Mr. Speaker, I am joined today by my colleagues to show our country the inhumane conditions of migrant detention facilities.

As a grandfather and an immigrant, my heart breaks every time another child dies in U.S. custody.

Migrants are escaping some of the harshest political and economic turmoil in Central America, only to have their children die once they arrive here. Like 1-year-old Mariee Juarez and her mother who fled domestic abuse in Guatemala, then she died in a U.S. hospital after receiving inadequate care.

We don't allow prisoners to die. How are we allowing children to die in Federal custody?

Last week, the inspector general of DHS confirmed what we already knew: Conditions are dangerous and unsanitary.

This is cruel and un-American. This cannot be the new normal. What the President is doing is anything but normal.

When Attorney General Sessions initiated this, it was a bad way to move forward.

Is this the message that President Trump wants to send the world, that the U.S. is where children come to die?

How many children must die before this administration acts?

Mr. Speaker, I thank Chairman Nadler and Chairwoman Lofgren for their leadership on this important bill. This moment has been years in the making, thanks in no small part to the advocates, the allies, and the young people who fought hard for their right to stay in a country that they call and consider home.

Let me be clear, the American Dream and Promise Act is not perfect, but there is a lot of good in it. This is a big step forward.

That is why I offered amendments to, first, prohibit juvenile adjudications from being used to determine a public safety risk, and, two, to eliminate all references to gang databases or presumed gang affiliation from H.R. 6. It didn't make it, but it is still a great compromise.

We cannot afford to turn our backs now. We must pass H.R. 6 today, a significant precedent by the House of Representatives to create a pathway to citizenship for millions.

Mr. Speaker, I thank everyone responsible for their contributions to this piece of immigration reform.

Mr. Chairman, I rise today in strong support of the Consumers First Act and thank Chairwoman Waters and Speaker Pelosi for their leadership.

I remember the housing market collapse in 2009 very clearly. I remember the foreclosure signs going up all over Chicago and in my own neighborhood of Little Village, a working-class community. Families lost homes. They skipped meals. They took second and third jobs just to scrape by. Too many families never recovered.

President Obama and the Democratic majority swore to never allow a Great Recession to happen again. Never again would we allow Wall Street to go unchecked and allow consumers to be ripped off wholesale by the big banks.

We passed sweeping legislation, Dodd-Frank, and we created the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the CFPB. In short, CFPB was going to be the consumer watchdog for everyday hardworking Americans.

Since Trump's election, every day has been an assault against these protections: payday lending protections, reversed; student loan protections, reversed; predatory auto and home loan protections, reversed. Instead of protecting consumers, Trump and Mick Mulvaney have made their priorities clear: banks over people, business over the consumer.

Systematically, Mulvaney and Trump have been busy dismantling the CFPB, the same agency that recently helped a man in New York who had lost $1,200 wrongly taken from his account. He was able to recover it thanks to the CFPB. That man is one of thousands that have been helped by the agency. That is the power of government when it is empowered to fight for every American.

Meanwhile, Mulvaney has called the CFPB's public complaint database nothing but a ``yelp for financial services.''

At a time when this administration is working at the behest of Wall Street, the 1 percent, and the big banks, this Democratic majority is moving forward to protect consumers.

Mr. Speaker, tomorrow, at a hearing examining Puerto Rico's Financial Oversight Board, I plan to stand strong with the Puerto Rican families I represent and demand to hear the board's plan for reversing Puerto Rico's plight.

At a time that families are leaving the island, schools are closing, and homes and communities destroyed by Hurricane Maria still have not been rebuilt, the fiscal board is forcing Puerto Ricans to sacrifice pensions, wages, and crucial government services.

People are hungry, using plastic tarps as roofs, and living without electricity or heat.

I toured the devastated areas earlier this year and met with families in my district whose relatives are still suffering last week.

Well over a year after Maria, less than 20 percent of the aid that the fiscal board anticipated has been delivered.

How can Puerto Rico recover while its oversight board continues to squeeze the island and President Trump continues to block disaster aid and food stamps?

Tomorrow, I will stand with our brothers and sisters in Puerto Rico and demand answers to these questions.

Madam Speaker, I am proud to introduce the Protections in Consumer Lending Act, which will empower the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to understand, analyze, and scrutinize abusive practices by consumer lenders.

From mortgages to auto loans to credit applications, a pattern of discriminatory consumer lending exists throughout the economy. For instance, a recent study by the National Fair Housing Alliance found that White testers were offered better financing options on auto loans than non-White testers 75 percent of the time.

It is vital that the CFPB has access to the richest possible data on data discrimination in credit lending, and that is why I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting the Protections in Consumer Lending Act.

I encourage my colleagues to support this bill.

Mr. Speaker, during Women's History Month, I rise

to honor the life and legacy of Raquel Guerrero, a woman who immigrated as a child to Chicago's Pilsen community and who dedicated her life to make it a better place for her family and for all families.

She was instrumental in improving opportunities and demanding more resources and better education for the mostly Latino students in my district.

She understood the value of a good education for children, but it extended beyond books, and advocated for healthy hot meals for students at what is now known as the Pilsen Community Academy, where I had my first years of schooling.

She helped establish Pilsen's annual Fiesta del Sol, the largest community festival in the Midwest.

Raquel was instrumental in securing funds to build the new Benito Juarez Community Academy High School in Pilsen, which has since provided many generations of young people with good public education.

She helped found APO, the Association for Workers Rights, a workers' rights group that still operates in the community.

Raquel's organizing efforts also resulted in the funding of the Rudy Lozano Library in Pilsen.

She was the mother of 11, but treated every child in the community as a part of her family.

Mr. Speaker, we honor her during Women's History Month.

Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague, Representative Espaillat, for organizing this important hour to share the stories of those living in fear as a result of the actions of this administration.

As a proud immigrant and representative of a Chicago district that is over one-third foreign born, I know and understand the need for a permanent solution to the status of immigrants in this country. We are long overdue for legislation that provides a path to citizenship for those with uncertain status.

Madam Speaker, there are more than 11 million individuals, including children, living in the U.S. who are currently undocumented. Of those, there are over 3.6 million Dreamers, children who entered the U.S. before their 18th birthday, and over 1.8 million children eligible for deferred action because they were brought to the U.S. before their 16th birthday.

Too many live in constant fear as a result of the cruel policies of this administration.

In Illinois alone, there are almost 40,000 individuals enrolled in the deferred action program, but this issue affects entire families, including those in mixed-status families.

There are about 800,000 people in Illinois alone in families with at least one undocumented family member. I want to share a story of a Dreamer, like Beatriz, who is a constituent in my district, who came to this country at the age of 6.

Like many, her parents brought her seeking refuge from hunger, poverty, and the violent drug wars ravaging Mexico and Central America. Despite the toughest odds, Beatriz graduated from the Illinois Institute of Technology with no financial aid and working a full-time job.

Dreamers like Beatriz, if given the opportunity, are incredible assets to our country, not a drain. We should welcome hardworking immigrants like Beatriz and not make it harder for them to succeed and, in turn, grow our economy and enrich the cultural riches that makes America great.

In Beatriz's own words: ``While I am always in fear of deportation, I am not afraid to work or to study.''

As an immigrant myself, I empathize with Beatriz and her story.

Let me be clear: Putting Dreamers and TPS beneficiaries on a pathway to citizenship is just one of the many steps that we must take to undo the damage the Trump Administration has done.

The current legal immigration system is broken, creating decades-long delays for family reunifications and exacerbating workforce gaps that harm our economy.

We cannot continue to turn a blind eye to over 11 million undocumented people in our country who live and work in fear and in the shadows.

Immigrants--many of them are undocumented--are our teachers, engineers, your law enforcement officers. We are your firefighters, your plumbers, and your doctors. In some lucky instances, we are even your Representatives in Washington.

These are people who contribute every day to our country, and it is time we act now to reasonable pathways to citizenship for these hardworking people.

Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman from New York for yielding in order to share Beatriz's story.

Madam Speaker, as a Member of the House representing a district disproportionately affected by gun violence, I know firsthand the toll that it takes on our community. That is why, earlier today, I voted on H.R. 8.

Just a year ago last October, a 27-year-old man was killed in a senseless

act right in front of my house in Little Village in Chicago. As of Sunday, our city had witnessed 241 shootings in 2019 so far, including two in my neighborhood in the last week.

In fact, in Chicago, five of six homicides remain unsolved, but Chicago has some of the most stringent gun laws in the U.S. What we need is Federal legislation that makes it harder to access guns.

It is our responsibility to stand up for the safety of our communities we serve. I am proud to have voted for the passage of the Bipartisan Background Checks Act moments ago. Tomorrow, we will vote to close the Charleston loophole, and I urge my Senate colleagues to advance these efforts immediately.

Mr. Speaker, my colleagues make some very good points. They make convincing arguments about executive overreach and the misuse of Federal funds. I thank them for those statements, and I would like to ask a more personal question.

Since when do we call human beings in need a national emergency? Have all of President Trump's other arguments failed? Is he running out of insults for people like me, people who came from Mexico to have a better life in this country?

He used to call people like me bad hombres. When that failed, he turned to other insults. And after they lose their shock value, he calls us rapists, then murderers. At that point, he ran out of insults for people like me, so he referred to us as coyotes.

Now, when all other labels have failed to achieve his central campaign promise to build a medieval border wall, he calls people like me a national emergency?

We must reject this premise as the presence of people like me in this country, of people like my constituents in my district, a national emergency.

Madam Speaker, I thank my colleagues, Representative Espaillat and Representative Sablan, for yielding this time and for organizing this important hour to speak truth to power and provide an opportunity for the American people to hear the truth in contrast to the lies that were told by President Trump in how he propagandized about immigrants.

I take this issue personally. The way the President has characterized immigrants denigrates the dignity and the humanity of millions around the world, including myself.

You see, Madam Speaker, I was born in a tiny village called Los Pinos in the Mexican state of Durango. I am an immigrant.

My mother raised me, the youngest of four, while my father worked in the United States as part of a World War II-era bracero program. He was a migrant seasonal worker, a pioneer of what would later become the H- 2A visa program.

Eventually, my father got a job in a storage plant in Chicago, and my family immigrated to the U.S. in 1965. I still remember my first American meal at a gas station in El Paso, Texas, a bologna sandwich.

Today, I stand on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives with great pride to have been elected a Member of Congress. But, also, I carry a heavy burden, both on my conscience and on my shoulders.

The President's grotesque characterization of immigrants as rapists, drug dealers, and murderers is an affront to me, to my mother, to my family. Most importantly, it is an affront to my community and every single American, lest we forget that our Nation values immigrants.

Last night, the President doubled down on his rhetoric of hate, once again falsely describing a security crisis at the border. Today, I want to make clear three points on why we so desperately need immigration reform.

First, let me be clear: There is no crisis at the border. The only crisis we face is the inadequate response to the humanitarian relief that women, children, asylum seekers, and refugees want, while this administration abdicates America's moral duty to serve and welcome those most in need.

The truth is that, Madam Speaker, migrants are escaping some of the harshest regimes in Central America, where political and economic turmoil threaten their lives. That is why they come.

Contrary to the President's fearmongering, analysis from The New York Times and the Center for American Progress shows that illegal immigration is near an all-time low. In fact, apprehensions at the border have declined more than 75 percent since the year 2000.

Most drug trafficking is coming through our ports of entry, not rural sections of the border.

Just last year, we witnessed the horror of young children being ripped out of the arms of their parents. The children were detained and held in cold, lifeless cages, like animals, where they slept on concrete floors and were given little more than aluminum sheets to keep them warm.

What a disgrace, Madam Speaker. How can the richest, most powerful country in the world not have the ability to do better?

My second point, on the need for immediate immigration reform, is that we face a tremendous crisis here at home, where millions of hardworking, law-abiding individuals--our neighbors, relatives, and friends--live in constant fear of being ripped apart from all they know and those they love.

Madam Speaker, there are more than 11 million individuals, including children, living in the United States who are currently undocumented. Of those, there are more than 3.6 million Dreamers, children who entered the U.S. before their 18th birthday, and more than 1.8 million children eligible for DACA because they were brought to the U.S. before their 16th birthday.

Their parents brought them seeking refuge, opportunity, a chance to give their children a life free of the fear from hunger, abject poverty, and the violent drug wars that are ravaging Central America.

At this point, I would like to shine a light on one young Dreamer who lives in my district in Illinois, in a suburban community of Chicago, and how she studies, she works, and she helps build communities.

Back home, in the community of Little Village, where I have lived for the past 49 years, there is a story about a young woman named Elizeth Arguelles and the tamales that are making her dreams come true.

Elizeth's mother began working as a tamale street vendor when she arrived in Chicago so that she could save money and bring her children from Mexico to join her in the U.S. When Elizeth arrived at about 7 years old, she immediately began helping her mother make tamales. She would wake up at 3:30 a.m. to prepare the cart and sell tamales until 7:30 a.m. before going to school.

Elizeth grew up in the United States, saved up money from selling tamales, and paid for college tuition, first at Morton College and now at Dominican University.

Elizeth's immigration status, however, continues to present a challenge. Despite all her hard work and her study, her future is uncertain because she is a deferred action recipient. She doesn't know what will happen next.

Despite those obstacles, she has proven that she values resilience, self-reliance, and ingenuity. Those are her values, and they are American values as well. Elizeth's story speaks to the values that make our country great.

Unfortunately, ICE raids continue to terrorize immigrant communities and traumatize children like Elizeth who live in constant fear of losing their parents and their own futures. These young people yearn to go to college, to serve in our military, and to enrich our communities with their entrepreneurial spirit.

Madam Speaker, Congress must create a path to citizenship to prove that, beyond a doubt, we welcome Elizeth and those like her to America.

I want to end and make my third and final point. The status quo cannot remain, and the current legal immigration system is broken, creating decades-long delays for family reunifications and exacerbating workforce gaps that harm our economy.

Madam Speaker, when we hear naysayers complain that immigrants should come to America using the legal route but fail to acknowledge the antiquated and broken state that our system is in--for many, processing time for family reunification visas can last between 18 and 23 years.

Imagine how much can happen in 18 to 23 years, Madam Speaker.

As of November 2012, there were 4.3 million people on the wait list for family visas and 113,000 waiting for employment-based visas.

Those years-long wait times cause others to make an even more difficult choice. In Mexico, a group now referred to as Los Invisibles, the invisible ones, is growing. Los Invisibles, these invisible young people, refers to more than 600,000 American-born U.S. children living in Mexico.

Because our broken system keeps families apart for so long, or it tears mothers and fathers away from their children, some have elected to leave America altogether--a real tragedy, a real loss for us.

Perhaps in another life, I would have been one of those children and, because of the anti-immigrant policies of today's administration, the next U.S. Congressman won't stand here in the future to share the immigrant experience that I share with all of you today.

The true crisis we face, the true danger we face, is the President's propaganda that flies in the face of truth. Immigrants don't worsen the Nation. On the contrary, immigrants help keep this Nation the strongest nation the world has ever known.

We are your mechanics, your nurses, your farmers, your local brewer. We are your teachers, engineers, and law enforcement officers. We are firefighters, plumbers, and doctors. In some lucky instances, we are your Representatives in Washington.

As the proud immigrant Representative from a district that is more than two-thirds foreign-born, I refuse to back down and sit silent while the President denigrates me, my family, and my constituents.

As a Congress, we cannot sit idly by while thousands are denied humanitarian relief at the border while millions live in fear here in our communities and while millions more wait, separated from those they love and care for.

Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman from the Northern Mariana Islands (Mr. Sablan) for yielding me the time to share my story.

Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Quigley for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, the Trump shutdown is harmful and irresponsible.

On the first day of this new Congress, House Democrats sent legislation to open up the government. I supported it, and I will continue to support this legislation to open up parts of the government immediately.

Each day the Republican shutdown continues, hardworking Americans and families suffer. Right now, the IRS is operating with only 12 percent of its workforce, threatening the agency's ability to process and disburse tax refunds in a timely manner.

That is why today I am sending a letter to President Trump with the support of my colleague, Representative Lloyd Doggett of Texas, and over 50 Members of Congress, urging him to end the shutdown and warning him of the effects that that shutdown is having on families.

Just yesterday, The Washington Post noted that students reliant on Federal financial aid for college are facing trouble providing the Department of Education verification of their income because of furloughs at the IRS. I represent many immigrant and working-class families who rely on their annual tax refund to feed their families, pay for their children's education, and buy their gas to get to work.

Mr. Speaker, families are suffering, and I urge my colleagues to support this legislation and reopen the government.